We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linda Hinojos a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Linda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

In 1992, when I was 14 years old, I was hired at Six Flags Astroworld. There I learned the skill of airbrush. The opportunity gave me the experience, and vision to become an entrepreneur. The ability to earn an income while creating art was now a possibility because of the airbrush tool. When I saw that people would pay $30 to enter an amusement park, just to come in and pay at least another $30 for an airbrush T-shirt, I knew this was the path for me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began my airbrush career in 1992 Six Flags Astroworld T-shirt shop. I never had heard of an airbrush or had any art resources in my community, so this was a dream come true for me. Learning the tool of airbrushed enabled me to “paint anything on anything.” Because of this ability I have painted on many surfaces from mural, cars, bikes, airplanes, canvases, clothing, shoes, body art to portraits. I also learned to manage, and train other artist the skill of airbrush. The ability to paint such versatile surfaces, I am able to bring my clients vision to life. From creating business murals, portraits of deceased loved ones, providing employment opportunity to artist, and public art to communities the impact of airbrush is undoubtedly unique in its creative results.
The ability to teach and provide a resource of income to other artist, especially the youth, is what I am most proud of. This summer I am opening up the first school of airbrush to continue this opportunity of bringing hope to artist of the future, and art experiences to the community.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

A particular goal I have is to bring artistic resources to the Houston Hobby community, where I was raised. Growing up in an underserved community, made me realize the importance of giving back to where you came from. To me, this is one of my purposes. Beginning the school of airbrush, and working towards creating a new art district in the Hobby area, I seek to bring hope and artistic experiences to the place that molded me, and I drew my creativity from.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Throughout my 30 years of professional experience, I have been through a long journey with many stories, but the story that gives me the most sense of accomplishment is when I was the afterschool art director of the Cougar art Program at Cornelius elementary 2007-2011. My daughter and son where in elementary school that focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). As a parent, I recognized the students who were artists were being underserved and decided to create an art program.
The art program was a great success in giving opportunity and classes to young artist. I also taught entrepreneurship and they may use their art to generate income and have an impact on their community. To demonstrate this, we performed fundraisers such as the Valentines grams. In this effort the students drew Valentines themed art and they chose the top 5 by vote. Then the images were displayed for students and parents to choose from, and send a message on the back with a candy and balloon. This fundraiser was able to generate $1500 for the program, bring art to the community, and pride to the artist and program,
After this accomplishment the enthusiasm for art grew from the students, to teachers, to the school community.
I proposed an art festival for the school with an art exhibition and auction of the students work. The response was mixed from why?, that is great, to ” you can not raise money with art, and ” the community will not come.”
But because I knew the effect of art, the response of the school community, and the enthusiasm of the artist, I had to give it my all. Admittedly, I wanted to prove the importance of art.
The event took place all day, featuring artist Leonardo Da Vinci- who was an example of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and art. My point was to show how art is part of the STEM principles, not opposite, The event ended with a successful auction of the student’s work from the entire year. Overall, a total of $6000 were raised! This was my most proud moment. Not only because we broke a fundraising amount, or proving how much art is needed, but the effect on the students. This program brought hope, opportunity, and resources for those in the program. Today many of those students are artist, have pursued art careers, won awards, and own their own art businesses. This experience has also affected me profoundly. I can say I am very proud of this experience and It has given me more purpose than just pursing my own success in art.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lhartcreations.wixsite.com/mysite
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