The Price of Passion

There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

I am writing this story so I can share with you all the reality of a career you’re passionate about, more so the career of an Artist. I have lovely people letting me know how inspired they are to see me follow my dreams and gravitate toward things that set my soul on fire. The reality of it is bad paychecks, optimizing your expenditure, daily cleaning up, forgetting to buy that packet of milk at night because you’re quite busy planning a whole bunch of other stuff or talking to people about your plans. It’s a tough yet purposeful life. It does get better though! It’s also a lot of people looking up to you, wanting to be in your presence, appreciating your contribution, and cool collaborations with some interesting people.

Today I sit in my studio apartment on a lovely lit-up terrace in Bangalore writing about the last many years and why passion is worth more than all the money in the world.

Life has to have meaning to it. Some find it through family and friends and some through solitude. But to make life richer, a defined purpose is required, which you constantly have to realign yourself with, as you move along.

I have had my stint with fancy corporate jobs and teaching in schools, trying to make lessons more creative, to finally working full time at an Art Studio. Here, at Ovya Art Academy I head the Fine Arts Department. I teach, plan lessons, schedule classes, work with the operations head and social media strategist, work on social causes and do a whole bunch of other things to keep the studio up and running and buzzing with activity.

Working on what you’re passionate about doesn’t feel like work. Of course, you will have periodic fatigue, but if you work around that and get your downtime, you’re good to go. I use some of this downtime to assess how the week or last couple of weeks have been productivity-wise. Have I made a difference? What kind of feedback am I getting? How are the students progressing? How is the teacher-student connection during the classes? How is the offline and online engagement?

To me progress is not always a number, it has a lot to do with the impact made. I have had students who have shared their deepest darkest secrets with me, confided in me about things, and that to me in a big win. I have special students who have progressed very well over the span of their sessions. And when I have parents telling me that their special kids were rejected at other studios, while we are teaching him for free here and encouraging his skills, I know it’s a win yet again. Making a crying child who feels her lines aren’t perfect, laugh, and make her feel that her art is loads better than yours, to get her confidence up, win again.

Insta post:

Meet Nandan, a special child who is learning to focus through Art. His attention span while practicing Art has gone up from 10 min to 60 min at a stretch. Very happy to be involved in his improvement while teaching at Ovya Academy over the last few months. From learning to color and drawing abstract shapes, he has moved onto drawing simple, concrete shapes himself and mimicking simple drawings he observes. Way to go, Nandan!

Community projects are also a part and parcel of any space, whether it be corporate or a studio. Giving back to society is as big a thing as taking from it. Now community participation is a toughie. Not everyone is going to be as motivated as you are and neither are they going to have the same energy levels. But, it is still your job to take that stance and motivate others. Start small and slowly build on creating that community that is willing to participate. One of the best examples I can give you is the Ugly Indian Project (https://www.facebook.com/theugl.yindian) and the Cultural Immersion Project (https://www.facebook.com/sma11w0r1d) who have gone from participants trickling, to a small yet dedicated community of contributors.

Teaching underprivileged kids has been a constant in my life. I have realized that there are children out there who are talented but don’t have the opportunity to hone their skills and diversify their artistic outlook. So instead of teaching from home, we teach them for free at the studio, if they are interested. School infrastructure improvement (which includes fee payment, toilet constructions, library building, classroom construction, wall murals, etc.) and village development are what we are moving towards over the decade. So I think we have ‘giving back’ sorted.

Another reality is understanding that there is not always going to be an overwhelming response at the start of anything and that’s a good thing. If too much happens too fast, you won’t be able to handle it. A steady pace is what is required as opposed to a frantic inflow of customers or participants.

We all know that online presence and promotions are a must, but I think I didn’t know how to go about this until recently. Getting strategies in place is a must and sticking to them for constant engagement is the core of it all. I think I’ve got much more perspective when it comes to online millennial platforms now.

I do have more to add to this, but this ‘life of passion’ is constantly evolving so I’m going to keep adding to this post as exciting things keep coming up!

The author of this post, Divya Ramachandran is an Artist, Writer, and Educator. She has Masters in Design from Milan and teaches Art to kids during the week. She works on creative projects during her free time and loves collaborating with different artists.

You can get in touch with her at rama.divya@gmail.com or follow her on Instagram @purple_ponderings.