We recently connected with Veronica Cisneros and have shared our conversation below.
Veronica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
My mom says I started talking when I was 7 months old, and by the time I was 1, I could speak in full sentences. Soon after, she gave me pencil and paper, and she taught me how to write my letters and numbers. We moved to Arizona for a couple years when I was around 2, and I started asking my mom how to spell words so I could write letters to send to my grandma. That’s where it all began. I also gravitated towards music and dancing very early on. I wanted to be a Fly Girl! Do you remember that show, In Living Color? Anyway, I became interested in piano when I was 7, and one of my cousins taught me some very basic music theory on a keyboard. That’s when I became interested in poetry, too. The children’s music book I’d play songs out of had fun rhymes in it, and my favorite book to read at the time was the Poems and Rhymes book from a Childcraft encyclopedia set. I was always in my room with music on, drawing, writing, playing my keyboard, reading, dancing, and stretching, and I am still this way. My third grade teacher recognized my propensity for writing stories and enlisted me in competitive creative writing. After achieving great success with that, I officially decided that I wanted to be a writer for life. I was 9 years old when I made that decision, and I didn’t ever question it. It always felt right and still does. That same year I started singing more and imitating my favorite singer, Selena. As I lay on the floor in my bedroom with my headphones on, a Selena cassette tape in my walkman, belting out every single song, I knew without a doubt I wanted to be a professional singer. I started singing in church all the way up through high school, and when I was 15, I picked up guitar. My keyboard was stolen, I was upset about it, and coincidentally a friend I sang in church with had a big box guitar for sale on the cheap. My mom did what she could to buy it for me. I started teaching myself a few things using guitar tabs, and took a couple of lessons with the pastor at our church. I played melodic percussion in band, took art classes, was on the yearbook staff, the president of drama club, was a cheerleader, and took dance lessons to nurture the yearning in my heart to create and express myself through movement. I feel most like myself when I’m making something out of anything, so it’s always been in me to pursue a creative path professionally. For a while I turned down so many opportunities to put myself out there and pursue my creative and artistic dreams in any way; I was afraid and felt unworthy of it all. Now, I’m saying yes not only to new opportunities, but I’m also saying yes to me, my soul’s divine mission, and that soft whisper that’s gently nudging me in this direction.
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 background and context?
My name is Veronica Cisneros, and I’m an artist, poet, and musician. I like to dabble, so I always have different projects going on. One of my longer-term projects is called, “Dreaming Daisy,” and I make creative plant arrangements with succulents for baby showers, bridal showers, private commissions, gifts, and other special events. You can also find me at Republic Aerial Yoga’s Full Moon Pop-Up Market at Raven Tower with an assortment of plants and other garden-related goodies. Creating with plants and sharing that love with others brings me so much joy, but my vision for this project stretches beyond this. In the future, I’d like to merge my passions for music, art, gardening, and movement to provide community events that focus on improving mental health and inspiring others to cultivate inner peace through connecting with nature in the garden. Other projects I have been working on include freelancing art such as digital drawings and paintings, graphic design, and learning how to sew. I started teaching yoga, too, and I have a passion for working with the senior population and beginners. On top of all that, I’ve been leaning more and more in the direction of my heart’s truest calling, which is poetry, singing, and song-making/writing. I’m always working on my collection of poetry, singing, and writing songs at home in my garden or in my bedroom. These are more like daily rituals for me rather than projects, but I am working on putting a little something together for myself to enjoy. I hope to be able to use my poetic and musical gifts in some way professionally in the future, but in the meantime I’m expanding my knowledge of each craft and courting my muses.
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
What drives me is my quest to be my most authentic, aligned self possible. There’s a burning inside of me that I must say yes to, and now more than ever, moving in that direction is what I must do. It’s all been simmering in the background for a really long time, but the water’s starting to rumble.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Well, like I mentioned earlier, for a while I was turning down opportunities to blaze my creative path even though it’s what I’ve always wanted for my life. I had so much confidence in my self and my gifts, but then somewhere along the way I lost myself. I used to dance, sing, and cheer for large crowds without flinching, I auditioned for American Idol, I played songs on my guitar for my friends every chance I got, became a published journalist, and said yes to every opportunity I had to share my gifts, but then I stopped sharing. I started feeling embarrassed, comparing myself to my creative peers whom I thought were “better” than me, listening to the people who told me I was nothing and made me feel like I didn’t even deserve to exist, and my inner critic was on blast in my head in agreement. I struggled with depression and an anxiety disorder, and even though I really wanted to share my art and music, I didn’t. Something as simple as sharing my insignificant doodles online was a huge deal to me and felt incredibly scary, so forget sharing a poem or song I poured my soul in to. But, when I was at my lowest, for the second time in my life, I started hearing little whispers encouraging me to put myself in the spotlight again. Of course, being met with rejection many times didn’t really help in my fragile state, but I persevered. I did what I could with what I had and started saying yes to those whispers despite what anyone else said. I started shifting my perspective, and all that rejection became fuel. Instead of allowing all those black holes in the road to stop me, I decided to forge another way forward. I did and still do my best to view every obstacle as an opportunity to grow. I haven’t achieved some grand thing according to the world’s standards, but that doesn’t matter to me. Now I have the courage to be seen, and that means everything to me. I might tremble and shake, but I’m still putting myself out there in all the ways I’ve ever dreamed of; that’s pretty grand to me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_dreaming_daisy/
Image Credits
All photos and art by Veronica Cisneros
1 Comment
Chris
She’s such a fox