Jaquelyn Rodriguez’s minimalist approach speaks perfectly to the moniker she works under, Clean As Paper. From striking realism to traditional Chicano imagery, all she needs to bring her vision to life is a ballpoint pen and a sheet of plain unlined paper.
In the male-dominated culture of Chicano art, Jaquelyn Rodriguez has received a great deal of encouragement from her peers.
Jaquelyn Rodriguez
Pencil may be an easier tool to work with, she says, "But it's just the texture and the variety of shades [from pens] that I like. Just the way it handles, I don't know, like it was love at first sight, what can I say?”
Her work is striking in all its minimalist glory with the ultra precision of razor-thin flowing lines and meticulously detailed pointillism, creating a singular take on a traditional technique that evokes a strong sense of purity. It is elegantly composed yet unpretentious in its presentation, at times both lush and stark.
Rodriguez's triple expertise in realism, lettering and Chicano tattoo styles combine seamlessly to create a world of luxurious fantasy from a working-class lens. It’s a signature that she’s refined with more than 20 years of training.
It all started with a middle-school infatuation with cartoons.
“I was obsessed,” Rodriguez says. “I'm a '90s baby, so I would watch a lot of Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Tom and Jerry cartoons. I would copy those and it was nothing serious but my parents were like, 'Maybe you should pursue this.'”
The encouragement from her family led Rodriguez to the application process for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (which boasts acclaimed alumni artists Christian Schumann, Chris Arnold and Arlo Eisenberg), a highly intimidating childhood entry point to years of high-level fine art education.
“You have to prepare a portfolio and then you have to sit down with a teacher and talk about it,” Rodriguez says of her admissions interview. “So I was like 13, 14 and I had my cartoon doodles, just trying to explain, ‘Oh, yeah, I love art.’ …Then I would look at the person next to me and they have like, landscapes and portraits and it just looked so much more developed and sophisticated. And here I [was] with my little scratchy doodles. I've never felt more unprepared and more on the spot in my life to have to make deep conversation about cartoons.
"I didn't know what I was doing or talking about. But the passion and love was there.”
Rodriguez's work combines elements of surrealist fantasy with realism in Chicano tattoo style.
Jaquelyn Rodriguez
“We [learned] painting and drawing. And they taught us how to sculpt and do printmaking, photography, all that stuff. It was like art boot camp, pretty much,” Rodriguez says. “They would help us make portfolios and we would compete in art competitions in Houston and other district competitions. The teachers there were great, the programs were great, and they really primed us for art college.”
In her senior year, Rodriguez was accepted at one of the finest art schools in the U.S., The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
“I was, like, blown away,” she says. “They didn't care about technique. They didn't care that you can paint, [they said] anyone can learn how to paint. They were more like, 'We're going to teach you how to develop your ideas. We're going to teach you how to think. We're going to teach you how to be creative.' So we could be more innovative in our concepts.
In Chicago, Rodriguez honed and refined her artistic vision. But after a year at the school, she returned home to Texas due to the financial burden of high tuition costs. She didn’t want to put any additional obligation on her parents to keep taking out loans. And after years of rigorous study, she found herself experiencing a spell of burnout. She picked up a day job and continued her education with a couple of fashion classes in the Dallas community college system at El Centro campus. Before long, her driven dedication to visual arts recovered in full force.
She began to incorporate her classically-trained realism with Chicano tattoo style and elements of surrealism. She started to post the work on Instagram under the alias Clean As Paper in 2016, where she built a cult following with drawings of Dobermans, femme-centered portraits and classic cars. In addition to urban tattoo culture, Rodriguez draws strong inspiration from Mexican-American paños, the tradition of ballpoint pen drawings on cloth handkerchiefs originated by prison inmates in the U.S. Southwest. It’s an affinity deeply instilled in her family history.
“My family, my uncles, they did paños when they were in jail and in prison. It’s kind of an intimidating style and obviously very, like, male-dominated,” Rodriguez says. “I've never been to prison. I've never done time. So I was like, ‘Would I be a poser if I did that?’ And I was surprised how many Chicano artists just kind of really embraced me into their community. They were like, ‘Oh yeah, your stuff is sick, keep doing it.’ So maybe I don't have to be in prison to do that kind of art, as long as I'm just putting my own spin on it and doing it justice.
"I do come from a family that has its roots in it. My grandma has like 15 or 20 paños hanging up in one of the bedrooms. It's like a little museum.”
In recent years, the work of Jaquelyn Rodriguez has drawn interest beyond the niche community of Chicano art. Along with cultural staples such as streetwear brand Ghetto Dreams and content hub Foos Gone Wild, she’s been tapped for designs by Drake’s Nike subsidiary sportswear brand NOCTA. Rodriguez is currently working on collaborations under active non-disclosure agreements with legacy apparel brands that she never imagined having the opportunity to work with.
Her success as an artist is still emerging, a slow climb that she credits to dedication and the power of internet platforms, which she advises aspiring artists to utilize relentlessly.
“Be consistent, don't give up… put your work out there," she says. "Because if it's good and you're consistent, someone will see it eventually. Maybe not now, maybe not a year from now, maybe like five years from now they'll see it. But if you're good and you're consistent and the talent is there, the vision is there, someone will see it. Someone will notice it.”
