We were lucky to catch up with Patricia Kluwe Derderian recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Patricia, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
I think I am always trying to overcome that. Working as a professional artist is something I have always wanted to do but I had no idea that I was able to. I never felt good enough as I was always chasing perfection until one day, I got tired of it. Just like that, I had reached the end of my own patience with myself. I realized perfection in most cases (there are always exceptions) is not what we are looking for and it is counterproductive. If everybody was a perfectionist, we would still be in the Stone Age – even if marveled by the most gorgeous wheels, lol. That’s when I started looking at my own failures as part of the journey and even better, embracing them and trying to see the beauty in every one of them – even the most embarrassing ones. Coming back to the impostor syndrome, I think we have to embrace our errors, tell ourselves we all make them (even the people we look up to) and start small. Step by step from a small show to another I came from not being able to stay less than 20feet apart from my small painting at a Students’ Exhibit (because I felt embarrassed to be showing my bad painting among “real” artists) to creating huge canvases and talking about my work in videos. It is still very hard and nerve wrecking but I go there and do it. Even if most of the time there is still this little voice telling myself, I am not good enough and do not deserve this. I just choose to ignore it every day.
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 and your career?
I developed a love for drawing while still a young child in Brazil before majoring in architecture. Now a painter based in Pinellas County, FL my work is inspired on both public and intimate spaces and the ways we gather and share these places. As a mostly shy person, drawing and painting became my way of thinking and expressing myself, to tell what I cannot tell with words. In my paintings I express my love for life, for traveling and people.
I paint because that’s what makes me happy and complete, where I feel like I belong and where I should be. It is a translation of how I see the world and everything that I love about it, it is my own language to translate feelings. It is about love for me.
The most rewarding aspect of my career is when I see the emotion in the eyes of someone after seeing their new painting. When I see tears of joy and realize that my painting is now part of the new owner’s lives and that they created a special connection with it. That moment when it is accepted into their world and incorporated into their memories and homes.
I also love to do commission work because I have to change the focus from my life to the collector’s life and the translation of their feelings, memories and happy places using my own language. The connection that is made lasts forever because there is a part of my world with them and a part of their world that was shared and will stay with me too.
Other opportunities that are incredibly rewarding are fundraises for special causes and charities that I believe in. I love to create work specific for those events because it makes me dive into the cause, study it and feel involved. After I create the work there is also the feeling of knowing that people that see it might be more curious or more related to the cause. It is double just there without even considering the money that might be raised if the work sells. Examples of this kind of events that I have participated, among others, were Mary Lee’s House fundraiser, Equality Florida, Art Ties Us, Artists+Causes, …
Embracing our Differences was another amazing event that I had the pleasure and honor to participate. In 2021 I had one of my paintings printed and exhibited at a billboard in Sarasota-FL as part of their annual exhibits to raise awareness, educate and, as their own mission states, inspire to create a better world.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the love for creating, learning to make mistakes and use them in our favor, being nice and respectful to other artists, and to work hard to be out there and to keep challenging ourselves. The more our work is seen the more we lose our fears and loosen up. That’s what helps us to find our own voice. All the rest is hard, but we keep figuring it out on the way. (And I think that was 4, hehe.)
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My challenge is to be able organize my time between creating and doing all the other work that I need to keep my business going. It is surprising how many other tasks and different jobs we have to do to be keep a single owner LLC. As I am both the artist and the CEO, CFO, the marketing team, driver, packing crew, teck crew, sales crew, customer service, developer… I am always strugling with this part. – Basically, living as a normal, happy adult in our times. 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.patikd.com
- Instagram: @patikd.art
- Facebook: @patikd.art
