Artist Isabel Castro
Artist Isabel Castro got her career rolling attending Escuela Verde, where she got a grant for her senior thesis, a mural project. Now a student at UW-Milwaukee, she also is an artist-in-residence on Cesar Chavez Drive, awarded by the Farm Project. That program is produced by the Chavez Drive Business Improvement District and the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative to help foster art in the neighborhood. As part of the residency, the Farm Project found Castro an empty storefront at 1000 S. Cesar Chavez Drive to set up her studio and project, Soy Quien Soy (I am who I am), which will include community classes creating vision boards and other art, as well as a piece installed in the neighborhood.
“The focus of Soy Quien Soy is your individual identity and how that is displayed in the world around you, your environment and your neighborhood,” Castro says.
Let’s start by talking about your interest in art growing up and art experience.
I’m from Sheboygan, and I moved to Milwaukee five years ago with my family. Before moving here, I lived with my grandparents in Mexico for a year; this was all happening in the transition of high school. I identified with Milwaukee; I felt such a sense of belonging here. I went to Escuela Verde, which is a project-based school, and I feel it really gave me freedom and encouraged me to build up my voice and my network in the community.
I’ve always been into the arts. Since I was little, my grandmother had to put paper on the walls because I was always drawing on them, so that was the beginning of my career (laughs).
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Tell us more about your workspace here on Chavez Drive.
There’s a bus stop here, so there’s constant movement all the time. I see a lot of individuals taking the bus to work, or coming back from work, and they have their kids with them, and the kids look through the doors and the windows. For my own individual art, I want to reflect what I’m doing in the community, which is going to be tied into my own cultural identity, experience and the things I’m learning as a young individual.
How did you think of the Soy Quien Soy project?
The way I brainstormed the title of the project is because soy con soy, “I am who I am,” sounds very powerful if you say it in Spanish or English. I hope to empower the youth of different generations who walk through these doors—to let them know it’s ok to be who you are and to embrace that through the arts. It’s an inclusive and safe space to express those emotions.
Can you give us a timeline of the residency?
It goes to the end of December. I started in August. I got the keys to the building, which was packed with various things, glass cases and a bunch of junk, so for the first month we had to clear it out and have the inspectors come in and approve everything. We’re working on the projects from October through December. Another thing I’ve started thinking about is the community art project that will be installed on this street. I have an idea of what I’d like to do, but I’m seeking community input on what they would like to see. I’d like to see a big papel picado mural—paper art where you cut shapes into the paper.
This is my first residency, and it is a whole different experience because I’m in charge of my own building. I’m making sure things are going on track and a step is being made every day; that’s something I live by.
You can find photos from the Soy Quien Soy project studio at instagram.com/soy_quien_soy_estudio.
