Creativity Takes Courage

By April Diaz

Virginia Castañeda wasn’t always encouraged to follow her dreams. Ever since she was little she wanted to become a Disney animator but it wasn’t that easy, first she had to overcome doubt and unsupportive comments from people. In her early years in art class she faced challenges, one day her teacher made a negative comment about her work which caused her to doubt herself for a long time.

“She yelled at me and right there I was like ‘oh no’ it kind of brought me down” Castañeda said.

Up to this day she still remembers the gloomy feeling of that distant memory. It was a long journey before she finally decided to follow her goal: being an artist.

With dedication, aspiration and drive she went back to college to finish her degree in graphic design although this wasn’t her initial plan she later stumbled across information about art education and decided to pursue a career as an art teacher.

As of 2017-2018 Castañeda has been working 4 years at El Dorado High School. Castañeda loves being an art teacher because everyday is a different day. Sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s frustrating but every day to bound to be an adventure. Even when she’s not feeling good Castañeda gives it her 100%, her goal is to inspire her students and expose them to the different kinds of arts so that they have an understanding of the impact art can make in their life, just like it did in hers.

“I make art to express the voice that I have, the only way I can express myself is through my art. What’s going on in my head is what I want to put on canvas” Castañeda said.