Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrea Castillo.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Andrea. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in Los Angeles, as a child my room was completely my own little colorful world. My parents would let me paint different colors and images all throughout the walls, I would bring in objects I found in the neighborhood and city and place them in my room, from palm tree branches to replicas of city light posts. I moved to northern California for my undergrad in art, spent time traveling abroad and ended up in Boston to complete my MFA. Coming back to Los Angeles as an adult has been such an interesting experience, navigating through the city, seeing things through a political/social lens that I may have been more naive to seeing growing up, and watching how my work reacts to that.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The greatest challenge I have experienced in my practice is if my work doesn’t mold into current trends of the art world or ‘doesn’t fit’ with what is currently hot at the moment. Also not taking criticism too seriously, making a boundary of it not disconcerting my personal self. Remembering why I do this in the first place, that my work should be my greatest reward!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I work in painting, video, and installation. My work usually starts with an idea and then from there I see what medium would be most apt or relevant. Lately in my current studio, I have been working on a new series of paintings. I have practiced in that medium the most, I feel there is a certain sensual self-indulgence when it comes to painting and I have to take in consideration the weighted history of that medium. My work often has to do with identity. Being biracial and standing between two cultures can be a constant reminder of one’s identity; a self-image can be challenged. I’ve always seemed to create hybrids combining familiar elements that are forced together to create an incongruous whole, reflecting a certain tension that is born when two ideas do not belong together. I’m currently interested in Mesoamerican mythology and merging the personal, textile patterns, symbolic structures, and iconography from pop culture to bring to mind the various meanings and associations that cling to particular methodologies, and then reshuffling the interpretations of cultural signs. I think coming back to Los Angeles during our current cultural climate has been really important, vibrating off the uncertainty and a heightened sense of things becoming so provoked, I often find myself looking back at the past and trying to create support for other creatives in my community.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Gearing up for some shows in Los Angeles and continue working with organizations that I feel matter.
Contact Info:
- Website: andreacastillo.net
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @and_reacastillo
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