About Me
I am Mark Villanueva Benavides and I am a Junior Year student from Los Altos High School. I am someone to be passionate about my creations in the form of art whether music, visual art, or writing. I tend to be quiet and reserved, but when we get to know each other, I show myself being a vibrant, humorous person. I am a younger brother of my older sister who’s currently in college and I do miss her, but hey, at least I have my pet dog. Growing up, I’ve had a few relatives who were visual artists, two of them were painters and I would always be impressed by the artworks they have made. This inspired me to be a creative, artistic person. I would always participate in Thursday art programs during elementary school, and I would take art classes in middle school. I started sketching when I was in the 6th grade and throughout the years, I have been more consistent in sketching characters, and maybe, give one of them a backstory.
Being imaginative is one of my core values in life, along with taking initiative and going for quality over quantity. Having an imagination gives me the ability to be creative and getting some good inspiration, such as musicians, visual artists, and writers, has helped me expand not only my creative process, but also my knowledge of people who artistically inspire me. Taking initiative helped me overcome some struggles in my life, especially with my mental-wellbeing and school work. I would be left satisfied when I either realize I have been doing better than 6 months or when I have finished my school or personal projects on time. Focusing more on quality and less of quantity has been important to me in my creative progression. Adding more or toning it down when it comes to my creations has helped me learn about what’s needed and what’s not needed in the process.
Being a beat composer is what I like to do outside of school. It’s been a hobby of mine and I have taken this role seriously. Everyday after school, I would go on my computer, either my old MacBook or the iMac, and I would go on either Logic Pro or FL Studio and start out with a MIDI track, finding which instrument to start out with. It’s not easy at times, especially when you have just finished 2 beats in a span of 2 days, and it could take hours or even days to finish. I also like to ride my bike around my neighborhood, especially on the Stevens Creek Trail. It’s fun to look at the bay waters and the blue sky as the sun is almost setting. I also like drawing and I often bring my sketchbook to school. I usually sketch out made-up people, but sometimes, I would draw random objects and weird creatures that don’t exist.
As a Freestyle student, I expect myself to be open-minded to new ideas that I haven’t explored and take advantage of the opportunities given by the facility itself. Learning new skills in all of my Freestyle classes, being Digital Media, English, and Film, applying it to my projects and using these skills to improve the amount of effort I put in both my school projects and my work of aspirations can help me grow technically and artistically.
I value being part of the community, working with others in various projects, and having the opportunities that I was never given. I also value growing my artistic abilities and improving my creativity, especially when it comes to working on creative projects both in Freestyle and outside of school.