Julian Castro is happy to have found his niche in life as an artist.

“My talent is being creative. It is not necessarily making the art, but I am really good at the creative process,” Julian says.

Growing up in Coral Ridge, Julian had a great childhood. He enjoyed the beach, his friends and playing sports. Julian attended Pine Crest High School and played in sports leagues at Holiday Park.

In high school, Julian was very good at math and liked art.

“When I was growing up, I Ioved Victoria Park for the architecture … the old homes, the texture, the plants, the window trimmings..,” Julian explained. “I really enjoyed exploring Florida.”

His parents, who moved to the United States from Mozambique – which at the time was a part of Portugal, were entrepreneurs themselves.

Julian’s mom studied architecture but quickly joined his dad in the photography business, specifically developing film and making prints.

They had huge printers and did a lot of commercial print jobs for architecture firms, photographers and some commercial ad accounts (like big poster size ads located in airports and bus stops).

“My parents had an influence on me. They’re creative. My whole life, they worked for themselves, and I saw that,” Julian said.

After graduating from Pine Crest, Julian attended Rice University in Houston where he studied mechanical engineering.

He worked for BP for two years as an engineer for the Gulf of Mexico.

“I was going to Louisiana because that is where we would construct all of the fabrication. The projects that I worked on were more like fabricating and installing stuff,” Julian explained.

Julian enjoyed his first year at BP.

One night at dinner with several of his friends, Julian met one of his friend’s dads who happened to be in town and was a Buddhist and very successful architect in Taiwan.

Julian asked him to teach him how to meditate, which he did, and told Julian that he would begin to experience benefits after about two months.

After three months, Julian had an awakening and realized that he hated his life and asked himself how did he get here.

“Meditation helped me connect to my true self. I didn’t want to be in the corporate world, and I realized this isn’t for me,” Julian stated. “I attribute meditation to getting me here.”

So, Julian sold all of his possessions and went backpacking in South America for about a year.

He traveled mostly between Costa Rica and Nicaragua and then between Brazil and Argentina.

After the year, he knew that he wanted to return to the United States so he moved to Miami, crashed on a friend’s couch and started doing freelance photography. This grew to creative services for companies – which included videography, branding and some digital marketing.

“That was the first time that I started making money with my creative side,” Julian said.

In 2019, Julian started painting again. He used the book called Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron to connect with his inner creativity as he had not painted since high school.

When Covid hit and several of his clients canceled his services, Julian decided to try being his own client and marketing his own art online.

“I marketed my stuff online,” Julian says. “That’s when I sold my first painting, and that blew my mind that I can make money with art. It is like Wow…. People like something that I made.”

He enjoys seeing people’s reactions to his art, especially when they own it and have it in their homes. They message him and tell him the energy in their home is much greater and that they even sleep better.

As a firm believer that our surroundings impact us in the way we think and our moods, Julian says, “I think expressing your creativity is one of the most powerful ways to improve your life and boost your mental health, your emotional well-being and everything.”

He says a life without creative expression or a creative outlet lacks real fulfillment and soul.

On the side, Julian helps artists by supporting them to make more of their art and getting it out there and published. He has also done various projects that focus on helping people connect to their own creativity – not just artists.

Julian is excited about the future and says, “I want to help grow Fort Lauderdale’s art world.”

Outside of his work, Julian enjoys living in Victoria Park. He likes going to the beach, the gym and playing tennis. One of his favorite hobbies is taking long walks around Victoria Park, and he tries to do a different route every time.

He likes traveling. Spain and Portugal are at the top of his list. Around town, Julian enjoys working out of local coffee shops when he can with Spud's being his favorite. He also likes Zona Fresca, LaSpada’s and Butcher’s Barrel in Oakland Park. He meditates daily.