Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. My name is Dean Joya and I'm an artist. The way art started for me was in junior high school when I took an art class. And I had always been interested in nature and I drew a little bit. But then when I had instruction in front of me and we started working in watercolors, all of a sudden I stood out. And my teacher would hold my paintings up to the class and say, look what Joy is doing. And it went from there. I think he pushed me and one of the ways he pushed me is he would never give me an A. In retrospect, I guess that's he wanted me to try harder. But it got me going, connected me to the world in a way that I really needed to connect to. It is not an easy life before success. And some of the reason is you don't make a lot, I didn't make a lot of money for a long time. And you're alone all the time. And so the demons come up, you know, the self-doubt, the worries about the future. Do I really have any talent at all? Is this just a big joke? I mean, all those things occur. I'm sure not just to me, but to most artists, I think there's a, you know, a certain doubt in people. And so you got to deal with the demons, you got to deal with the finances, and you know, just keep moving forward. The inspiration comes and goes, and I think that's natural in any creative process. It's not always full on. But I learned real fast to be disciplined, you know, whether you feel like it or not, do something. And then when the inspiration is there, you'll do something really good. But just keep the tools warm and keep working and don't think too much about it. My name is Dean Joya, and I'm an artist, a painter. You're listening to voices that inspire.