We recently connected with Ivan Maraña and have shared our conversation below.

Ivan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Yes, I earn a full living from my current work.

The journey as most artists haven´t been the easiest, specially since I wasn’t raised on an artistic family. My parents always wanted the regular 9 to 5 job for me, probably because of what we always here, that we are not able to make a living doing pretty much any artistic thing.

So at the beginning it felt like going against everyone else, no one really believing in my project and what I was passionate about. Of course it is not important to have the validation of others, but I guess somehow there´s always that pressure from friends and family that make you question about your project and about yourself.

I believe that there is always uncertainty in the artistic path, you have to put yourself out there, be constantly working, creating and showing up and there are times when maybe you don`t have that much inspiration or commitment and it is not the easiest to pick yourself up those times and have the discipline to work when there’s no inspiration, but it is part of the job and part pf the process.

I think the most important thing is to be perseverant and disciplined, to have consistency and make yourself a schedule to make things happen. At the beginning coming from a regular job in finance, it is kind of easy to do things because your boss is telling you what to do, but when you change to this artistic format, you have to work harder and be more committed and aware of your time, because no one else is gonna give you that structure or make things happen, but you.

Ivan, 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?

As I said before I studied economics and worked in finance for a couple of years. Try some businesses here and there, but nothing really stood up for me while doing that.

When I turned 30 I had an existential crisis and I didn’t know what to do with my life. That’s when I looked into myself and my options and I saw that magic has been the one thing that has persisted throughout the years and it was something I have always felt passionate for.

So that’s how I got started with it. Along the years I have questioned myself about my work, about what makes me unique and stand out from the rest of the magicians out there.

At the beginning maybe it is the approval, that sense of being someone who creates the impossible, with the years I learned that the valuable thing about my work is to connect with others and leave them with something valubale, to touch them somehow, so I guess magic has become a secondary things nowadays, I want people to feel, to question themselves and their surroundings, so you build up a story, a story that connects somehow with them and magic is what closes the deal.

The magic I like is not the one where the spectators questions themselves or myself about how something was done, the real success for me comes when I see emotions come up in form of tears, laughter, etc… That’s what I want, to make people reconnect to themselves with magic as a tool and a lot of storytelling.

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

As I said before, what drives me is people, connecting through others with my art. It is easy to sometimes get lost in applaud and cheers, but the valuable thing about my job is that of making people stand still for a moment, forget about this fast world and just look within to make them realize a lot of things, to make them question and feel, and over time get back to what they truly are.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think there´s plenty of stuff I had to unlearn. We grew up on a belief system and anything that is not part of it drives you crazy. If things aren’t going the way you expected, you might experience anxiety, a feeling of unworthiness, etc… and the truth is that most of the times, things aren’t gonna go our way, so the important thing is to just try to remember your goal, what you are trying to do and not comparing yourself to others. Do everything that is at your reach which adds to the main goal and forget about the rest and the most important thing is to trust the process along the way, I believe that somehow it already knows the plan and how it is gonna make it, so do your thing and let the universe do his.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ivanmarana.com
• Instagram: @ivanmarana
• Facebook: Ivan Maraña
• Linkedin: Ivan Maraña
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkL6JBufGVseqK_UQp5WKqQ

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