Meet Maria Karolina

We were lucky to catch up with Maria Karolina recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maria, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

By allowing myself to feel, to love, to hurt, to celebrate, to rage, to experience all the things the world has. A lot of people tell me I see through rose colored glasses, and I couldn’t agree more! I try to find the beauty in everything and give myself different avenues to create something out of it. Whether it’s through poetry, acting, screenwriting, playing my guitar, singing, dancing, painting, Muay Thai, tattooing, journaling, etc, I give myself different venues of expression to create. Living this rollercoaster called “life” gives you all the inspiration you need- the creativity comes from being vulnerable in that process.

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?

Hey my name is Maria but you can call me Mari. I recently graduated with my bachelors in fine arts and have been working on films for about 4 years now- though I’ve been acting for at least 10. But I didn’t consider acting as a potential career for me until I found my purpose- which was to be a voice for the women who haven’t found their own yet. Acting is storytelling, storytelling evokes feelings in people, empathy strikes change. And I hope to use both my craft and my platform as an artist to inspire people to be kinder, more gentle, strong, and confident in using their voice. And I hope to make the world a safer place for women to express themselves openly without fear of being harassed, mocked, or belittled. A safe place for the survivors, outcasts, and the change makers. And I do so by telling my story, and the stories of the characters I portray in my work.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

3 important skills are communication, empathy, and drive. If you want to make it anywhere in life, or even if you simply just want to nurture the relationships in your life, you must be able to communicate yourself, your thoughts, and your feelings in a gracious and mature way. And you can’t do that without empathy, both for yourself and for others. Empathy is the most important skill to have, not just as an artist, but as a human being. If you want to create art, you must be able to feel, and I mean really feel. I guess that’s where the stereotype of the “tortured artist” comes from but who said life was easy. Artists are just brave enough to sit through life’s turbulence and alchemize it rather than bottle up how they feel. And you need to have drive because the world will shit on you constantly if you don’t fit into their mold. But you must have the fire and drive necessary to push onward past all the noise and stick to your truth. Know yourself and don’t let anyone try to put you in a box.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

A challenge I’m facing right now as I gradually enter the public eye as a feminist activist is finding the balance between being an image of inspiration while also being human. I preach messages of resilience, confidence, and strength, yet I myself have also fallen weak many times. I’ve been heart broken over people who didn’t deserve my tears, I’ve been taken advantage of, I’ve stayed in relationships where I knew I should’ve left, I have ignored my value to make others happy, lord knows I am not perfect. And it almost feels hypocritical to give messages that I myself need to listen to sometimes. But I’m learning that growth isn’t linear, and we’re all human. We make mistakes, and hopefully we learn from them, even if we don’t the first time around. And hopefully through my mistakes, I can help others avoid taking that same path. And to those who already have, I just hope to make them feel heard, seen, and felt as we grow together. Because none of us are alone in the challenges we face in life, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Marixkarolina

Image Credits

White Cowboy hat pictures- Valentino Bornancini

Black and white pictures- Javier de Blas

Red Fighter/boxing pictures- Valentino Bornancini