The Courage to be an Artist and Stay True to Your Voice with Deng Ming-Dao
In this episode, I'm joined by Deng Ming-Dao, who is my favorite author. I'm really excited because he's not only an author, he's also an artist. And I'd actually been talking to him lately about some of my own artistic struggles, and he had so much wisdom to share that I invited him back to our show.
In this conversation, we discuss:
How art must be for its own sake and artists must create out of an inner necessity, not external validation. If you're only making art for recognition or prestige, you risk losing integrity. True art is about responding to life and expressing yourself authentically.
That being an artist requires discipline. Discipline involves structure and methods that help you sustain a creative practice, and it's important to become an artist by completing your works, not just dabbling.
Why integrity matters more than popularity. Commercial success could come from trend following or pandering, but selling out to that risks you losing your satisfaction and your integrity as an artist, it's better to be true to your voice than to chase external approval.
How your voice is already within you. Ming-Dao talked about how you don't have to find your voice so much as you accept it. Many of us forget or suppress their voice because of social, cultural or parental pressures, and the task is to just trust what feels authentic to you. Your voice is already inside you.
That art requires technique and originality.
How art is a response to the world and gives life. Art becomes sacred when it supports life.
How courage and persistence define an artist's path. The life of an artist is difficult, marginalized and often grueling. But if you truly are an artist, you have no choice but to create.
How to accept the willingness that comes with truth. Oftentimes your art won't be understood, but it doesn't mean it's not real. It just means you're walking your own path, and that's part of the life of an artist.
Understanding discipline is a love for your calling. It's how you keep showing up for your art, even when it's hard.
Deng Ming-Dao: And here's the other thing you know, those people who were more, you know, mainstream and so on. Did they do any better in life? Some of them got divorced, right? Some of them struggled in business, some of some of them struggle with mental health, you know, some of them struggled with sickness and so on. Everybody suffers in life, and there's no guarantee that doing the conventional way is going lead to a life that's better.
Victoria Ranade: Well, in psychology, we know people are happiest when they do what they're passionate about or what's important to them, or what they value each day and what they find meaningful. That that's what leads to the most happiness, right? Well, in that sense, that, in that case, if you value art and find it meaningful, it is important to pursue art, yes.
Listen to the full conversation on the Inner Calling Podcast here.
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