“I’ll take the good with the bad. How many people have been able to have a platform that in the past they were totally denied?” Elwing Gonzalez said on using Instagram as a platform to share her art. Social media can be a very scary place at times, but it also plays an important role in driving social and political change and making unheard voices heard.

Elwing Gonzalez, @elwingbling on Instagram, is an artist, writer, teacher and mother. During a Zoom interview, she shared her experiences creating art, dealing with the ups and downs of social media, teaching children and adults, and how these different aspects of her life are deeply interlinked. She makes art and writes about issues surrounding mental health, healing, politics and anything else that she feels strongly about. Her goal is to make information more accessible to all kinds of audiences, especially those outside of academia.

“When I create my work, I don’t have an audience in mind. I just have a drive to express something; like I have to get it out,” Gonzalez said when asked about her art making process.

Her art usually features distinctive line drawings set against a solid-colored background accompanied by text. When asked about how she cemented this art style, Gonzalez explained that it ultimately came down to not having enough time and space for other mediums. Her medium of choice used to be acrylic paints, but once she had her first son it was hard to find time for the long process of setting up paints. Now she carries a journal with her and doodles whenever she wants to express something using pencils or pens. Instagram serves as a great platform to post art that is simple, powerful and immediately striking.

Gonzalez has mixed experiences with and feelings toward Instagram, as many people do. While she has learned a lot from social media about important topics like trans experiences, Afro and Latinx politics, as well as other historically marginalized voices, she has also faced hate comments.

“People have a sense of entitlement; because I have a public page, they feel entitled to, one, demand things from me, like what content I should be producing. Or, two, demand that I adhere to their politics.”

The way she chooses to deal with the hate is by limiting comments and ignoring the disrespectful things people say because in the end it speaks more about them than anyone else.

As a history teacher, Gonzalez has a deep understanding of people’s interactions with political issues, their resistance to history and dismissal of other perspectives. One of her posts that we had an in-depth discussion about focused on the decolonization of language.

“As a teacher, I see how this Euro-centric view of language is so damaging to my students.”

Her experience growing up with her mother, who was an immigrant, also plays an important role in her work. Her work expresses the pain and shame that was imposed upon her mother, her family and even herself. Gonzalez’s work is ultimately a culmination of all her life experiences. Through the way she approaches her work, she has found an overlap between her career as a teacher and her role as a creator.

Her teaching experience has helped her realize how “convoluted and inaccessible” academia can be. She seeks to tear these complexities down to the fundamentals.

“When I teach, and people always take this the wrong way, I teach to the lowest level,” Gonzalez said.

By doing so, Gonzalez makes information accessible to anyone who wants to learn more. She employs this approach both in her teaching and artistic career. Gonzalez talked about the view that if things are too accessible, they are not valuable anymore; an idea she seeks to dismantle through her work.

In the end, Gonzalez encourages people to challenge themselves and their assumptions, to heal and decolonize their minds. Through her social media platform, she challenges assumptions, breaks down barriers and provides a safe space for people to think and talk about issues that are often muzzled.

“Make sure to have your own outlet,” Gonzalez said. “Create a separate world.”

Shriya Agrawal can be reached at [email protected].