Driven by spontaneity and vulnerability, Makayla Castillo’s practice serves as a tool for personal inquiry and emotional processing. She creates figurative works that blur the line between reality and abstraction, blending acrylics, charcoal, coarse textures, and the behavior water to allow intuitive experimentation to guide the form. Castillo’s current imagery uses animal figures as allegorical stand-ins for real people, anchored by titles drawn from spoken phrases shared with her during the artwork's creation. Together, these elements document an ongoing, unfinished timeline of her lived experiences. Ultimately, Castillo’s art translates the complexities she cannot always verbalize, offering a raw look at her journey to anyone willing to pause and engage with the work.