Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Castillo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Robert, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Because I create music as well as visual art, there are a couple ways to answer this question. With music, I learned the craft via formal education, receiving a degree as a jazz bassist in 2014 Jazz requires a musician to have thorough knowledge of music theory, structure, and improvisation. However, I enjoy playing a wide variety of genres (Salsa, Bluegrass, Electronic, etc.) and have been able to apply what I learned through jazz these other traditions . With visual art, I’m essentially entirely self taught. I had some help from YouTube and artist friends, but the majority of my visual art development has been an application of the creative process generated through music over to the visual. The most essential skill I have developed throughout my creative journey has been patience, with myself and the learning process. A beautiful work of art, whether it’s a new composition, album, painting, or sculpture, is going to take time to create. In this day when we’re so bombarded with social media and its whispers to always create more content, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with the pressure to create, document, and display. Living in the balance of patience and pressure is a daily practice. A challenge I’m experiencing towards acquiring more knowledge, in relation to oil painting, is difficulty in finding information. Yes a person can learn anything they want on the internet, but there’s a limit to how much you’ll find before you need a human mentor. I feel as if I’m nearing the point with oil painting where I’ve exhausted the internet’s resources and the time has come to find someone who can give me the keys to new possibilities.

Robert, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I create in a variety of ways. My first creative paths were music performance and composition. After that, painting and stone sculpting. My main instruments are the upright and the electric basses. I began with the piano as my first instrument in 2nd grade, and many years later graduated with a jazz bass degree. I’ve composed and arranged a healthy amount of music spanning from solo piano, to electronic dance music, to music for jazz sextet. In 2018, after accepting a challenge to create enough art for a solo show, I fell very deeply in love with painting. Oil and gouache are my favorite mediums, and my subject matters include bright colorful geometric abstraction, photorealistic portraits, and images from my Mayan heritage. At the beginning of 2022, right before my 30th birthday, I had the urge to start stone sculpting. So I bought the tools, and have now fallen in love with this creative form of expression as well. If I had to answer the question what am I most proud of, in regards to my creative work, it’d likely have to be the classical orchestral piece I composed as a high school graduation present for my younger brother. This piece is my largest composition, and to accomplish this monumental task required a monumental amount of concentration.
What sets me apart is my interest in intentionally fusing disparate ideas/traditions/approaches and seeing what happens as a result. For example, my most recent electronic release, titled “Contempoétnico,” is a collaboration with a friend in Mexico City who plays the hompax, a traditional Mayan instrument. My friend sent recordings of himself playing the instrument, which I used as the bases to build full soundscapes of electronic music. Two of the tracks feature poetry being read in the Yucatec dialect of Mayan, my father being one of the readers.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of creating is knowing the work is having an impact on others. There is no greater joy than being on stage and seeing your connection with the audience in their faces. Or when a random person reaches out saying how comforted they are by a painting you made. My purpose with creating is to share it with others, so as to connect with as many humans as possible. It’s a special detail about the human experience that we can find profound connection simply with how another choses to express themselves.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There are a few tools I wish I knew about earlier in my visual art journey. One of these is the book “The Color Mixing Bible” by Ian Sidaway. This book is essential when planning a painting and deciding which colors to use. Another painting tool I wish I knew about earlier is known as a mahl stick. This tool allows an artist to rest their hand on a wooden stick, instead of on the canvas/wet paint.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.robertcastillo.art
• Instagram: @blob_castle
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blob/
• Other: blobcastle.bandcamp.com