Donate to Lourdes' Journey in Animation

Lourdes, is an eighteen year old with the highest of dreams and aspirations to become an artist in the animation industry. She has been a self-driven homeschooler, spending most of her free moments advancing her knowledge and skills by any means possible; Pixar in a box, a plethora of YouTube videos daily, CalArts extended learning online courses, art textbooks, currently storyboard art.org with a team of mentors from within the industry guiding her, and really any way that you could imagine. This year she is graduating from High School after willingly delaying this day by one year to spend a little extra time everyday while homeschooling, advancing her art and passion by spending the year digging deep within herself to decide if she could make it into the industry and advancing/fine tuning her skills to make it happen. As a parent, I could not be more proud of her inner drive over the years to be self taught and find viable resources available to I feel make her the very best that she could be growing up in Oklahoma, with limited opportunities artistically.

Lourdes is the third of my four children, and as a single parent I have spent the past eleven years doing everything within my capacity to help them not only be successful but to be able to follow their dreams. More than anything, my wish for her is to be able to continue to pursuit her passion and dream in the arts and become the animator that she dreams to be. Unfortunately, her limit is currently tied to my wallet and it is devastating to me as I have personally sacrificed, as most parents, to provide the opportunities for our kids to be their very best.

Lourdes’ dream education scenario would be to attend CalArts to complete their education tract towards animation. The price tag is enormous! And even though the school’s success rate of entering the industry is high, as a parent I wish there would be more for her to fall back on academically, for those periods of being between projects, employment, or whatever the case may be. With that said, Lourdes who has a good head on her shoulders told me that she wanted to participate in CalArts animation residency this summer, one month long. She would then come back to Oklahoma to work on her pre-requisites at a community college and continue participating in mentorship’s until her opportunity to present her portfolio and resume this fall to a few industries for possible training or employment opportunities before deciding which direction to go for “art school”.

The financial deadline for the summer animation residency is less than one month away. As a single mom paying for nursing school for my oldest kid out of pocket, having exhausted my ability to pick up additional shifts at work (as their isn’t enough days in a week), I find myself reaching out for help to help Lourdes reach her academic and animation goals. The summer program is just slightly under $6k and the dorm cost is an additional $2k, since we don’t have reliable transportation to send with her to drive from her dad’s in HB to Valencia daily. The buffer included is to cover gofundme costs, her transportation to California from Oklahoma, a little emergency art supply money, and food while she is there.

I have been over it again and again and despite my best efforts, I cannot do this alone. I would absolutely appreciate the thoughts, prayers, and support as I don’t want to let her down as she has not only worked so hard independently to reach this place but I know how many of you also believe in her gifts and talent. I humbly ask for your help!

Sincerely,

Carla

view her most current online art portfolio at www.lourdesfuller.com