by El Profesor | May 31, 2026 | Academy Foundation
Prior to my research on educational environment
Daca Daguao 4D academy opening brings home education, traditional fine arts and modern digital arts
Following my research on educational environment
The opening of the Daca Daguao 4D Academy is not a point of arrival. It is a turning point. A decision to turn more than a decade of experience in U.S. public schools and a university into something new: a space to train artists, support homeschooling families, and prepare talent for my own animation studio.
It has not been a straight path. But here I am.
My Story in the Classroom: 2007 to 2023
I started in 2007 as an elementary school art teacher. I finished in 2023, in Oregon, at a high school. In between, I was an adjunct instructor at Washington State University (2016-2017). All in all, over a decade of seeing the visual arts treated as a minor adjunct in educational systems that prioritize other things.
That experience taught me what I don't want to do. And also what I do.
Homeschooling: a belief I will put into practice
I have never been a teacher of homeschoolers. But I have done a lot of research on the subject. I've read about their needs. And I firmly believe that homeschooling, supplemented with sports, arts and cultural activities in the afternoons, is one of the best ways to form well-rounded people.
That's why, in this academy, I will design materials specifically for homeschool families. And I will do so following the standards of the National Association of Art Educators (NAE), so that parents can submit valid credits to the U.S. Department of Education without worry.
A shelter for displaced artists... and future employees
Not everyone who will come to the academy is a young person or a parent. I will also create learning paths for displaced artists - people who lost their place in the creative industry or never found one.
The goal is clear: for the most outstanding students to find employment at Daca Daguao Digital Design, my animation studio. The academy will train. The studio will hire. That's the circle I'm building.
Traditional visual arts and modern digital arts: a bridge over the border
We live in a time where returning or staying in the artistic field is difficult. There are many frontiers: economic, technological, generational. That is why I speak of a bridge over the border. I don't separate the traditional from the digital. A student can start with pencil and charcoal, and then migrate to a tablet.
And beware: the software is not professional. The artist is. I will teach both free (open source) and proprietary tools. The difference is one: access. Not quality.
What I'm designing right now
Today I have one course completed: Fundamentals of Art, which we launch on June 1, 2026. And I am actively working on six intermediate courses:
- Pencil Drawing
- Charcoal Drawing
- Pastel Drawing
- Watercolor Painting
- Oil Painting
- Acrylic Painting
Each will follow NAE standards, with personalized feedback and flexible modalities: asynchronous, synchronous or face-to-face one-on-one.
A human detail: write this calmly
Life takes many turns. There were losses, falls, projects that didn't work out. But there was also a decision: adapt or be left behind. I chose to adapt.
Today I am writing this from the Philippines. Not from a beach with coffee. But from a place where I can have this kind of calm more often. The pace here is different. And I like the idea of a big adventure: maybe moving. I haven't decided, but I'm thinking about it.
And she, Tan-Vargas, is by my side. She will be the queen who inherits my fruit. And who knows... maybe someday there will be little ones who will inherit the fruit along with her. I only say that to leave a seed of curiosity.
The important thing is that today I can write this with calm. Because after the storms, one values peace.
Your next artistic adventure starts here
I want to invite you to sign up. It doesn't matter if you are a young person looking for your path, an adult who wants to take up art again, a homeschool family in need of reliable materials, or a displaced artist looking to reinvent yourself.
There's a place for you here. And who knows: maybe you'll be one of those new colleagues I'll hire for a studio project someday.
👉 S ign up here: https://dacadaguao4d.academy/cuenta-de-membresia/niveles-de-membresia/
🎬 Meanwhile, the film Traces Retraced is still in production → traces-retraced.film
🏢 And the studio is still moving → dacadaguao4d.com
by El Profesor | May 10, 2026 | Academy Foundation, Uncategori
Today is May 10, 2026. I am writing this on vacation from the Philippines, while finalizing the details of my online art academy. I sit at a small table in front of the sea, while my partner prepares coffee. It seems like a dream. And it is. But getting here took me eight years of falls that seemed definitive.
The origin of the dream (2018)
In 2018 I understood something that changed my life: if I wanted to teach art as it really should be - with practice, research and respect for the student - I could not continue in traditional classrooms. I had been a teacher since 2007, first in public and then private schools. I saw how the visual arts were used as "storage" for students who had already given up. I myself began to give up.
In 2023 I gave up for the last time the possibility of finding a school that would take my route. That's why I founded my online art academy. This online art academy is intended for homeschoolers and adults.
What no one sees when someone persists
Between 2023 and 2025 came the hard knocks:
- Jobs that did not satisfy my soul and damaged my health.
- A failed marriage that exposed my life to real danger.
- Multiplehomelessness.
None of that stopped me... it only slowed me down. And from each of those dark nights I learned lessons that I now want to teach you in my digital and traditional art academy. In my online art academy, there are no surrendered students, only artists on the way.
The turning point (February 2026)
On my birthday days, just three months ago, I decided that I needed to live, not just survive. I bought a ticket to the Philippines. I had two motives:
- To meet a very special woman who lives here, whom I met while I was in Houston.
- Visit animation studios that friends use for their international projects.
That woman - strong, sensual, determined, humble, inspiring - has received me as I never imagined. She treats me like a king and makes me feel that everything I lived through was to give her the man who was reborn after every fall. She not only opened the doors of her life and her country to me, but she reminded me why art matters: because it connects people who would never have met. In my online art academy, I want to create those kinds of connections.
What I have achieved in the last week
Here in the Philippines, slowly but surely, I have finished:
- The membership levels of the academy.
- The sales pages of each level.
- Connecting NAEA (National Art Educators Association of America) standards to my online art academy courses, especially for families homeschool.
- Forum systems, thinking about the protection of minors while they learn.
The academy remains closed until the end of May, early June 2026 (coming soon), but the wheels are already turning. And they are turning solidly.
If you are in the middle of a storm today
I want you to know something: perseverance and patience are not pretty virtues that adorn a résumé. They are survival weapons. And they work.
You don't need to have a straight path. You just need to not wipe yourself off the map.
What's next?
The future looks very attractive. I will design courses that mix traditional materials (pencil, paper, brushes) with digital tools (iPad, Android, Surface). And I will do it from practice, research and the affection that I could not give in classrooms that turned me off.
This way we go. She and I.
📢 Do you want to follow this story and be among the first to enter when the academy opens its doors (virtual and in-person)?
For now, I ask only two things of you:
- Save this page and come back to read this post in a month's time. You will see how we move forward.
- Leave me a comment or write me an email, telling me what life lesson art has taught you.
Very soon I will be launching a newsletter with news, anticipated course dates and reflections like this one. If you want to receive it, just let me know in an email with the subject "NEWSLETTER" and I will add you manually.
Thank you for reading this far. Your perseverance counts too.
by El Profesor | May 28, 2023 | Academy Foundation
Today is May 28, 2023. I am rescuing an art academy. My own.
Just two months ago, in March, I signed the divorce papers. A marriage that started out hopeful and ended up falling apart as I tried to hold it together with one hand and my career with the other. In April I was notified that I would not continue as an ESL teacher in Delaware - I had barely been in that position for four months. Two strokes in less than 60 days.
I was without a partner, without a job and, for a few days, without direction.
But I was also left with something that no one can take away from me: 11 years of teaching experience - non-linear, back and forth, but solid. I started teaching fine arts, then commercial arts. I was a college professor in commercial arts. I also taught two years in high school as a commercial arts CTE teacher. The rest of the time - eight years, here and there - I was out of the system, surviving, learning on my own, falling down and getting up without anyone seeing me.
During those years within the system I saw how the visual arts were used as a "repository" for students who had already given up. I myself began to give up in those classrooms. But when I lost the position at Delaware, something changed: I no longer had anything to lose.
That's why today I'm rescuing this dream: to found my own online art academy.
Years ago I wanted to create an online art academy. A place where teaching was not bureaucratic choreography, but practice, research, and real connection between instructor and student. Where educational standards - like those of the National Association of Art Educators of America (NAEA) - were not a dead requirement, but a living guide to measure progress.
The technical plan (what I have already designed)
The online art academy will be 100% online, at least at first. I have defined seven class formats:
- Individual asynchronous without assistance
- Individual asynchronous with instructor assistance
- Group asynchronous with assistance from other students
- Group asynchronous with assistance from instructor and other students
- Group synchronous with fixed schedule, instructor and other students
- Virtual face-to-face between student and instructor
- (Future) Individual attendance
Supported hardware: iPad, Android tablets, Microsoft Surface. I will also explain how to use an iPad as a graphics tablet connected to a MacBook, and a Surface connected to a PC with open source programs like Krita.
Software: Open source (Krita, Blender) and proprietary (Procreate, Clip Studio Paint). In the intermediate and advanced courses we will go deeper into 3D tools.
Curriculum: I will begin with intermediate and advanced art courses, because students who already have a foundation deserve to continue to grow. Next will come foundation courses for beginners and homeschoolers, aligned with NAEA standards. All intended as an online art school for those looking for something different from traditional classrooms.
The emotion that does not fit in a curriculum
But all this wouldn't be true if I didn't tell you how I feel today, May 28, 2023, as I write this in a small apartment that I still don't know if I'll be able to keep for the next month.
I'm scared. And I'm also alive like I haven't been in years.
Losing my marriage and my job in the same quarter could have destroyed me. Instead, I have been drained of everything I don't need: the excuses, the waiting, the false security of a fixed salary in a system that does not respect art. Now all that's left is the dream. And me.
I put the online art academy at the top of my list. There is no plan B. There is no "if it goes wrong, I look for another school." There is this, or this.
Someone, in the future, may read this post and smile. Maybe he or she will see a table in front of the sea, a cup of coffee, and understand that all this -the chaos, the falls, the divorce papers, the dismissal- was the floor from which something worthwhile was built. But I'm not writing that today. Today I am only writing this: I am rescuing a dream.
May 12, 2026 - Three years later, this online art academy went from a rescued dream to a reality. [You can read the continuation here].
Thank you for reading. If you too are in the middle of a storm and decide to build something, let me know in the comments. You are not alone.
- Gerardo Vargas
DacaDaguao 4D Academy - under construction
