We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Miranda Martinez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Miranda, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from trusting that there are more beautiful things in life than hurt. Though heartache, defeat, disappointment, and failure I become wiser and have learned more about myself in the process. I personally have experienced many situations that tested my heart, mind and soul and through these experiences I have overcome, I trusted my strength. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that the universe (or life, god, divine timing, and any other power you put faith in) does not give us challenges we cannot handle. I have been brought down by life, people I thought cared about me and even by myself, but somehow I always find a way to keep going. I am my biggest critic and I have faced moments of self doubt but in my darkest moments, I have discovered the most beautiful parts of myself.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an artist! Though I have been creating since as long as I can remember, it has taken me a long time to be able to confidently say I am an artist. My work is very personal.
Through my traditional drawings, paintings and my digital pieces I try to convey parts of myself. My pieces reflect tough moments in my life that I have overcome, outpours of emotions that were difficult to express in words, my interests in music and pop culture, as well as hints of my Chicanx culture. Each piece tells my story better than any description I can give. My style is very animated and colorful, however form time to time I challenge myself to use a more strict color pallet or experiment with only black and white. My love for creative expression has allowed me to understand that being an emotional person does not necessarily have to have a negative connotation as long as you find healthy ways to channel it. One of my biggest influences is Frida Kahlo. The way she conveys emotion through her pieces and all her mantras that she lived by have really inspired me to continue creating!
I am also, newly, a small business owner. I create prints and stickers of my art, as well as painted custom lighters and jewelry trays. I sell products at local pop ups and recently launched my website. Though I have a lot to learn in this realm, I am excited to share my art and story with others that may relate to them.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the three qualities that have been the most impactful in my journey have been emotional strength, self-understanding and my persistence. I have struggled in my past with feeling misunderstood and feeling like I needed to fight to be understood. I am a highly emotional person that can be seen as weak and irrational. This took a tole on my confidence. I have always had room to understand others, and trust that there is a reason that they are the way they are. Once I learned that it is ok to be emotional, that logic and emotion can go hand in hand, and that nobody needed to understand me but ME, it became a lot easier to hold the space for myself that I would hold for anyone who came into my life. We, as human beings, are constantly evolving. It is important to know, love and understand every version of ourselves. Having faith in the process has driven me to have determination through all life’s obstacles.
Some advice I’d like to share is no one knows you more than yourself. Anything anyone else has to say about you doesn’t matter because you know who you are, what you value, where you have been, what it has taken you to get where you are now, how far you have come. Once you gain true understanding of yourself, no one can stop you from being authentically and unapologetically YOU.
Artist Frida Kahlo once said “I am my own muse, I am the subject I know best, the subject I want to know better.”
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The number one challenge I face in life is maintaining confidence.
As an Artist, I wonder if my work is good enough. I see beauty in so many other creatives, I sometimes lose sight of what makes me unique. I forget that, like any other creative, I create from the heart, I pull form my own experiences and feelings, I share my point of view and open it up for interpretation. I love perspectives of others and what they see in my work, but always remember that there is a reason for the piece, a story of mine that I wanted to tell.
As a Woman, I struggle with not looking like what society says is beautiful. I again loose sight of what makes me unique. Everyone, is beautiful in their own way. Ive learned to see some of my imperfections and admire them as well as understand that I as a human being am always changing. I, like any other woman, am beautiful in my own unique way.
As a Chicana, I struggle with feeling connected to my culture. It has always been a fear of mine that I wouldn’t fit in with either part of my Mexican-American culture. I have come to realize that purely the appreciation of either part is enough to feel connected. Whether it be vibing with all types of music, or being mesmerized by the films, art, and media that is created to shed light on the cultural influences in our society and in my life, I have become more and more close to my culture.
I love being an Artist, a Woman, and a Chicana. These are all pieces of myself that I want to be empowered by.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mirimuseprojects.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirimuseprojects/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miranda-martinez-058978118
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