Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Castillo.
The world’s premier “SandStory” performer, unique live presenter, gifted speaker, and storyteller.
A native of Mexico City, Joe grew up surrounded by art and the cosmopolitan culture of an international city. In his teenage years, he moved to Florida, attended Ringling School of Art, and graduated from Florida Bible College. Starting his career by founding The Advertising Library, an agency in Knoxville, Tennessee. After 21 years in advertising, he developed SandStories, a new way of telling stories in the sand. In the past ten years, he has performed for Pope Francis, several presidents, kings and dignitaries in 45 states, and 27 foreign countries and reached the finals on America’s Got Talent. Joe and his wife Cindy now live in Atlanta and occasionally get to see their four children and eight grandchildren.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Charting a career in unknown territory is always a struggle. At the very beginning, no one even knew what a SandStory performance was. When I told people I did performance sand art, they thought I would be bringing in a dump truck load of sand and carving something from the pile. I.would have to explain that I worked in sand on a light table, and an overhead camera projected the images on a screen for the audience to watch the images unfold, creating a powerful impact. The size of the audience was only limited by the size and number of the screens. The largest audience was my performance for Pope Frances, in Philadelphia, where 48 Jumbotron had been placed on the parkway for the almost two million visitors that day. But my career in SandStories did not begin easily. I had to design my own table and equipment. There were no books or instruction manuals on how to learn, and nobody teaches how to do sand art. It took many years of learning and experimenting to perfect this art form.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the SandStory story. Tell us more about the business.
The most amazing thing about SandStory Art is the incredible variety of stories that can be told and the hundreds of stories that I have told. When people ask me what types of events you have you performed for, I usually answer, pick one and I have either been there or someplace next door. From an elementary school gym to Madison Square Garden, from an elite business dinner of executives to performing for the New York Nicks, I have created custom SandStories for Corporations, Banks, Sales meetings, Conventions, Sports Events, Churches, and Celebrations. What has been the most exciting, is combining my art with motivational speaking. In that way, I get to energize, motivate, inspire, teach and lift the spirits of people from all languages, countries and walks of life.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
If you want to call it luck you can. I call it providence. God, the ultimate creator, at work in the sand. When my very first SandStory performance, “The Passion of the Christ” went viral, I was noticed by the producers of Americas Got Talent. They called me and invited me down to Austin Texas for an audition. Not really sure that SandStory would work on television, and nervous at being on a show with an audience of thirteen million viewers, I put together A SandStory set to Lee Greenwoods epic song, “God Bless the USA”. It not only brought the audience and the judges to their feet in a massive standing ovation, it was the first step in making it all the way to the finals.
Contact Info:
- Address: 533 Kenwood Rd.
Fayetteville, GA 30214 - Website: SandStory.com
- Phone: 615-300-3930
- Email: Tim@joecastillo.com
- Instagram: Joescastillo
- Facebook: JoeCastillo
- Twitter: @joescastillo
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
