samantha navarro

BIO//
     Born and raised in Plano, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), I have lived the past 19 years with my mom and brother. My biggest inspirations in my life have been my Avó (grandma) and my mom. I am very blessed to have had support in everything I want to do. Previous to attending the Kansas City Art Institute, I was involved in sports, took private art lessons and studied theatre under Broadway veterans. Currently, I am a sophomore and have spent the past fall in our Digital Filmmaking Department, but I have always had an interest in animation. Growing up, I looked to my older brother, Max, for what was cool. He introduced me to Anime, Manga, video games and the Beastie Boys. In high school, I started researching my favorite TV shows and became engrossed in the process of animation and who was involved. I started making short videos with my friends and always begged to be the main camera person and editor. After my freshman year at the KCAI, I decided to study filmmaking, though only a few weeks into the first semester, I realized where my true passion lay. I will be switching into the Animation Dept. next fall as a sophomore (again) and am really looking forward to it.


WORK//
     While my focus in school will be on animation, I am also interested in film, illustration, graphic design, motion graphics and collage. This semester I am taking classes in typography and figure drawing and have previously worked with black and white photography and darkroom processes, digital filmmaking, sound recording and motion graphics. I plan to continue studying other art forms such as printmaking and ceramics. I consider animation an interdisciplinary art form and thusly try to experiment with different media so I can have a multitude of tools available to me for use in future projects. My work does not focus on any one subject, as I am just starting to learn about new processes. To further my understanding of how a finished work is made, I have started a process blog. At the moment, I am looking at the use of collage as a starting point for creating larger works.    




My mom, Mandie, is a Laughter Yoga instructor and teaches to the elderly, disabled, businesses and the public. 
My brother, True (Max), is currently attending Collin College where he is learning about video game art.