We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kevin Andrew. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kevin below.
Hi Kevin, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I have been striving to find my purpose my whole life. I feel it’s defined as something that meets the 3 criteria below for each of us:
1.) What are you passionate about and lose yourself in it?
2.) Other people find value in what you do.
3.) It helps other people.
At a very young age, I felt I have been called to create. It felt right, natural, and fulfilling. However, I pushed against it and followed the ‘right path’ most of my life. It took me a long time to stop worrying about being a productive citizen by society’s eyes. The capitalist wheel is always spinning, and creating art is usually deemed an ineffective use of time. I still have a level of embarrassment telling people I am a full time artist for a living. It’s just been so engrained from an early age > we need ‘real’ jobs to be deemed successful. I was not exposed to creatives, entrepreneurs, or folks really going against the grain of society growing up.
Creating art is closest I have ever felt to my purpose. I know my art checks off #1 and #2, but I’m not 100% sure if it’s meeting the final, and arguably most important point, #3. Does my art help other people? I believe in what I’m creating, and I will find a way to make a difference in this world through my art.
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 wanted to be artist all my life, but I pursued Civil Engineering instead because it was the ‘right path’.
I finally questioned my life, left corporate America, and opened a coworking space focused on community and empowerment called Advent Coworking.
Pandemic, Kids, and More Life Questioning = New Life in Asheville, NC as a full time artist.
I want to make a difference in this world and searching for how. I paint, write, and collaborate to force myself to self reflect and grow. My art is an extension of my thoughts, emotions, and biases (conscious + unconscious).
Every piece has an underlying story, motivation, or therapy session I’m working through. I love seeing which work resonants with who and why. I feel my vulnerability and openness with my work to the world is something that helps set me apart.
Whether the piece is about appreciating life before death arrives, the love of a mother, or the importance of traveling, I will talk to anyone about my motivation behind it. I’m not 100% sure the end result, but I feel creating with intent will help reveal my overall life purpose.
I am most excited at the moment to work with interior designers, architects, and builders as another revenue stream for my artwork. I also have a gallery + working studio space in Asheville, NC where I create in most days.
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?
Meditation, self-organization, and always looking for opportunities have impacted my life journey the most.
Meditation is by far the most important practice I have and attempt to expand upon as much as I can. It has taught me to be more empathetic, understand and articulate emotions, be calmer and less stressed, and be in the present more often. I am a better husband, father, and friend because of a daily, small but mighty, meditative practice.
I believe in being organized. It allows me to accomplish more, grow faster, and more easily pursue my goals/dreams. Even more importantly, it frees up mental space in my brain allowing me to enjoy the moment more. By having a process I trust, I am significantly less stressed out.
I have always been optimistic and more recently opportunistic. I find if I believe in something, I will find a way to make it happen. The path to ‘success’ is never clear, but I follow through the doors that open. Opportunities always present themselves, and I act on them because I have a rough idea of what I want to achieve.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
A gateway drug into mindfulness and intentionality is this book (love him or hate him, it’s got a lot of easy to adopt concepts): Think Like a Monk – Jay Shetty
1.) When talking with anyone, focus on “Stay Curious”. Ask them about themselves. Ensure they are talking more than you.
“Every person is a world to explore” – Thich Nhat Hanh
2.) Love without judging or trying to change the ones you love.
“Love is the absence of judgment” – Dalai Lama
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them”. – Thomas Merton
3.)Leggo of my ego
The ego craves recognition, acknowledgement, praise; to be right, to be more, to put others down, to raise us up. The ego doesn’t want to be better. It wants to be seen as better. The ego goes to great lengths to put other people down, because if others are ‘less than’ we are, then we must be special.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.creativekevin.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creative_keving/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089302058122&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-giriunas-99b27820
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@creative_keving?_t=8a0SbocZW1b&_r=1
Image Credits
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