Day With(out) Art - Reflections: Luna Luis Ortiz

The Folk Art Museum sponsors an annual Visual AIDS artist talk and presentation for Day With(out) Art to the students of La Guardia High School writing class; after returning to La Guardia, the students draw on this experience to create their own poetry book.

"As an adolescent I was not supposed to think about sex. But yes I did think about sex and I engaged in it. Unfortunately I was not informed about what is safe and what is not. I became infected by HIV in 1986 at the age 14, with my first sexual experience. HIV made me think about how I wanted to be remembered. It was important to me to let people know that I existed. I thought at the time that I was going to get really sick and look like the images of people with AIDS that we saw in the '80s. But I didn't want to be seen as an "AIDS victim."

I began to live through photography, painting, acting, animation, and documenting myself through self-portraits. Later I turned my attention to my friends. I have lost many friends and seen more death than my parents and grandparents put together. So, to keep alive the memories of my friends, I began photographing them too, basically in any way they wished, mostly very sexy, glamorous, haunting portraits. When you are HIV-positive, you are not supposed to be sexy and alluring, but we were both. We were the Cindy Crawfords of HIV.

My mental camera is my hero. It is a big part of my body, eyes, my voice, my thoughts. These days I feel comfortable with myself and my roles in life.