We recently connected with Deborah Kang and have shared our conversation below.
Deborah , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from my family the discipline imbued into my mind since little, my parents used to say “first comes your duties and then fun time” I always used to hate that phrase since little but now I understand its value, it is gratifying to know that once all “work chores” are done you can enjoy life without guilt or worry. We can feel all the good things animation has to offer. But I also learned a lot what not to do from watching my parents, disregarding their mental health, going over the limit and exhausting themselves is something that I never liked to see since little and I try to live in a balance of knowing my own worth and pricing myself fairly and also having a life that I can be proud of. I want to be more then just my work, i like to think that I work so that i can live.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a Storyboard Artist in professional terms but in reality I am a storyteller and a dreamer. Who am I? Myself! A Brazilian, Korean, American artist with stories to tell and dreams to achieve! Growing up in Brazil, having a Korean family background and currently residing in America made me a very unique person. I have different experiences and perspectives in life which is an awesome skill for a storyteller. Speaking Portuguese, Korean, English and Spanish made me understand people in a deeper way enhancing my communication skills. My goal is to tell immigrant life stories and be part of a beautiful legacy, tell through visual media relatable stories from a minority point of view and hope that one day those stories will reach the eyes of all kids that thought “I don’t belong here” as a source of inspiration.
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?
The three more important qualities are all related to people skills, working in teams, being part of a company and sharing emotions as a storyboard artist are a must have. Society living is filled with human relations and we must know how to deal with people. For me being easy-going, Humble and willing to learn are the most important qualities to have. Be someone that everyone wants to keep working with, be the person that bring light and joy to a pitch, be the person that makes everyone feel comfortable and most important be someone people can rely on.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Burn out is a serious problem in the Art and Entertainment industry, the burden that we have to carry when “selling” creativity as if it was an apple that grows on trees. Storyboarding is tough job on our brains, different from exact science where right and wrong are clearly delimited, Storytelling is broad, vast and filled with nuances one story will never be told the same way and creating different possibilities will leave to different journeys , drawing it out and telling all those stories without ever repeating is a hard task on our mental health. burn out are more common then we think and never are properly addressed, it is different from a physical labor job where you can rest your body for a couple days and feel refreshed, the weight of “frying” your brain out and exhausting your creativity is sometimes things that you can never fix or get back, we have to treat it and sometimes there isn’t a cure we just have to learn how to deal with it and try to keep going. understanding our limitations and setting respectable boundaries to protect ourselves should be mandatory. When we feel overwhelmed the best thing we can do is take a break, enjoy things that make us happy and try to live a life outside of Art, which is easier said then done, as a artist myself it is hard not to have “imposter syndrome” but believe in the process and just keep going.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.deborahkang.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deboobskang/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debby-kang-b59a091a3/
