Irma Castillo
Artist Statement
Since a young age, I have always had a deep love for art; I was more interested in doodling than leaning how to write my own name in preschool and my oldest memories are drawing under carpets, so my parents would not find my beloved crayon masterpieces.
Throughout school I was drawn and focused on all art-oriented assignments and loved being creative in any way I could at both home and school. In the valley, art is not held as a priority in education, so I forced and incorporated art in any aspect I could throughout school. I have a huge passion to be hands on and build with my hands, but when I came across a digital design class in high school, it lent a whole new perspective to creating. With that tiny foundation in graphic design, I knew it was my calling and way of pursing art as a career. I am so happy I chose to major in graphic design with little to no background, as it is a new hobby, skillset, and overall personality asset. I hope to continue creating and always grow my passion towards art through graphic design.
While my love from art rooted from drawing and created by hand, digital art has become essential in my journey as an artist since it provides the tools to create something not from reality. Bright colors and over the top filters are something I enjoy toying with, it’s a new element I can add to art that I could not receive from creating art traditionally. My art is not realistic nor perfect and I think that is really refreshing to see as many artists hold themselves to insane standards; imperfect art is an invitation to people of different skillsets and interests to experiment and contribute to art without the fear of not meeting a certain mark. I believe understanding that was a huge breakthrough for me to enjoy making art as an undergraduate instead of living and halfheartedly creating in fear of not meeting a certain standards and I hope my art would open a door for others to think the same.
While coloring and drawing as a toddler and throughout elementary school was my foundation towards my love for art, I believe I wanted to grow it into a talent when I discovered anime and manga. While not typically taken seriously in the “art world”, it was a deep interest of mine as a pre-teen and grew my dedication to growing my skills as an artist. Looking back, Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon, was a large influence as I tried tirelessly to imitate her art. I believe my love for pastels and bright colors come from her background design work throughout sailor moon and pathed a road for me to find love and comfort in drawing and eventually venturing into (attempting) digital art as a teenager. While I cannot credit any other specific anime or manga, the entire genre exposed me to color and warping reality through art.
When viewing other works, I enjoy dissecting and unpacking the work to understand how the artist got to the finished project from square one. In doing so, it may not be the exact way the original artist created the work, but I have now taught or tested myself in how I would do it. When I create through digital media, I tend to build it with multiple layers in mind, I enjoy messing with art as a puzzle, but in this case, there is no right or wrong answer; any new element can be correct in the eye of the creator. I tend to be attracted to bright funky colors or clashing textures and test how far I can go before my work becomes an eyesore. Creating digital art gives me this whole new access to colors and prints and elements that I could not access when creating in a traditional art form and which is why I love graphic design as it feeds my desire to create anything my mind conjures.
