70. Building A Sustainable Creative Life with Talia Duvet

Now, as I mentioned, we called this episode Building a Sustainable Creative Life.

Now, when you hear that phrase, what does that mean to you? Like, what do you think of?

I think for me, what I've always been striving for is being able to make my art and pay my bills.

And there was a period in time where I was feeling like my life was kind of this triangle where there's three points, but you can only have two.

And it's either like, you know, the points are like pay your bills, make your art and take care of yourself.

And I was feeling like I could only have two at a time and it was like destroying me.

And so my, my kind of, my Holy grail has turned into like being able to have all three of those things, which is like a little bit of a, paradigm shift from maybe what you're sold as growing up as like a performer

where

people are like you're gonna be you know whatever you can be a pop star and then you know you move out at 18 and you're like oh shit I have bills to pay like

oh no where does the time come to do all of it so

yeah I think if I can live a life where I'm I'm taken care of physically and mentally and financially and I also can make my art then that's that's the baseline for happy yeah

yeah no that that totally makes sense I mean it is I mean I've been a young person as well I know that it it's hard it's hard when you're starting out and like especially in a creative industry it can just be so frustrating you're just like what am

I doing this for yeah to quote Olivia Rodrigo it's brutal out here it is brutal out here I love I love a

Because of this, I think a lot of artists feel like they have to choose between being creative and being financially stable.

I think that that's a decision that a lot of artists feel like they have to make.

And you have, as you've mentioned, you've managed to build a career that includes both.

How do you think about balancing the artistic fulfillment with the practical realities? Is there any thinking behind it? How do you kind of work that into your life?

Yeah, it's really something that I'm still learning and that is really important for me is knowing when to take each of those respective hats off.

It's hard to be the business manager or the regular person working a job and the artist at the same time.

So I think having really strong boundaries around like, I'm turning off all of my technology and I'm just letting myself exist as a creative person this evening.

Yeah.

You know, and just like making sure that that happens because if you think, oh, I'll do it when I have time or when it presents itself, like it just never will.

There is always going to be something in life that feels more urgent or important.

And if you don't carve out the time for your creative self, then, you know, weeks can go by and then you're like, wait a second, when was the last time I touched a piano?

No, it's very true.