In fact, Silva said he grew up, like many from farm working families, with a tremendous lack of self-esteem. “At a certain point, I realized my lifestyle wasn’t normal,” he recalls. “I longed to join sports teams like other kids and to have new clothes and to start school on the very first day and to do something besides work on the weekends. But I’d come back to school a week or two late because we were working the harvest, and I’d come back with purple hands. There were other kids that came back with purple hands like me, but it was always demoralizing. Sometimes the other kids would talk about how they went to Disneyland over the summer or stayed in a hotel with a pool. People don’t realize that such innocent comments can hurt so bad.”

        During his childhood, from the age of 8 on, Silva worked every Saturday and Sunday, every holiday, and every day of the summer doing fieldwork in California’s sweltering southern desert which was transformed by irrigation into agricultural land. 

        In life, Simon Silva found a passion for education. “When I first started school, it was like an oasis for me,” he said. “I craved love and attention, and I could get it at school.” From the very first, teachers noted his artistic abilities and often asked him to draw. “I used art as a means of escape from my home life and as a way to be recognized in a positive manner in school. Art was very special for me because it nurtured by self-esteem. It was basically all I had.” As far as Silva’s family was concerned, his attraction to art was irrelevant—something of a hobby rather than a gift. Even when he was in the fields, he would draw whenever he could, scratching a mural into the ground with a stick on an “endless earth pad.” “I had such a different mentality than everyone else in my family,” he says. “My imagination did a number on me, and it forced me to think I was adopted. I even searched the house for adoption papers.”

        When Silva realized he needed a college education. he encountered family resistance. Nonetheless, he attended nearby Imperial Valley College and majored in art. “To make this decision to go to college was scary,” he recalls. “I was made to feel it was a waste of time. On top of that, I chose art as a profession. That was really pushing the envelope.”

              in the end, Simon reports he learned what success really means saying, “It’s not about money. It’s about how you feel about yourself as a person—to feel good about what you do and the life you live.”

   Today, when Simon Silva is not working on his art, he spends his time traveling around the country speaking to educators, parents, and students about his experiences, the importance of art and literature, and encouraging them to foster and use creative thinking.

        “Art is still looked upon in our society as unimportant,” he says. “In reality, it is very important. There are so many visual and textual references in our everyday world. It gives people a way to express themselves and to share that expression. It gives meaning to what we do here in this life. It allows us to form bonds—really deep bonds—with our fellow human beings. It pushes our society onward. It changes lives.”

Read Simon Silva’s full bio here.
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Programs by Simon Silva

EDUCATORS

Creative Thinking & the Education Solution

Based on the experiences and learnings of one of the most recognized Hispanic artists of our time, this motivational keynote by an advocate for a return to creative thinking, both inspires and provokes leaders in the field of education to reflect on the future and their role in change.

STUDENTS

Nurturing Creativity: An Experiential Workshop (Elementary, middle School or high school students).

This customizable engaging, interactive workshop offers participants tools to help students become critical thinkers, life-long learners, and confident leaders. It fosters understanding of variety of experiences and encourages curiosity while building critical skills such as:

·         Discipline

·         Creative writing

·         Risk taking

·         Respect

·         Learning to see

·         Inspiration

·         Self expression

·         Communication skills

·         Universal language, and

·         Problem solving

What participants are saying about Simon Silva’s program