My given name is Jean Teodoro, and my nickname is JT. I wanted an artist name that builds on my given name. I inserted the “X” which is short for “Xeno” – a name I once wanted to use, but was too common, and didn’t quite suit me. The word “xeno” means “stranger.” It represents my experiences of alienation as a child of diaspora, and as an immigrant to the nation that colonizes my homeland. It represents the experiences of alienation that come with having revolutionary aspirations while living in an imperialist and fascist state. It also represents the experience of feeling alienated in the process of learning more deeply who we are, and how we choose to show up in our world.

My name “Jean” comes from Greek, and it means “God is gracious.” I was also named after Jean Valjean from Les Miserables, which feels quite fitting if you know the story. My name “Teodoro” also comes from Greek, and it means “the gift of God.” By putting the “X” or “Xeno” in between the “J” and the “T,” I am expressing that the stranger is among the gods. The stranger is between God’s grace, and God’s gifts. The stranger can also represent another culture, faith, ideology, way of life, that lives between two European names that are embedded with holiness or godliness.

I pronounce “jxtheo” as “j-thee-o” with a silent “X” as a reminder that the stranger often has a life that is rarely spoken of. This name expresses that my work is in honor of the many who are considered strangers in the societies they are part of, contributing to, but not quite acknowledged or seen in.

I wanted the requisite of telling people how to pronounce my name properly. I wanted to evoke the diasporic experience of needing to tell people how to pronounce my name, and teaching them how to accept it. If people accept my name and its pronunciation, then I have shifted a cultural norm. This shifting of a norm represents the essence of why I create art.

As in the sciences and mathematics, the “X” is a variable – an unknown value that is yet to unravel.

jxtheo = grace of God [stranger] gift of God

– jxtheo