I came across the old blog posts that I wrote in 2010 when I lived in London. If you would like to recall my past and how it influenced my current state of mind, you can read it below.

March thoughts on society
MAY 25TH, 2010

What I totally love about British society is the networking mechanism, supportive entrepreneurs community, talent spotters, proactive people developing tools and online and offline environments for social engagement and general progress. And they are willing to get even better than they do today. Charities, organizations and small businesses create buzzing spaces for discussion, ideas, exchange and collaboration. It’s much easier to get social and meet people who get to turn the wheels of the economy than it was ever before. Politicians and top management representatives don’t play a role of the unapproachable impersonal entities acting independently from the rest of the population. They get engaged and talk to you face to face open to your ideas and keen to apply collective knowledge to their work for the good of all. I am excited. I am in a learning mode every day absorbing as much as possible, then trying to give something back. When I was invited to join the RSA it was a shock I couldn’t believe. Now it kicked off many great opportunities to meet people and open my insight into things, all aspects of life and work. It makes me want more of it. And give more in return. Thank you. It’s a great value you created.

Selfbelief evolution
JULY 2ND, 2010
My latest press involvement in Prague raised a topic around young ladies and their dealing with stress, building confidence, self-picture and belief. I am glad that I had the opportunity to share my experience through a mass media channel. I really went through all kinds of these things. In the past when I had to experience life-changing situations it took me something like two years to get used to the new position and challenges and feel good enough and easy in it. I had to test my skills and my potential to fully believe that I am capable of doing things. Even though teachers used to tell me that I would never be an artist and despite some people sending me e-mail messages advising me to fuck off from the creative industry and do something else. My first public speech made me frozen and shaky. Although I was perfectly prepared as if doing an exam for life.
With time, everything got much easier. From introverting artistic position I got slowly to loving public speeches and socializing, meeting new people and talking a lot. I have done a lot of presentations for companies, universities or conferences. Although I still have the stuff to learn, I don’t feel like talking on every topic of this planet when I don’t feel the need to and there are situations when I am still stressed, the more I do these things, the less tension I have, more relaxed and confident I am. Most recently I met this extraordinary woman during Women’s Social Leadership Awards in London, her name is Dr Rachel Armstrong, who became my great example for showing the inner personality power to the world. An amazing public speaker with passion sending her message all across the room. She inspired me a lot so I tried to apply similar energy when I was giving advice to aspiring illustrators at Futurising in London. And it worked perfectly! Passion and confidence inside me were transferred to people I was talking to. They got excited themselves and I believe they took me for an example in a similar way I took Rachel. The event appeared very successful to me after such experience. It was quite a journey.
So, let’s believe in ourselves more, it gives us energy and passion to create great things which we are made for.

Leading artists for social contribution
MAY 25TH, 2010

Inspired by Susan Jones and her posting on artists as social entrepreneurs in Artist Fellows group I’d like to contribute with my point of view on the role of the artist in society. To me being an artist means that I have a voice, my artwork is a step to communication, it opens doors (and hearts of my audience), gives a chance to speak out. Some artists communicate through visual language only, others feel a need to engage different aspects of it through public talks, presentations, media coverage, writing and so on. I mean talking about art as a source of pleasure and entertainment shouldn’t be the only thing we can do. Through this public voice, we have a certain level of influential power and for this reason, we should use it for a broader range of social activities. I am perfectly clear that many artists aren’t confident to talk about social issues and make a contribution but maybe we should focus on training them in a similar way we train leaders. Visible artists are leaders and they need to stand for their beliefs and should have a chance to share knowledge and experience more frequently, they actually have this option through being watched by media more or less constantly.
Young people are excited by celebrities in pop music or film stars, but we rarely hear these people talking about life and work – and we need visible people to talk about what’s behind success, what’s behind failure, what it takes to build a business or to become a star, we need to motivate, influence new generations to make the right decisions rather than allow them to take themselves on the wrong path. Today’s society is very intellectually advanced and all the facts and experiences should be shared more easily, the artist is the medium. I know there are books where you can read all the stuff about techniques of success, books on happy society and contemporary issues like earning money versus taking care of relationships, but I don’t think they end up in hands of youngsters so easily. Not everybody is into philosophy and spends hours reading so that we have to find other channels to some fun and light-hearted communication. When the artist has a show somewhere, a few people talk about the pieces, some of them get the message, some of them don’t, but that’s not enough to me. The artist is a public figure and should feel some responsibility when taking up this role. Any thoughts on that anyone?

Additionally, here is a screenshot from Ogunte, which is an organisation for women, and they wrote my name in their presentation as an example of their event impact.

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