Meet Dayshawna Brown

We recently connected with Dayshawna Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dayshawna, thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.

I feel like everyone always expects you to work through the pain or to keep creating even when you aren’t inspired but I would say the opposite. I work when I feel the most creative and when I am not, I take a break, I pick up another hobby, I clean my room, and I do anything with the time to still make it worthwhile. The reason I am so lenient with myself is because I know I’ll pick up the pencil again, and when I do I’ll create something even better than whatever I would make when I was in my creative blockage.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I never know where I start with these, I feel like I’ve done so much but so little at the same time. To start, I was born in Chicago but raised in Arizona and moved to Florida later on. My grandma was one of the only parental figures I knew growing up. I always looked up to her because of that, she is a strong woman and I hope to be as strong as her one day. She is extremely work-driven and confident, always going somewhere and doing something new, we never stayed in one place too long. There are many places around the US that I could call home. I think that is the best way to sum up my life, as a constant change. Though I don’t think that’s negative, change is necessary for growth and I always adapt. Just like right now, I’m a broke college student majoring in illustration, I hope to be an illustrator or an Art Director if I’m really lucky. It’s a fun experience, minus the broke part but I know it will all pay off in the end. I love to draw I love to paint, I love to create stories visually for others and even for myself. There just something so magical about creating a visual story, it’s unique, it’s different, it’s raw, and most importantly it’s whatever you want it to be. I don’t have any big brand to my name, I’m a small-time artist with just an Instagram page (Bacon_salty._.993 if you’re curious) and a part of me doesn’t even think I’m all that good at it yet. But that’s okay because I know I’ll get there, that the best thing about being an artist, it’s like a painting, you never know when the painting is done and you get so scared that whatever you add might ruin it, so you leave it plain and boring. But it’s about the continuation, it’s about that exploration that makes the painting interesting.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three bits of advice are Prepare, Communicate, and Continuation. I feel like it is very easy to think “Oh my future self will handle that” not realizing how soon that ‘future self’ is. So it is important to prepare for success, I can’t even count how many times I have self-sabotaged and set myself up for failure. Every time it happens all I can think about is ‘What if?’ or ‘Why didn’t I?’ and at the end of the day their nobody else you can hold accountable but yourself. So don’t hold yourself back, try that new hobby, practice that hobby, look for stuff you can put on that resume, or make that resume if you haven’t, it will all be so beneficial in the long run. Next Communication, I feel like everyone says this but I fear nobody really listens to it, one thing that I learned is that everybody talks so you should too. People love communication, so much so that it can dictate your position, your scholarships, and even things as big as jobs. I can tell you with absolute certainty that a good chunk of my scholarships came from talking with teachers, making sure they knew me, getting those community service hours, and of course, my gramma because she loves to talk, but you get the point. Be the person everyone knows, you don’t have to do anything crazy just have a conversation, it doesn’t even have to be a long one, just a memorable one, since you never know who is gonna help you get that dream job. Lastly Continuation, this one is just how it sounds, you have to keep going. It’s easy to give up and never do those hobbies again but continuation is necessary for growth. Have faith in yourself and you should be fine you can only get better.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

I feel like a lot of people lean into their strengths, lord knows I did, but being able to do multiple things is what gets you hired. I have so many hobbies I can’t even keep count these days, but they’re all things I can put on my resume. They don’t even have to be something in your field, in fact, I implore you to do something different. For example, I thought I was terrible at acrylic, like god awful at it. The paint dried way too fast, I was never able to blend my colors, and every time I tried to make a face it would look like an ugly puddle. So I gave up on it, I came back to it my senior year of high school and I realized that I was not as bad as I thought I was, don’t get me wrong I was still bad at it, just better than I thought. And the more I did it the more fun it got, I kept practicing and doing new things with it and I got good at it. The worst part is that I wish I kept going with it when I gave up the first time, I would have been twice as good. So yes, I think you should try it all, since you never know what will be your new thing, just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you necessarily like it so find something you will love just in case.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Bacon_salty._.993

Image Credits

All Images are by me!