From Pencils to Charcoal, the Journey of Kio Claudia Villa

Kio Claudia Villa has been making art since she was four years old. Photo and art by Kio Claudia Villa.

By the age of five, children are required to be enrolled in kindergarten where they begin to start developing their reading and writing skills.

However, Kio Claudia Villa, a fourth-year drawing and painting major at California State University Long Beach, was already creating art by the time she was four years old.

“I asked my mom to teach me how to sign my name,” said Villa. “I told her I was going to sign my art.”

Villa was not the type of kid to draw cartoons. She’s rather “bad” at that type of art style, she said.

Blue, pencil-colored roots travel toward the top-right corner of a piece of printer paper. The surrounding white space is filled in with black pencil strokes. Age 12.

A black-and-white violin, right in the middle of a black-colored canvas. Red brush strokes surround the violin, which appears to be floating. Age 14.

“[Art] has just always been what I do,” she said. “I’ve always had the opportunity to pursue it.”

Villa was born just two days after Christmas in South Gate, California where she grew up.

In 2006, during her senior year at South Gate High School, Villa spent about half of her school days in her art class with Ms. Berkeley for whom she was also a student aide.

One day as she was browsing through old yearbooks, she came across a photo that caught her eye. It was a group of students that were part of the art club.

“I didn’t know we had an art club,” Villa said to her teacher. “Can we restart it?”

“You live in this room,” Ms. Berkeley said to Villa. “Of course, you can restart it!”

Art became a part of Villa’s identity to the point that she earned the award for Excellence in Art upon graduation. It was only given to one student each year, and she was among a graduating class of 900 students.

She continued her education at College of the Sequoias where she earned her associate’s degree in Art in the spring of 2018.

Shortly after starting college, she began to teach art to inner-city students with the After-School All-Stars program in Los Angeles, California.

The After-School All-Stars program was founded in 1992 and provides free after-school programs for children attending K-12 schools.

According to their website, their vision is for their “All-Stars to be safe and healthy, graduate high school, go to college, find careers they love and give back to their communities.”

Villa would be spotted walking around with her art portfolio case and materials to get to her students.

Behind her, steel rebar spikes point towards the sky. The Watts Towers. 

The structure looks over Watts in South Central Los Angeles, one of the communities in which students benefit from the services provided by the program.

According to the program's annual report, there were more than 15 thousand students in the Los Angeles program in 2022. Eighty-six percent qualified for a free or reduced lunch program, and almost 80 % were Hispanic/Latino.

Villa worked closely with the only program director of art, Leonardo Gallardo, in getting the right materials for students.

“Not that cheap stuff from Wal-Mart,” said Gallardo.

Together, they came up with the idea of ArtCon in 2014. It’s like Stan Lee’s Comic Con, but for K-12 art students to showcase their best works of art.

“For budding artists, it’s hard to get their art out there,” said Gallardo. “Because they’re children.”

ArtCon was developed as a way to share students’ art from school to school since art clubs are usually the smallest. It allows students to connect with others with the same passion for art. 

Villa admits that she would have loved to have been a part of something like ArtCon growing up.

“Art always seemed kinda lonely,” said Villa. “It wasn’t something that many people around me were interested in.” Today, charcoal footprints lead to Villa’s basement where she spends her time coming up with new works of art.

“I’ll go months without making anything,” said Villa. “But the next piece I make looks like I’ve been practicing for months.”

Her fiancé, Tyler Corsair, watches as she etches out figures onto a charcoal-covered canvas. She starts erasing some of the darkness, and it’s almost as if she is sculpting something onto paper.  

The charcoal footprints don’t bother Corsair.

“It’s like her fairy dust,” Corsair said.

The couple met on an online dating app in 2020 and are set to marry during the summer of 2024, about a month after Villa graduates with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at CSULB.

Like Villa, Corsair is also the creative type, but with web design and development. They are always bouncing ideas back and forth to each other in the studio and occasionally give feedback.

“Being around her constantly inspires me,” Corsair said. “She pumps me up and makes me want to work harder.”

Upon completion of her degree at CSULB, Villa looks forward to being accepted into the Art Center of Design or the Laguna School of Art and Design to pursue her master’s degree.

Before attending grad school, however, she will dedicate her time to being a Chief Creative Officer for Teslascope, a new start-up service for Tesla owners to help keep track of their driving habits. 

“If the start-up works out I’ll have the money to go anywhere I want,” Villa said.

Villa looks forward to teaching fine arts and having her own art showcased in galleries. 

“I can’t wait for that moment,” said Corsair. “To see her truly shine.”