We recently connected with Daniely Martins and have shared our conversation below.

Daniely, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I am happier with the stumbles of being an artist than I ever was with the perks of having a “regular job”.
I believe I’ve been lucky enough to experience choosing and beginning a career outside of the arts, realising it wouldn’t fulfill me as the human being I want to be and then letting it go. Taking the leap of faith and committing to making my career as an artist work, while having the support from my loved ones throughout the whole process.
I often wonder how my life would be if I hadn’t made that radical change. If I hadn’t packed my bags after quitting a job that could give me a financially stable future and ran to the unknown of what it means to be an artist these days. During theses wonderings, I think of the five countries I lived in, the loving and troubled people that crossed my life. My own lovings and troubles. The lack of money, the extensive list of side jobs, the landscapes, the profound conversations and deep eyes I got to look at. Especially in the mirror. I collected a lot to drawn from. I was lucky enough to taste discontent and have a support system to help me be brave enough to choose purpose. To choose making a career out of being something I believe everybody is: an artist.
So yes, I wonder sometimes what it would be like to just have a regular job. And I always end up reaffirming that there is nothing more regular for me than making art.

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?

I have always loved creating. Since I can remember, my happiest moments are connected to expressing and shaking hands with my humanity. Telling stories through drawings, music, film, and especially plays, has been present in my behaviour from early childhood. It just took me a while to accept I wanted to do that as a profession. I started acting classes back in my home country, Brazil, when I was thirteen, than joined my college Theater group during advertisement university and, feeling that my true passion was on what so far were my extracurricular activities, I decided to take it off the background and put it on the first plane. So I moved to Europe to experience more of the world, make some money and study Theater. In a space of eight years, I lived in Portugal, Germany, France and the US. I collected two acting degrees and started off as a professional actress. Right now, in New York, I have been writing my own pieces, while working with already established artists. My goal is to learn as much as I can from the core of the industry and become part of its heart.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

First, to understand art as a natural necessity. We are all artists, even if not all of us make a profession out of it. We all need to exercise our consciousness on ourselves and express it. It’s part of the deal of being human. There is not one person in the world that doesn’t do it.
Then, include that necessity as an essential part of the social system we live in right now. We can’t escape the need of financial funds to survive. So let’s include each other in that game. To help support artists, people who hold the funds could keep a closer eye on where the money is not yet, but can be. Look out for potential, always keep space for new faces and give out chances. This is a big dinner table, with space and food for everybody.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There is more to me than I will ever discover.
There is more to all of us than we will ever discover. There’s nothing for us to do in our lives than to try and be the best of us that we can, and that takes time and experience. More time than we will ever have on earth.
So I have to constantly unlearn this fixed image I have of myself, told by others and interpreted by me as the truth. And the same about others. We are all complete in ourselves and life is just a constant reveal of new parts of what is already us. And art is expressing these revelations. That’s why we will have a job to the day that we die. Because there’s always more to discover.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @danielyduarte_
• Other: E-mail: [email protected]