Maria Cristina Salazar Castillo, fondly called "Maricris". Born and raised in Palanyag known as Paranaque. Her parents are from La Huerta(Servillano "jun" Javier Salazar ,Jr. and San Dionisio (Araceli Cruz Salazar ).She is one of the grand daughters of the former Vice-Mayor of Paranaque 1963's ,Dr. Servillano " DOC. ANONG" Bautista Salazar and Gorgonia Javier Salazar. A graduate of BS Psychology at St. Paul College of Manila, Licensed Insurance Agent of BPI/MS Insurance Corporation since 2008 and owner of Castle grafix Advertising since 2005. Pioneer/Adviser of Visual Artist of Paranaque (VAP) founded by her husband, Janddie B. Castillo in 2012.She is blessed with 3 adorable sons, namely John Clark(21), John Kent(15) & John Wayne(13) who paint as well.
She uses most of the time acrylic paint, also oil and watercolor medium. Her favorite subjects are flowers, gardens and landscapes. She is very fortunate to have a loving and supportive husband who happens to be her mentor and who has a great influence in discovering and honing her art inclination. Also, little did she know that she had cousins on both sides of her parents who painted too. She is inspired by the French painter and founder of impressionist painting , Claude Monet.
Maricris had participated in Phillip Morris Art Competition once 2013 and had been joining GSIS Art Competition since 2013 to present. She already had more than 30 group shows since 2014 ,had won third place in the annual cover of San Dionisio Cooperative last year 2017 & had been included for the Philippine Tuberculosis TB Seal 2018 wherein ,her painting "Sampaguita" was printed on stamps together with some respectable and well- know artists .She believes in this saying :"Beauty lies on the eyes of the beholder", because for her there are no ugly works. She always paints what her hands dictates and aims to spread love, peace, joy and abundance through her hand painted artworks.