“Growing up around art has made me more of a creative person, and its made me more open minded into things and how I view certain things, because, I grew up only really reading comic books and that was my first real exposure to art. I learned that art can be a good way of expressing yourself without having to worry about words.

For me, that’s been how I developed my identity and how I became for visual. Now that I’m growing up and applying to colleges and art schools, art is kind of where I find my success and where I find my happy place. I feel like everything else is so stressful, but art is a place where I can feel relaxed, and I’m very opinionated, and art is a safe place to express that without offending anyone. For example, I have a lot of political views and I like to express them through art, especially in regard to Mexican culture.

My portfolio is about comparing the romanticization of my culture with the realities of it, because I lived there for thirteen years. So for me, that’s a big part of my art; being able to express my opinion on certain topics, because it’s a lot safer than using your words.

When I first came into Gulliver, I knew I liked art, but I did not think it was something I could go into. But still, I did not think it was going to be a serious profession for me, but my school has really [helped] me to go into the arts, and my teachers push me to apply to competitions, and they were really the first ones to make me see art as something other than a hobby.”