Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Deja Lawson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Deja, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Growing up I’ve always admired the arts and had a particular love for creating. Whether it was drawing comics, building with Legos, or making stop motion films on my DS, I would spend hours experimenting with the constant flow of ideas that I could devise. A majority of my learning experience was purely experimental but with keeping an open mind and always exercising my vivid imagination, my passion for creating was endless. The biggest obstacle, I’ll say, was being raised in a low-income household where it was quite difficult finding the resources to embrace these passions. The weight of pursuing a more financially promising field of work always lingered over my head, however, after college, I still took every opportunity to embrace art and what it means to me personally.

Deja, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve always had a unique perspective of the world and have been fascinated by by how each of us distinctly experience the world differently. Between nature, the universe, and humanity, I want to share this idea of perspective and allow people the space and time to explore this phenomenon and see outside of their own lenses. It’s always been hard picking just one medium as an artist so that’s why I don’t just pick one. I’ve come to love and embrace the fact that I can’t be limited to just one label and that’s how my brand name originated because anything goes in My Corner of the Room. I’m the happiest when I’m uncategorized and being my most authentic self while creating my most authentic work. I want that to resonate in my brand through pieces that are eccentric, diverse, and genre bending by also exploring unfiltered emotion and story telling.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’m reconstructing the habit of constantly being overcritical of my own work. Of course constructive criticism is a vital part of growing as an artist, but being your own “worst critic” is even more debilitating when you’re discovering yourself as an artist. Before I was aware that this was hindering me the most, the consistent mindset of feeling I need to improve and essentially create masterpieces every single time was very overwhelming and stifled my creative flow. It effected not only my opinion of my work, but my self as well. It took away the essence of what made art enjoyable, having the freedom of expression with no bounds. Admittingly, I still face this obstacle from time to time but it’s easier to regain my focus when I remember what I’m genuinely doing it for. Happiness.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

From my perspective, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is its limitless impact that it provides to the world we live in and the people that encounter it. Art is a profound force that can inspire, evoke emotion, memories, and can live on forever in people’s hearts. I believe it’s quite mystical and is a catalyst of much more than we realize. You never know if your art will be a seed in another aspiring creative’s garden or what traction it stirs in someone else’s consciousness that can cause a separate domino effect. It’s immeasurable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mycorneroftheroom.com
• Instagram: deja._.mona