About the Artist
Robert Castor grew up on the streets of the West Coast, primarily in California. He was in and out of foster care and family homes due to an unstable home life. He found some stability when he moved to Las Vegas with his uncle, Scott Garcia, as a teenager. It was there that he first really connected with art. He won a scholarship to an Academy of Art in San Francisco but was only able to go for about a semester because he couldn’t afford to live there, even in Oakland. He became homeless and eventually moved back to Las Vegas. He continued to make art on his own, influenced by abstraction, Surrealism and graphic novels. In addition to art “gigs” such as making murals for tattoo parlors and Comicon, he worked at casinos, was a rising amateur boxer, and the lead singer of a punk band! He came to Chattanooga in early 2000 and got into a car accident. His whole world imploded due to suffering severe bodily injury and a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). He has spent many years in recovery, learning how to adapt to a new skill set, including changes in his painting style due to wrist-control issues. He considers art to be his “silent scream,” his way of expressing both love and pain.