Heriberto "Eddie" Palacio III, MFA

Visual Artist | Barber | Researcher

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Artist Bio

 

I am an Afro Hispanic (Jamaican/Dominican) who is also a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and identifies as a pansexual man (He/She/They/Bro/Bitch). A city boy from birth, I was born and raised in Bronx, New York (1994) until my family relocated to Atlanta, GA during my high school years, where I became immersed in southern culture (2009). I studied at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN earning my BS in Art (2016) and continued my education at Watkins College of Art at Belmont University in Nashville, TN earning his MFA in Visual Arts (2020). In Lubbock, TX I earned my Class A Barber's License (2023) and later earned my Women's and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate from Texas Tech University (2023). Being born and raised in some ways by the North and South of the U.S., I embrace both regional cultures within my life as intermixed and a part of me. Presently, I am a Doctoral candidate at in the Fine Arts Doctoral Program at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX will earn my Fine Arts PhD in Critical Studies & Artistic practice through interdisciplinary scholarship and research (2024).

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Artist Statement

 

I'm an interdisciplinary artist, barber, and researcher who explores/reimagines human connections and awareness through studying social constructs, gender, care, platonic intimacies, and African American studies. My creative work spans various mediums such as drawing, painting, creative writing, photography, digital illustrations, video art, and performance art. I focus on the ideas behind the work rather than the medium itself, allowing me to explore freely and reimagine without constraints. My art-making and barbering practices are shaped by my Arts-Based Ethnography research. Through my art, I dive into my connections with identities, intimacies, eroticism, and the different ways Black and Latino masculinities are formed. As a barber, I take this further by researching these relationships through fieldwork in barbershops, exploring platonic relationship, reimagining, informal mental health care, and the communal value of barbershops for Black/Latino mac peoples. I continue to create art, do research, write, barber, and plan to study to become a licensed mental health therapist. Though this interdisciplinary scholarship and artmaking praxis, I reimagine how barbershops and barbering for these communities create spaces of care and cultural experiences. My goal is to use my art, barbering, and academic practices to raise awareness about the need for empathy and care for Black/Latino communities, helping them build better relationships and improve overall wellbeing. I aim to create a space that uplifts and educates these communities—a space that could be a gallery, community center, barbershop, salon, and therapeutic practice all in one. This space would spark conversations about Black and Latino masculinities, promote positive emotional expressions, and welcome everyone to engage. It truly takes a village—I am because we are, and therefore, we are because I am.

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