We recently connected with Radhanny De La Cruz, also known as Danny, and have shared our conversation below.
Radhanny, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
My 9-7 job, is as a media planner, which has been a dream job since I was a little girl. I always dreamed of planning toy commercials and showing more representation of girls like me. However, ever since I was a little girl I also had a passion for art and being creative.
I believe I was born a creative and artistic being. When I was young I was always in love with painting and art and crafts. Anytime I wanted to learn something new it always started with an idea, “How can I do this?” When it came to painting and drawing, I remember watching Disney movies and wanting to recreate my own version of the princesses. I started by printing my favorites and using a pencil to trace them, then coloring them in. I did this over and over again, just trying to practice. As I got older I started being able to find shapes in images I wanted to create and would lay them out on my sketchbook or canvas. Later when I wanted to get into crafts like pottery and jewelry, I really had to do research. I took ceramic classes at my college and translated those skills into my own art. I am also not afraid to admit that I do use Google, YouTube, and today even TikTok, to learn. From learning how to make clasp-less bracelets, tricks for sealing glitter on my art, or just looking for some inspiration, the list goes on and on. Even when it came to becoming a media planner, in high school I would Google “How to get a job in advertising?”, “Skills to have as a planner?”, “How to land the job?” and again the list goes on.
Knowing everything I know now I wouldn’t have done anything to change my process, everything happens for a reason and I know this is true. All my dreams have and still are coming to fruition because I am resourceful, disciplined, and believe in myself. I think maybe these three skills have been the most essential in my journey.
1. Resourcefulness = Being able to seek different resources to learn and sharpen your craft
2. Discipline = Practicing and training so you can keep expanding your craft
3. Believing in yourself = Always having someone in your corner routing for you
Ironically, my biggest challenge, at the same time, has been myself. I am my own saboteur. I struggle with managing my time, in the sense of making time to keep practicing my arts while working a full-time job to make a living. I am also hard on myself and I am my biggest critic, knowing what I can produce and wanting to give more. With this said, once I realize what I am capable of doing, it’s only up from there!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I am a 25-year-old Latina born in NYC. My parents are from the beautiful island of The Dominican Republic but I currently live in ATL. My sun sign is Sagittarius and as my sign says I am optimistic, adventurous, and energetic. On a day to day, I work as a media planner for two national haircare brands. Here I collaborate with different teams to create digital ads. It’s something I love to do because I work with brands that focus on creating inclusive products so consumers can love themselves. But in my personal time, I am an artist, DreamsByDanny. With DreamsByDanny I create acrylic and oil paintings, make jewelry with healing crystals, trinkets out of clay, and host Sip & Paints. I do these things with the hopes of spreading joy. I believe one of my purposes in this life is to spread happiness and positivity, I try to do this with everything I do. It’s an amazing feeling that I can do this at a company and with brands that also push similar ideas and have been blessed with the ability to create things with my hands on my personal time too. There is plenty of hate in this world and if I can sprinkle some love and light through my job or my art I do feel like I am fulfilling my purpose. It feels very full circle to me.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is being able to create something that creates a feeling in someone else. Many times in life we feel like we are going through things alone and no one understands us. Art and being creative allows all of us to connect through our unique hardships and even those happy, good moments too.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson I had to unlearn is the idea that everyone in my creative field is my competition. I learned this once a friend and I started similar creative businesses around the same time, we are both painters and work with jewelry. Honestly, at first, I thought this would destroy our friendship but I quickly learned/realized that now I have a FRIEND in the industry. We are both so unique and put parts of ourselves in our art so although our mediums might be similar, we are uniquely ourselves in our craft. We can now work together to strategize, perfect our skills, give each other advice, and have another thing to chat about.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamsbydanny/