All my life I have been interested in the arts, in creating and expanding ideas into reality. Ever since I was little, I had an urge to make art, this has followed me through my whole life and to this day still stands very strong. When I was in elementary school, I took art classes with one teacher for four years, her name was Ms. Smith. She had contacted my father to let him know about me. She told him that I had potential to pursue this career and how I have excelled in her class, seeing that I had a certain drive and motivation for the arts, she had told him to enroll me for an art magnet program. At the time, my family was clueless about what that was, but I decided to try it out.
I ended up attending a middle school magnet program in the visual arts strand. After four years in that school, I decided to continue to pursue this passion I had. I created an art portfolio to apply for the top art magnet schools in my state, I got accepted into all of the high schools I had applied for, and I was very happy, but one of them had stood out to me, New World School of the Arts, they had been on the news before, being recognized from having famous actors, musicians and artist alumni’s, and having show’s around the county. So, I made my decision to attend this school. I knew it was going to be very hard for not just me but for my parents. This school was very far from my house, about an hour's car ride. My father decided to make that sacrifice of taking me to school every morning to get my education at this school, this had motivated me and had given me a purpose as to why I was attending this school.
My father came to this country because he saw that there was no future back in his home country so he moved to the USA, at a very young age, he was very academically driven, with very high sat scores and had a strong GPA, he was determined to get a good education, he later attend a university, at the time, he was not able to apply for scholarships due to immigration status, he was the first generation in our family to attend college, the only one paying for his tuition was himself, by studying and going to work. He had no guidance on how to apply for financial aid, so he had to eventually drop out of that university and attend his community college, later on, he applied for another university and eventually ended getting his bachelor’s degree. He had let me know that he didn’t want me to go through the same thing he did, so my dad and my mother have done everything to let me focus on my studies and in my arts. My father has two jobs in order for me to keep all my attention in this school I’m attending. My family has always been very supportive when it comes to my arts. In my school, I am surrounded by people my age who are an artist and have in aspiration to create and make, being surrounded in this school has influenced me and has pushed to be the best that I can.
I entered an art contest formed by an organization named “Rising Stars” that selects only the best artist and performers to be in their shows, I had won and had my painting displayed on a gallery in Downtown Miami, it was an amazing experience being able to see my artwork being displayed. Even though there are a lot of challenges that come with this school, it has been a very unique experience and has pushed me to be the best version of myself. When I got into this high school, I knew it was going to be a challenge, they had very high expectations and requirements for not only arts buy academics, it has taught, me to maintain a balance between the two. That was not the only challenge I have had to face. Transportation has been a huge obstacle, but I have been able to manage it still. My father drops me off to school every morning and then rushes to his job, but for me to get from school to my house I have to take the metro train. School ends at 3:45, my school is located in Downtown Miami, I have to take the train and then a trolley to get to my house which is located all the way in Doral, I end up getting home around 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
Even though I get home very late, I managed to get my academic homework done and on top of that, work on my art homework, I ended up staying late at night around 1 – 2 am on a regular basis, and then waking up at 6 am and repeating the whole process again. I knew that it was going to be a struggle when coming into this school, but my father had told me to not let get excuses in your way. So I kept doing it because art is what I loved doing. The community services I did also had to do with the arts. I got involved with the national art honor society club and worked on murals and became the leader for one of the projects. Since Miami is well known for being encompassed in the art realm, with museums, street art, graffiti, major shows and exhibition all over the city, it became a part of who I am today, being involved with my community and sharing my ideas and art to my area. Lately, I have been working on a body of artwork that shows myself working on very traditional style paintings, with realistic portraits and showing Miami in the background being something that resonates with the figure/figures being painted and graffiti intertwining with the figure.
The figures I use have something in common, they are all locals from Miami, some that I personally know, others that I have never met in person and only online. I have been working on a traditional fine arts approach for a while, but I have been getting an interest in storytelling and animation. I have been doing storytelling through my paintings, then I have grown a new interest in animation. Though it’s a different route from what I have been doing recently, it’s something that I feel like I want to pursue and explore more about, storytelling can be found all over through my paintings but I have been wondering different ways I can do that, and I believe that animation would be the best route for me. I love learning new subjects and things that can help me be a better individual and be more knowledge throughout the academic and arts field. I also take responsibility for the actions I make, whatever it maybe I will step forward and acknowledge that I am the one who has control in what I do. I am very detailed orientated, I may have taken this from my art studies, and I applied it into my academic work as well, I go out of my way to make sure the work I turn in is done well. Not just have things turned in on time but also at the end of the day learn from it.
