Marceline Castrillon
Wakefield High School
Marceline Castrillon took a photography elective on a whim her sophomore year. She exhibited such skill and artistry that her art teacher, Jina Davidson, allowed her to take an advanced photo class the following year, and AP Art and Design after that.
Her hyper-stylized portraits are dreamlike and metaphorical. One features a girl with a Mohawk. A young man in a flower headband is reminiscent of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work.
“There’s a surrealistic, otherworldly feeling to the images,” Davidson says. “She takes the inner beauty of all her subjects and magnifies it.”
Castrillon was a finalist in a juried high school art exhibit at Marymount University and one of eight gold metal portfolio winners nationwide in this year’s Scholastic Art Awards. “I like the fact that artists and photographers can capture time and emotions,” says the Arlington teen, who turns 18 in July. “You don’t need to have long words attached; you can just grasp the meaning from an image.”
Photography isn’t her only talent. During high school, Castrillon was the costume director for Wakefield’s theater program, played the viola and held down a part-time job at Sweetgreen. For her senior project she created a multimedia magazine called Vampgirl, delving into politics, pop culture, art, fashion, music and film.
She and a friend also started the Future Doctors Society, a student-led group that explores medical careers and hosts monthly lectures by health care professionals. Other branches of the group have since formed at Yorktown and Washington-Liberty, as well as at a high school in Connecticut. Castrillon says she became interested in medicine after being diagnosed with a minor case of scoliosis as a child. Orthopedic surgery is one career path she’s now considering.
She was accepted to Brown University and Parsons School of Design, but has decided to attend LIM College in New York City this fall.
Castrillon was born male but identifies as female. She has transitioned—a process she says would likely have happened in college, but was accelerated by her feelings of isolation during the pandemic. Her parents and teachers have been supportive, and her art has been a powerful medium for expression. “I’ve been really, really lucky to be in an environment that’s so protective,” she says, “unlike in other parts of the country.”