<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Leah Lewis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photos Courtesy of the artist and Tru Dobbins<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting this semester, the Willow School embraces a new teacher into the CA Visual Arts (CAVA) Department, Vanessa Centeno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Born and raised in San Antonio Texas, Centeno always had an amusement and gift for art. In fact, her whole world was surrounded by it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was always drawing, I was always making,\u201d Centeno said. \u201cMy mom was very artistic, and we were always doing crafts. So I came from a very creative family. It was a part of our growing up, you know? We made what we needed as far as clothes, things to decorate, or whatever. We were a crafty family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adding on to her artistic upbringing, Centeno had an art teacher at her high school who opened her eyes to various ways and methods to create. After high school, she went to a community college in her hometown, San Antonio. It was then that Centeno was beginning to see a possible career in art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I got into college, I found out that you could major in art. I didn\u2019t even think that you could do that,\u201d Centeno said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI got an award that you could get a scholarship to afford any college you wanted,\u201d Centano said. \u201cI ended up going to San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), and I got a scholarship there. That really expanded my concept of what art is. It was no longer just a drawing or a painting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in college, Centeno\u2019s view of what art could be continued to broaden as she met more and more people with concepts she hadn\u2019t even thought of introducing with art. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt opened that door to the way art impacts our culture and our time. People were talking about all types of things, like feminism and your heritage. There were different ways of exploring or expressing yourself. It wasn\u2019t just painting a pretty picture but really having a social impact. That really fueled a lot of where I\u2019m at today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After graduating from SFAI, Centeno moved back to Texas, working then in an art museum, meeting many artists and people. She was then informed about an opportunity in New Orleans at UNO (University of New Orleans) where she could get a scholarship while doing student teaching to attain her masters in 2011 and was met with support and community in New Orleans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe thing about New Orleans is that it\u2019s a really supportive arts community,\u201d Centano said. \u201cThat’s what I love about being here\u2013going to school here and just the city. The art world here in New Orleans is very eager for artists to create new works or new experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Centeno felt a connection between the city of New Orleans (which was still heavily impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2011 when she moved here) and herself\u2013both were going through a period of transition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After graduate school, Centeno hosted many art shows back in San Antonio and here in New Orleans. To financially support these shows, Ceneno would host dinner parties. While working at Southeastern Louisiana University, Centeno was informed about a job opening at the Willow High School by two friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was trying to get closer to home, so I applied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We welcome Ms. Centeno to Willow! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Leah Lewis Photos Courtesy of the artist and Tru Dobbins Starting this semester, the Willow School embraces a new teacher into the CA Visual<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","two-columns"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/NFA24_Centeno_4.jpg?fit=1500%2C1197&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}