We recently connected with Maria Sonia Martin and have shared our conversation below.
Maria Sonia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I am very happy to be an artist. It took some years of working in other fields in order for me to realize that a career as a visual artist was my life’s ‘calling. Upon graduating from high school, I entered a two year college where I majored in fine art, with the goal of continuing my education in a four year school. Right before graduating from the two year college, I got cold feet. Since I do not come from an affluent family, one which might offer financial help during the early stages of such a career, I left school to work in other fields, secretarial, Amtrak hostess, real estate sales, and furniture sales. Nothing satisfied me, even in fields that were financially rewarding. After nine years of drifting…, I returned (part-time while working) to earn my associate’s degree in art., After that, again part-time, I completed my studies at the age of thirty-five years old, and received a bachelor of art in art degree in a four year university. By the end of my education, was very sure that art was my life’s calling and that I was ready to sacrifice financially in order to pursue my passion.
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?
Ever since I was a child, I had the inclination to draw. In school, whenever there was a class project that needed drawings, I volunteered. It was a pleasure for me to be involved. In high school, I took whatever art classes were offered. However, I was never satisfied with the offerings as these were commercial art focused, something that was not fulfilling to me, but I had to accept as it was my only option. During my senior year, I was no longer eligible to take art as I had taken all the art classes the school’s curriculum offered. I went to speak with the new art teacher (I later found out that she was working on her master’s degree in art), told her my problem. I brought with me some of my drawings and she offered to work with me independently. I did not have to come to her classes. She would assign projects for me to complete outside of the classroom. I was expected to bring those completed projects for her to grade my progress. She treated me as an adult, gave me independence with liabilities. I was so happy and felt I was an artist. Eventually, she was the person to tell me that I could, if I wanted, become a professional artist. I thank her to this day.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
To me, the word mission assumes a final result or an arrival. For an artist, there is never a final result or an arrival. An artist never ‘arrives’. By that I mean that an artist is always seeking to go beyond that which he or she has already achieved in terms of technical ability and self-expression. An artist is always trying to go farther than where he or she ‘has been’. Each completed work is a learning experience, and each work will take you to another level. You never stop ‘climbing’ that ladder.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is total freedom of expression. It is those times when as an artist you are free to work from your heart. Artists are many times commissioned to do specific projects which must adhere to the contracting party’s esthetics or ethics. These are not the most rewarding times, at least not for me.
I produce my best artworks when I work from my heart, when I am totally free without any preconceived foreign expectations. These are the best and most rewarding of times.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.mariasoniamartin.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/mariasoniamartin
- Facebook: https//www.facebook.com/mariasoniamartinartist
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-sonia-martin-17118345/
- Other: mariasoniamartin@aol.com
Image Credits
Maria Sonia Martin