lis 🧷

BFA Student Spotlight ✨ LISBETH VILLALPANDO BFA in Visual Art | Studio Art LISBETH VILLALPANDO is a queer woman of color and interdisciplinary artist based in Denton, Texas. She was born to two Mexican immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois. In 2023, she received her Associate of Arts Degree at Tarrant County College (TCC) in Fort Worth, Texas. Currently, Lisbeth is in her fourth year at Texas Woman's University in Denton, TX, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of in Fine Arts degree, with a focus in Studio Art: Photography. Villalpando’s work explores safety, connection, and collective healing. Working across photography, installation, textiles, and text based work, she explores belonging and the search for safety. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions, including two artworks in the, “2026 John Weinkein Juried Student Exhibition,” where she received a second place award in the undergraduate category. She is also a former editor of Tarrant County College’s award-winning literary magazine, “Roots and Reflections.” She invites viewers to participate in her BFA exhibition piece titled, “Our Safety Web,” an interactive installation that asks participants to reflect on what they need in order to feel safe –and also reflect on what they can offer others in order for them to feel safe. Through writing and contributions from participants, the work grows into a collective network of care - where safety and support form our web. LISBETH VILLALPANDO @oursafetyweb SPRING 2026 BFA EXHIBITION 🗓 April 27 – May 8, 2026 📍 TWU Fine Arts Building, TWU East | West Galleries 📸 Headshot by @rebeccajinyoungpark 🖥 Design by @anaeldrawer #TWU #twuvisualarts #TWUBFA #TWUBFA2026 #TWUBFAX2026 #TWUBFASpring2026 #TWUBFASpring26 #TWUBFASp26 #twubfaxsp26 #twubfasp26 #TWUBFAX #texaswomansuniversity #txwomans #twuevents #PioneerProud #TWUPioneer #TWUgalleries #TWUschooloftheartsanddesign #twucollegeofartsandsciences #ClassOf2026

my fabric installation in the 2026 BFA TWU exhibition received so much love during the reception! i’m so happy with how many people were interacting with our safety web! this was a major stepping stone towards what i want safety web to be for us. thank you to everyone that came that night and participated with the web. i am so proud of this piece and i’m even more excited for what is coming next! i will be posting my graduation photos soon so stay tuned safety web! 🧷🕸️ film photos by @nathatesuuu @jdntart !! 🕷️ digital photos by @wednesdaytheforestfire 🕷️

i’m so proud to say i was an artist at the first ever monster art rally here in denton!! i can’t wait to be a part of the denton artist community and help spread safety web! thank you to @paperchairstudios for this opportunity 💜 i was really nervous but seeing all the artists and art lovers in one space really reminded me of what i want for the future of safety web! so excited to make more art and meet more artists! 🕸️

SAFETY WEB BFA EXHIBITION ZINE i made this zine to pass around to share my BFA exhibition interactive installation. Our Safety Web is an interactive fabric installation that combines photography and community participation. I created Safety Web as a queer woman of color after the 2024 election, when spaces that once felt safe no longer did. Safety Web began as a way to rebuild safety together, as a community. This installation makes safety tangible. Safety Web is also an acronym. S.A.F.E.T.Y. WEB stands for Support, Art, Food, Earth, Therapy, You, and the WEB is the Where. People are invited to write what they need and what they can offer under each of these categories. Safety Web exists as both an artwork and a growing network, one that centers queer people, women, and people of color. Each card strengthens the web and helps build our Safety Web community. In a world where safety is not guaranteed for queer people, women, and people of color, Safety Web offers a space to find that safety. The photographs within Our Safety Web are my own artworks, starting from when I first considered myself an artist. These photographs document my growth as an artist and as a person searching for safety. Through art, through photography, I found my safety. will we see you at our safety web? the BFA Reception is Thursday, April 28 from 5 PM - 7 PM hope to see you there! the exhibition opens April 27 and goes until May 8! (graduation day!!) and the gallery will be open 9 AM - 4 PM! hope to see your card on our safety web!

it was an honor to see my film photograph at @theeclectika last weekend in @jordan_nicole_funk juried exhibition show!! i am so grateful to be alongside @juliannalizettee and @emmacampstudio work in the exhibition! they are such talented and amazing MFA students at TWU! i loved seeing @rebeccajinyoungpark another TWU student who I’ve had the pleasure to be in classes with in this show <3 these are the moments that make me realize i truly am an artist. thank you @theeclectika and @jordan_nicole_funk for this opportunity!

the spider behind the web 🕷️🕸️🧷 Lisbeth Villalpando is an artist based in Denton, Texas. She was born to two Mexican immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents’ lessons form the first strands of her web, threads of memory and resilience play a significant role in her art practice and her identity. In 2023, she received her Associate of Arts Degree at Tarrant County College (TCC) in Fort Worth, Texas. Currently, Lisbeth is in her fourth year at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, TX, where she is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus on Photography. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions, including two artworks in the 2026 John Weinkein Juried Student Exhibition. She is also a former editor of Tarrant County College’s award-winning literary magazine, Roots and Reflections. Villalpando’s work focuses on the power and resilience of queer women of color through various mediums, including drawing, painting, digital art, and photography.

SAFETY WEB @ MONSTER ART RALLY TODAY 🕸️ my slot is 4:00 pm -4:50 pm @ GDAC 🧷 will be making safety web collages that will be on sale right after i make them!! come grab a safety web collage original!! 🕷️🕷️ REPOST AND BRING A FRIEND!! 🤍 @greaterdentonartscouncil @paperchairstudios

i said i’d do it scared so here i am sharing some work in progress!! currently etching during printmaking class, other than BFA, printmaking is my last class for my bachelor’s degree!! after these two classes i graduate this may!! so excited for how my art journey will continue after i graduate but i am so grateful for this chapter of my life. i will be sharing more work, more about graduation, and more about what work i will be making at the Monster Art Rally by @paperchairstudios this Sunday!! (S.A.F.E.T.Y. WEB collages!!) so stay tuned safety web! 🕸️🧷

hello safety web! i bring good news!! i am so excited to announce i am a Monster Art Rally artist! i will be a part of Denton’s first Monster Art Rally, a one day event in Denton where artists make work before your eyes. i will be making my artwork live, (S.A.F.E.T.Y WEB collages) and you have the chance to collect a piece as i make them! come support me and other local artists, and see what the Denton art scene is all about! <3 Monster Art Rally 2026 April 12 • 1-5p at Greater Denton Arts Council 400 E Hickory St, Denton, TX Organized by @paperchairstudios in partnership with @greaterdentonartscouncil Monster Duck illustration by Kevin Contreras

along with my safety web journal, i want to show you all my art process! i went to new orleans this spring break and i bought a canon there! i wanted to show you all this process i’m trying out with my photographs. i feel really discouraged when i look through my photos for the first time because i tend to focus on all the bad shots, so i invited my soon to be cofounder of safety web hahaha @wednesdaytheforestfire i went ahead and put all my raw photos in a flash drive and plugged it into our tv, then i followed along with my laptop and marked my favorites. this allowed me to view the photographs in a large scale and with a friend for critique and feedback! this was so fun and i can’t wait to do it again on my next photoshoot! for now, stay tuned for when i edit the photos i took in nola! i’m excited to share!!

i’ve been hesitant to post this, i’ve been waiting for the right time, for the right thing to say, for the right moment to say it. after i first saw this video, the double exposure of it all, the trees, the keys jangling, the car light, the silence, i knew i wanted to use it at the start of a film or something that signifies the start of something. i now know that i want this post, this video, to be the start of my safety web journal. i want to be able to not overthink a post and just write what i think, write what i feel, then and there. i want to share my meticulously thought out posts as well of course, the careful carousal posts you are all used to, because yes i love making those posts as well, (after all i AM a photography major) but i also want to be able to talk to you all how i’m doing now, to anyone in safety web that is willing to listen. with the grammar imperfections, and the loopy looped way my thoughts are put into text. i want to be my younger self, she who loved to write, she who wished to be a writer, a photographer, an artist but most of all an activist. i want you all to feel the power in my voice as you read this. the power i do not give myself the credit for. i want to thank all of the people that surround me and keep telling me to do it scared. with fear, i post the start of my safety web journal. i wanted to start this journal with a video i took in november of 2024. a couple days after election day. things stopped feeling real, even less real than they had felt before. i started capturing myself, my life, even the most mundane of it all. the times it felt like i needed to prove my being, the times it felt like my art, my photography, my videos, were proof of survival.

this is where safety web started for me. during the circle of lights at twu (december 2024), i asked those who came to the visual arts building to share a song that makes them feel safe. a month after election day, places i used to feel safe in didn’t feel safe anymore. trying to create that safety through music felt important. what song(s) make you feel safe? 🧷