Diego Gomez is a Bay Area-born and raised artist and educator who is based out of San Francisco. Diego’s work centers around ephemeral moments, queer entertainers, politics, and pop culture. A cursory glance at Diego’s art may give the impression of incongruous work, but to Diego, it's all related, with overlapping themes of equity, beauty, and strength.

“My 20s were spent going to drag shows, mainly at The Stud and Truck (where I first performed in drag). I was a drag performer for over a decade, performed in musicals at The Hypnodrome, taught makeup, sewing, and design classes, and now serve on the Castro Cultural District Committee.”

Diego’s family and the Bay Area have influenced him in many ways. His birth father was a painter and musician, but he didn't grow up knowing him. Diego’s mom was into fashion, and makeup, and was a factory worker, mainly at a paper mill. She would often bring sketchbooks to give to the kids when she would pick Diego up from daycare. His stepdad is in construction and would sometimes take him to work with him.

“I gained a little from each of them. I grew up listening to Mexican Banda, Hip-hop, R&B, and later Alternative, Emo & Punk.”

“My creative process is different for every project. I get a lot of ideas and use my phone's note app to write many of them down. I also use Instagram stories to sketch while on the go. I research online mainly, also through the library and/or buying books. I save a lot of images and organize them in folders on my phone & computer”.

Currently, Diego is teaching Digital Fashion Illustration at City College of San Francisco, and is working on 2 comics– Writing and illustrating an autobiographical mini-comic due out in July 2023 and illustrating a queer historical comic for an anthology.

Feature Published: March 10, 2023
Website
Instagram
Instagram Feature on @ArtSpanSF