It’s a nice fall afternoon when photographer Rogelio Esparza meets for coffee at Chimera Cafe, 212 N. Main St.

An immigrant from Mexico, Esparza grew up in Tulsa and graduated from Union High School in 2011 and then Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology in 2015 before moving to New York City and Los Angeles. He returned home in 2019.

He’s co-founder of the nonprofit Art House, which has a mission to organize and facilitate community art shows and gatherings by providing a platform for local artists to showcase their work and connect with a diverse audience.

Esparza thought he wanted to work in professional photography, but prefers his artistic freedom … I learned the creative stuff is stuff that does not pay, and stuff that I hate to do is the stuff that’s going to pay. So I was like, “Maybe I don’t want to do photography as a job,” and I think that’s how I’m still thinking about it now. I like to do it more as a hobby. 

That said, in August 2021 he photographed singer-songwriter-actor Sturgill Simpson in Pawhuska for Rolling Stone, and shot Turnpike Troubadours at Philbrook Museum of Art for the music publication earlier this year … With the Sturgill shoot I probably got my favorite images I’ve ever taken. I’ve probably got like over 150 images where I was like, “I like every single image.” It was because I didn’t over prepare. He was like, “Here are my two shirts that I brought. We have till sunset. We can do whatever we want.” … I took photos of him for a good two hours on the horse on the hills as much as I could, and that was it. He was really nice.

After settling back into Tulsa, Esparza and roommate Allison Ward developed then launched Art House in December 2019. It has evolved into a nonprofit that has spawned nine more shows that have spotlighted more than 125 local artists who paint, sculpt, create fashion, do photography and more … The way we see ourselves is like the middle person. We want to be able to get money from people and then funnel it to the artists who live in Tulsa, want to live in Tulsa and are doing stuff in Tulsa without getting paid to move here and then leaving. I think for us as artists in Tulsa, we feel a little salty. We want to live here. We’re creating here. Why don’t you help us a little bit to continue to build it? People have the drive to do it for free. Imagine what people can do with a little bit of money. So I think that’s where we find ourselves, where if (funders like Tulsa Artist Fellowship) are not willing to do it, then we should do that ourselves.

Art House started in Esparza and Ward’s home with the inaugural event, then grew to a family member’s backyard before becoming so big it needs 22,000-square-feet of warehouse space to showcase the installations. The goal is to make Art House so big it grows into regions surrounding Tulsa to help local artists grow without moving away … I feel like that’s where Art House is moving toward. We want to make it regional, so it expands to Oklahoma City and maybe a little bit of northwest Arkansas because I feel like a lot of artists feel they have to move to a big city to make it, but I feel like that’s not necessarily the truth. I want to build stuff, but I want to build it here. I don’t want to move back to New York and build something I feel like would be more special here in Tulsa. 

Learn more at arthousetulsa.com or on Instagram @arthousetulsa.