From a young age, art caught  his eye, now senior Mario Castro has decided to further his education in art in order to transform his hobby into a career. 

GENESIS: Tell us about how your interest in art began.

MARIO CASTRO: “So, I started [drawing] because when I was very little, my dad would always encourage me with drawings and stuff. I remember him buying me superhero coloring books and he would always buy me crayons, and actually, at my house growing up, we would always buy coloring pencils and crayons for the school year, so I had tubs of crayons.”

G: Would you say your dad inspired you then?

MC: “Yeah, nah, yeah. I felt like my dad wanted his children to be artistic, so we did like double lessons in a way, like life lessons. When we were little, everyone had to go through this. We would have to color between the lines at like age two and when we were very little, and it basically taught us how to do things properly and to not give up because we’d get mad. He just showed us how to do things the right way and he showed us perseverance, but yeah, my dad used to do photography in Mexico, but now he’s here. When I was little, I would watch him take pictures and I would think ‘Why is he crouching, going like all these ways and laying on the floor?’ and he saw me questioning what he was doing and the next time he got a job, he showed me the results after each picture to show me why he did those angles.”

G: When did you start taking art seriously?

MC: “I started taking art seriously when I was in middle school because that’s when you’re able to do Scholastic which is an art and writing competition and basically your teacher nominates you to put some art up. I drew a self-portrait  and I am really competitive, but I ended up getting Honorable Mention. I didn’t really get anything, so I was really hard on myself. To me, it basically meant thank you for participating.”

G: Do you think becoming an artist is in your future?

MC: “ Yeah, I mean I applied to a lot of places: Columbia College of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Ohio Art Institute and I applied to IUPUI. I only applied to one place in state, but my main place is Chicago, oh and NYU.”