We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Atabey Sánchez-Haiman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Atabey below.

Atabey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Thank you for this opportunity to share my story. The most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far is combining art and mindfulness. I am training at Brown University and the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation to teach mindfulness with a view of combining art and mindfulness to create safe spaces for marginalized communities to come together to heal, recharge, cultivate joy and effect change. I believe that by becoming aware of social constructs and the hurdles that they unfairly impose on marginalized communities, possibilities and opportunities can arise and these obstacles can then be challenged creatively and peacefully from a place of centered, rooted awareness. The fact that communities of color value collectivity is an asset and I want to harness this skill that people of color share through their upbringing and experiences and invite them to start moving society away from its current individualistic, self centered focus towards a more compassionate, humane, community oriented direction. Art and mindfulness as activism and vehicles for personal and societal change.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since I was little I wanted to be an astronaut. This plan lasted throughout university and beyond . While at university, (I have a Biology degree from Brown University) I had a lot of friends from RISD, an art school nearby. I would study my neuroscience textbooks while they painted, sculpted, printed, etc. I loved the science I was learning but I was also in awe of their completely different university experience. I was spending all my time in labs, they were spending all their time in studios. That artistic lifestyle was so foreign to me and also extremely interesting. Like a studio, a lab can be a very creative and fun place to be, but there is something about the spontaneous creativity of a studio that stayed with me.

My plan to become an astronaut was still first priority throughout my studies. I enjoyed being a tourist at my friends’ art studios, but my place was in the lab. I found (and still find) neuroscience fascinating and just as interesting and amazing as space is, so many things to discover. My passion for science continued to be my main focus, I love the feeling of discovering the unknown. Space, the brain, how organisms work. Science is one unchartered territory after another and I really enjoy the process of discovery.

Then one summer during my studies, I took a trip to Japan. It was during that trip to Japan that I realized what exciting and wonderful worlds I had to discover outside of labs. As soon as I graduated, instead of applying to NASA, or spending my time in a neuroscience lab, I decided I wanted to travel the world instead. My home has been in many countries across the globe ever since.

While living in Barcelona, I fell in love with the way the city lives and breathes art. I was reminded of my artist friends and their lifestyles and had a chance to revisit that world. But this time I wasn’t content with just being a tourist in that world. So, one day I spontaneously went into a little corner art store and bought a blank canvas, some paintbrushes and an acrylic starter set. I went back to my apartment to see what being an artist felt like. I loved it. I painted constantly and became fast friends with the woman at the corner art store. I was addicted and she supplied me with all the necessary tools and advice that a novice like me needed to express my newfound creative drive in this new world. Sometimes, I would be so into a painting that the sun would come up and I would realize I forgot to sleep. I was able to finally explore that studio/art world that I had been captivated by years earlier but had thought was unattainable.

After two years spent painting daily in Barcelona, I became an artist. And I have been painting giraffes and robots ever since. I still consider myself a scientist too. Art and Science are both parts of who I am and I think that my science background positively influences my artwork. Many express surprise at the switch from science to art, but I believe that art and science complement each other beautifully. I am sort of an astronaut after all because I discover, create and explore new worlds everyday.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Trust your own story, your own experiences that shape you and make you unique. Create from the place that speaks to you, from what is inside you. Tune into an inner focus to inform you, instead of focusing on what will get you the approval and validation of others. You will never please everyone because different people see things through lenses that are shaped by their own lived experiences, which are different than yours. Letting go of a need for approval can be very freeing as an artist, allowing you to create art that comes from your heart and mind. Trusting what emerges is a powerful way to express your creativity. And by the way, I believe everyone is an artist, it is just a matter of spending the time exploring what is inside you and being determined enough to put it on canvas, or paper, or the computer. Children all know they can art because it is true, they all can and so can we. Art is within us all. We are those children, just a bit older and a bit jaded by society telling us what we can and cannot do. Reclaim your artistic intuition and see what emerges. Get curious and have fun with it!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.popartisgoodforyou.com/ ;  http://www.explorethismoment.com/
• Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/giraffesrobots
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/giraffesandrobots
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atabey/

Image Credits
All images and art copyright Atabey Sanchez-Haiman/Giraffes and Robots Pop Art Studio