SAN JOSE CALIF– Alvin Floro is one of the art teachers at Silver Creek High school. He teaches art. If you’re ever in need of advice, he’s the place to go. 

Floro has always been on the creative track, starting off wanting to become a writer while he was a student at Overfelt High School. Having a change of heart he opted for the more practical and artistic path of Attending Art School at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I asked Floro if he ever had any concerns stepping into the rocky unpredictable path of an artist, he told me yes but he believed that the world had more a need for art. He pointed out how art consumes a lot of our everyday life like the designs on our sweatshirts. 

After graduating Floro returned to his alma mater, Overfelt, to become an art teacher. There he gave a presentation advocating for the use for technology in his art class, to help improve their visual arts. Which doesn’t sound as important now, with the abundance of technology we see, but this was back in 2010 when cell phones were just taking off and social media was not much of an issue. Floro saw the beauty in technology and how much students could benefit from it back then. Of Course now he says he has a different opinion every time a student takes out the phone and gets sucked into the world of social media. 

During his years as a student at Overfelt, he became class president, where he developed a headstrong mind set when it came to his goals. Color told me that being class president gave him the mind set of “you’re either with me or against me, and if you’re against me then move out of my way”. A quote we all should take something from. His experiences have made him the motivated and dedicated person that he is today. And what kind of teacher he is.

Now he says his job is to “make people the best they can be”. He wants his students to reach their full potential, not just in school but in life. Being an art is a perfect way of reaching students on a more personal level, by helping them explore different paths creatively and academically. Art school allowed him to see the importance of being exposed to different things and how that can shape a person, which he implements in his daily and professional life. 

When he’s not teaching Color is running his business Occhie, where he creates stickers of your favorite character in his own artistic style. The vision for this brand was to have all the characters be injured in his designs, hence the name Occhie. Now the brand is undergoing a makeover or as color put “ giving it a facelift”. He’s preparing for the brand’s 10 year anniversary this summer.