Artist Cipriano Ortega Explores Isolation and Identity During Breckenridge Residency

As part of his three-month summer residency with Breck Create, artist Cipriano Ortega found himself standing in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Breckenridge, ready to perform with his guitar. The Denver musician found the house's opulent display of wealth, which included an extravagant wine cellar, music room and gym, to be "incredibly surreal."

Even as Ortega began to play, many in the audience — a mix of boardmembers from Breck Create and wildly wealthy patrons — continued their conversations, seemingly indifferent to his music. But when one boardmember hushed the room, the mood changed, and Ortega became the center of attention.

That's when Ortega, a queer Indigenous artist, performed "All Alone in Paradise." The song was inspired by the deep personal grief he suffered after his dog died just days before he arrived in Breckenridge, as well as the stark contrast in his surroundings. While he strummed his guitar, memories of his dog flooded his mind, mingling with the out-of-body experience of being an outsider in such a setting.

"It made me feel quite emotional," Ortega recalls. "But it was nice to understand where my place is — I am a musician, the entertainer, but these are not just catchy tunes that appear out of nowhere. They come from a place of isolation. The theme of 'All Alone in Paradise' is that you are in a place where everyone is having a good time; people want to have the best experiences, take pictures in front of the mountains and visit the breweries. That's a fine experience, but I haven't been into any of those breweries because I don't quite feel welcome, especially being alone in a place as a person of color who's male. I can feel that tension at times."

The performance summed up Ortega's entire residency: It was a transformational experience that enabled him to concentrate on his craft, but it also left him with a strong sense of alienation and a lack of belonging.
“First and foremost, I'm very grateful for the opportunity, mostly because it's been an extremely productive summer,” Ortega says. “Being alone in the mountains, writing and producing an album, has been great. But at the same time, there are moments where I go outside of my little world here and it's interesting to see how some of the community reacts. People see me approaching and walk across the street or go another direction, or I smile at them but they do not smile back, or they smile at you but you do not smile back, and it gets weird."

Ortega's journey to Breckenridge began with an email last year from Avery Glassman, the former director of programs and special projects at Breck Create. She encouraged him to apply for the artist-in-residence program, a prestigious opportunity that brings artists to the picturesque town to focus on their craft. Despite initial reservations, Ortega decided to submit a proposal centered on his music and poetry.

"I was like, 'Okay, I guess I might as well, so I submitted," Ortega recalls. He advanced to the second round, which required an interview; he discovered that he was accepted in October, while he was working as the assistant director of Diego Florez-Arroyo's debut play, Cuauhtémoczin, produced by Control Group Productions.

The residency, which started May 15 and ends August 31, has been both a gift and a challenge, Ortega says. Breck Create, an organization dedicated to fostering a dynamic, year-round creative community in Breckenridge, provided him with a unique environment: a two-story structure known as the Robert Whyte House, complete with a studio on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs. This setting offered Ortega the perfect space to dive deep into his creative practices.
"I feel best when I'm in the studio working," Ortega says. "I'm refining music that I’ve been working on for a while. I was selective on some of the gear because I had to move it from my home studio up to here, so I brought an assortment of different things but kept it kind of minimal. I wanted to create an environment where I could have limitations and then just be in a room with other musicians and just create a vibe."

Over the summer, he worked on his debut full-length album, LoLo House. Ortega initially planned to record the album with bandmates from his previous EP, A Whole New Low. When scheduling conflicts arose, however, he adapted by inviting his longtime co-producer, Bret Batterman, to join him in Breckenridge. They recorded bass and drum tracks with Doug Carmichael on saxophone, Bret Billings on harmonica and Astin Lopez on acoustic guitar, all using vintage microphones and analog gear that Ortega had been eager to try out.

The result is a cohesive collection of eleven tracks set to be released this fall, all with themes of isolation and nocturnal introspection. “The whole goal of this album is to design short, two-to-three-minute songs; there’s only one track over that,” Ortega says. "It follows the journey of a person going through trials and tribulations. I try to keep my approach to songwriting and lyricism as vague as possible, because I believe that the more the audience can interpret for themselves, the better."

These tracks, blending elements of blues, rock and unique sonic explorations, are deeply personal. Ortega describes the album as a journey through the experiences of an isolated individual, reflecting his own feelings as a male person of color living in a predominantly white, tourist-oriented town.

"I don't ever want to come across as accusatory, but Breckenridge being a tourist town, knowing there are different people from different parts of the country and being in the divided time that we're living in, all contribute to the way I've been treated," he says. "I'm not necessarily saying I've been treated badly; it's more that this is the first time I've really understood where my place is.

"It's been very isolating — probably the most isolated I've ever been in my life, because three and a half months is a long time," Ortega continues. "I've had guest artists come up here and work on this album, but most of the downtime has been just me pretty much staying in the house working on music and other art. I don't want to come off in any particular way; it's just the way it is. That is kind of what the album is about. This is my experience and how I interpret it, and I hope people enjoy the catchy tunes that came from it."

Beyond music, Ortega has been channeling his creative energy into two open studio sessions per week, teaching three weeks of classes to local children and working on other forms of art during his residency. He completed a painting that will be hung in an exhibit titled Nepantla at the Museum of Art Fort Collins in October, and he's been refining his poetry. But as the residency comes to a close, Ortega is looking forward to returning home and finalizing LoLo House.
"I'm quite frankly ready to go home, but I like this idea of yearning for the home, understanding what a home is and gratefully returning back to my folks," Ortega says. "Another factor this summer is that my dad had a double knee replacement, so I had to somewhat go back and forth, but I was mostly trapped here. It's this interesting feeling of being trapped: What do you do with that time? I liked that feeling. That's where all this music comes from. I believe you can feel that within the music — that's the spirit of rock and roll and the blues. It's like you may not give me the time, but I'm still going to make a song about it, because I don't know any other way to healthfully experience or process these things."

Ortega is eager to share the work he’s created during his residency. He hopes to host an album release party for LoLo House later this fall, and he plans to distribute physical copies to local radio stations and record labels. While he may have felt alone in paradise, Ortega has created a body of work that is far from solitary; it's his way of connecting with others and sharing his lived experience.

"I'm a very sensitive person, but that's tricky as a person of color who is male," Ortega says. "If I find myself talking too much or getting too emotional, I can tell when somebody's not really comfortable with that. In the past, I've cried or something, and people are just kind of, ‘Oh, don’t do that.’ I don't know where to go to find solace, but that is not true. I do know where to go: to my music and artistic practices, which I thankfully know how to do."