If I were a plant, I'd feel pain or When your defense mechanism is rooted in isolation

Sarah Castillo is a Chicana artist living and working in San Antonio, Texas. For Castillo, art, identity, and mental health, are central to her work as an interdisciplinary and feminist artist. Castillo possess a profound interest in performance, considering acutely the space and experience that set up her works. Through this sensitivity to performance, Castillo considers the affective responses of the body in her artistic creations, such as with self-portraiture, wearable sculpture, painting, photography, and mixed media collage. This form of research into embodied response has been central to her artistic practice ever since obtaining her Master’s degree in Bicultural Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she wrote her thesis: “Art as Embodied Practice: Artistic Expression, Conocimiento, and Identity Formation.” Castillo is the co-founder of Man Rudas Collective, Creative Director of Lady Base Gallery and Co-Director at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery. Castillo’s creative practice is one that is central to her integrity as both an artist and an individual; drawing on profound academic, cultural and moral values, Castillo continues to drive and develop her artistic expression as an agent for change and communication in global contemporary issues that hold an undoubtedly personal significance.