We recently connected with Ixchel Valiente and have shared our conversation below.
Ixchel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I think the most essential skill to have when it comes to learning a craft is perhaps thinking of learning as something that is never-ending. We tend to think of learning as something finite. We go to college, we take the course or do the internship, and then we think “I’m done with school.” That has always felt too restrictive for me. I don’t mean I intend to keep getting degree after degree but you don’t need to be enrolled in an institution to keep learning. To get invested in the new ideas that are floating around whatever medium/industry you move in and let them teach you new ways of working your craft. That to me is a more appealing concept. It keeps my senses from going stale.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a Guatemalan actress and writer based in LA and have been involved in the performing arts since I started dancing back home when I was around four or five years old. After a couple of years of that I had the chance to do a play when I was 15, and that was it for me, really. I love film and voice-over acting as well, but I always come back to theatre. In particular theatre in LA, I feel it deserves appreciation, People don’t associate LA with theatre, but there is some great work being done on stage. Especially since the pandemic, It’s become one of my main objectives to immerse myself in it and do what I can to encourage people to support local productions.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Being receptive to unfamiliar ideas, particularly if it’s something you don’t know anything about or wouldn’t usually think is your taste, that’s the best way I’ve found to support creative people. Things move very fast nowadays and we are so set in our ways sometimes, it makes us not give things a chance. We listen to one song by an artist, usually the most popular song, and if we don’t like it we’re done with them. We create a whole opinion based on a 5-second clip. But an artist may have an entire album full of songs that fit into three different genres. Sometimes slowing down and making an effort to listen/watch/read for a bit longer can be interesting. Creative people value different things in their work, and it can be very different to what you value. It’s interesting to wonder what those things are. You might still not like their work in the end of course, but at least you didn’t say “no” five minutes into a conversation.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Maybe the never-ending cycle of imagining something, then doing your best to make it tangible or perceptible, and then that idea leading to imagining something new. The fact that ideas can generate more ideas is mindblowing, I think. That process is the most rewarding to me.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Angelina Ramsey, Ellie Ferguson, Christopher Oh