[Applause]
and thank you all for coming and thank
you for being here today it’s an honor
to be here I’m excited to be here back
at my alma mater to share with you my
life’s work the pursuit of creativity
through art and music I have an
extraordinary life I wake up every
morning I get to share the opportunity
to share my passions in piano and with
my guy with my art gallery and art and
every day I wake up with the chance to
be inspired and through my piano studio
I teach about 25 students weekly from
ages 4 to 70 so it’s a big broad range
of students and my students really
inspire me I learn lessons of diligence
and practice and performance and
persistence and in my art practice I am
inspired every day I’m surrounded by
creativity I literally get to look at
art every day as a job and it’s amazing
and I work with artists and set
decorators curators museum curators
consultants and collectors and we find
artworks that inspire their environments
that bring inspiration through their
spaces and today I’d like to share with
you three key factors in my pursuit of
creativity that’s helped me become
successful the first is to find great
mentors my first mentor which probably a
lot of you guys had was your parents and
my parents are actually here from
Roswell far away from Roswell in Roswell
Georgia and my dad was my first mentor
he moved to the States in pursuit of the
American dream he was an architect from
Taiwan and when he moved here he did
what all agents do which is start
laundromat and it was where
actually my sister and I learned the
best life lessons about patience about
persistence and very much an
outside-the-box thinker he always was
finding ways of innovating of growing of
being resourceful and finding the
solution where you least expect it which
is always the case
and so I’m really grateful that they’re
here today and also that about the time
that I opened the gallery my father
decided that he wanted to retire and he
has now become a pretty successful
gallery artist and he shows at my
gallery and his works have been placed
so when I was in the eighth grade I my
parents put me into a new piano studio
her name was mrs. Betty Nolting she
lived in Buckhead and she was incredible
not only was she gifted at teaching and
and and sharing her joys and music but
taught me life lessons that I that I’ve
just grown from and she recently passed
away a year ago in March at 98 but what
she imparted with me I held with me for
for all my life and one of the most
important lessons that teachers can
teach and what I impart with the artists
and the students that come through the
gallery is that we are all in life
teachers and that we are all students
and it depends on the situation that
we’re in and her mentorship
and our friendship came full circle when
as adults I would spend once a month
going to her home I would share meals
with her I would take her out to the
Opera wherever Tamara’s of easier I we
would talk about best piano practices we
would talk about ways of playing ways of
practicing ways of teaching and we would
play for each other and it was then that
I realized that my mentor had become my
peer and it was just a wonderful
symbiosis kind of full circle life thing
so in life there are also people that
teach
what best not to do and when I started
in the art world when I was 24 years old
I was basically mentored by someone
whose traits I didn’t aspire to to put
it mildly and but when you’re in an
environment where your creativity and
and and your your soul and your being
isn’t being nurtured it isn’t being
fostered isn’t being mentored then you
realize that you start to find lessons
of ways of being persistent of ways of
pivoting of ways to finding courage
through the challenging times and it was
such a really great life lesson and
learning experience and I wouldn’t have
it a turn either any other way because
when I was in fear and when I was placed
in a place of doubt and uncertainty
about myself about my professional life
that creativity actually becomes
essential in that environment and so
when I was in it I told myself wow gosh
what would I do if I would ever open my
own gallery and I guess 14 years later
Here I am and I wouldn’t be able to do
what I do today had I not been through a
challenging time and so find mentors
that nurture your growth but also find
people that both inspire you and
challenge you because we’re here to grow
through our changes and grow through our
differences and we’re not here to stay
stagnant nor are we here to just be with
like-minded people because I that’s
another TED talk but that’s the world
that we’re living in now so now the
second factor in the pursuit of
creativity is to build a routine we tend
to think as people that when we have
structure and when we have schedules and
we when we make plans and we build
routines that it it constricts our
freedom that it stifles our creativity
but I would like to argue that actually
the the opposite is true that when we
make a plan when we build a routine that
creativity has a basis and a foundation
to flourish
that plans make room for play and that
certainly is true because I’m playing
every day and it’s it’s it’s inspired as
a pianist um like I said I have 25
students and eight of them are adults
and some of them actually went to this
institution and study music and and some
of them are concert pianists in their
own right and I have to learn really
difficult music that that I have to be
able to teach and be effective in my
role as an instructor as a pianist and
so constantly my routine is learning the
measures learning note by note learning
the passages learning the the music
between the notes and how to best
express it to to my students and if you
can extrapolate music as it relates to
life you realize that it’s all about
building the foundation and the routine
for success to happen it’s all about the
practice of going full force with
whatever you do and through that
practice and through those difficult
passages in terms of music
and all the the hard things that we we
go through in our practice in our daily
practice whatever it might be
that we grow from those challenges and
we learn from our mistakes so teaching
piano is it’s really fun and really
inspiring
but but challenging as well I think also
it’s really important to have a routine
where you schedule in free time where
your schedule in self-care time where
you schedule in a routine where you can
think creatively and reflect back on
life and reflect back on what it is
you’d like to accomplish where you’ve
been where you’re going what you’d like
to create what you want to attract into
your life and that time for me is the
mornings I wake up when I want probably
around like 8 a.m. every day and I have
three hours of unconstructed free time I
wake up I have a tea ritual I go out for
walks when it’s nice out I meditate I
practice piano I read a lot and
and it’s that time of self-care and it’s
that time of reflection and it’s a time
of solitude where I can feel like I can
recharge and re-energize and and
rejuvenate and so not only it’s
important to schedule time to meet with
people and to take a class and to learn
something new but it’s also important to
give yourself time so that you can
recharge because my life is about
meeting people and everywhere I go I’m
always constantly thinking about ways of
building community ways of connecting
with another person truly connecting
with another person by understanding
where they come from understanding what
differences we have so that I can see a
new asset of myself and learn from their
experiences so it’s important to give
yourself some time in the mornings or
whenever you want to give yourself time
in 2008 I opened up an art gallery and
routine is certainly found in the
multi-faceted business of running an art
gallery it’s it’s it’s it’s like running
a little museum basically so I opened up
the gallery and I wanted it to be
inclusive I wanted it to be inspiring I
wanted to be inviting I want it to build
community through the gallery and over
the last 10 years since 2008 we’ve
hosted over 100 exhibitions we’ve worked
with 500 artists from across the
southeast and beyond we’ve built
collections and work with teams to place
art in institutions and museums and
corporations and and and and many many
private collections and what I found is
that the gallery has become a vehicle
for art to thrive the gallery has become
a community center for people to come
and enjoy art and not feel like they
don’t know what they’re seeing a gallery
is a place where people can feel
inspired and we’re not for the structure
and the plans and the the routine that
we’ve built
then we would not be successful because
we’re constantly planning we plan our
exhibitions year in advance so that we
have enough time for artists to create
so that we have enough time to promote
the shows that we’re planning openings
and and and fundraisers and nonprofit
events and pop-up exhibitions and artist
talks and we’re always always planning
and so the more you plan the better the
outcome though that doesn’t mean you
stay true to your plan the whole time
because on any given week when I go
there I don’t know what’s gonna happen
and I don’t know what’s gonna create
what we’re gonna create and I don’t know
who’s going to come in and that’s the
exciting and the daunting and the scary
part of being a creative is that we
don’t know and so on any given week a
set decorator might come by and want to
choose 10 pieces for the next movie
that’s being filmed in Atlanta or museum
might call us because they need pieces
for fundraisers and and the like and so
not only is it important to have a
routine and have a plan and have a
structure but it’s good to be flexible
and it’s good to be adaptable and it’s
good to let in something by not holding
on to your plans because like they say
life is what happens when you’re
planning and so you must allow life to
happen by being adaptable and flexible
to those changes and so if I can view
the last 15 years or so since I’ve been
here at Emory and and through my
professional life I’ve realized that
that process becomes inspiration and
that like they say the the the journey
is the destination and that certainly is
true because constraints and routine is
what fuels creativity so the third and
final pursuit of creativity in my eyes
is to build a strong Network and my
mother who’s here with my my father
imparted with me great notions that we
are all here to connect that we’re all
here to relate that we’re all here to
feel inspired and and true presence and
true connection
from being completely open with another
person being inquisitive and asking
questions and and opening yourself up
and listening to them and their
struggles in their life and their
excitements and all the things that that
we tend to forget about because we’re so
connected and we are always so busy to
get to the next thing that sometimes we
must slow down to allow ourselves to be
in the presence of another and there’s
nothing as wonderful as being truly in
the presence of another and and sharing
and and and creating that experience
because with every encounter and every
conversation and every connection we are
co-creating and creativity is is about
being creative and your thoughts and
being creative in your feelings and
being creative in your actions and in
applying your own uniqueness to
everything you want to create in your
life and everything that you’ve
practiced so if you want to open our out
gallery if you want to start a piano
studio if you want to be a doctor a
dentist a barista whatever you do do it
with your own unique flair the best
pianists and musicians are always
practicing their instruments the best
artists are always in their studio
creating and if you’re successful then
you always have too much to do the
creative life is vulnerable it’s
exciting it’s daunting it’s unlimited so
in your pursuit of your own passions and
whatever you choose to create in your
life find great mentors build a routine
build an expansive network and start
living creatively thank you so much
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
and thank you all for coming and thank
you for being here today it’s an honor
to be here I’m excited to be here back
at my alma mater to share with you my
life’s work the pursuit of creativity
through art and music I have an
extraordinary life I wake up every
morning I get to share the opportunity
to share my passions in piano and with
my guy with my art gallery and art and
every day I wake up with the chance to
be inspired and through my piano studio
I teach about 25 students weekly from
ages 4 to 70 so it’s a big broad range
of students and my students really
inspire me I learn lessons of diligence
and practice and performance and
persistence and in my art practice I am
inspired every day I’m surrounded by
creativity I literally get to look at
art every day as a job and it’s amazing
and I work with artists and set
decorators curators museum curators
consultants and collectors and we find
artworks that inspire their environments
that bring inspiration through their
spaces and today I’d like to share with
you three key factors in my pursuit of
creativity that’s helped me become
successful the first is to find great
mentors my first mentor which probably a
lot of you guys had was your parents and
my parents are actually here from
Roswell far away from Roswell in Roswell
Georgia and my dad was my first mentor
he moved to the States in pursuit of the
American dream he was an architect from
Taiwan and when he moved here he did
what all agents do which is start
laundromat and it was where
actually my sister and I learned the
best life lessons about patience about
persistence and very much an
outside-the-box thinker he always was
finding ways of innovating of growing of
being resourceful and finding the
solution where you least expect it which
is always the case
and so I’m really grateful that they’re
here today and also that about the time
that I opened the gallery my father
decided that he wanted to retire and he
has now become a pretty successful
gallery artist and he shows at my
gallery and his works have been placed
so when I was in the eighth grade I my
parents put me into a new piano studio
her name was mrs. Betty Nolting she
lived in Buckhead and she was incredible
not only was she gifted at teaching and
and and sharing her joys and music but
taught me life lessons that I that I’ve
just grown from and she recently passed
away a year ago in March at 98 but what
she imparted with me I held with me for
for all my life and one of the most
important lessons that teachers can
teach and what I impart with the artists
and the students that come through the
gallery is that we are all in life
teachers and that we are all students
and it depends on the situation that
we’re in and her mentorship
and our friendship came full circle when
as adults I would spend once a month
going to her home I would share meals
with her I would take her out to the
Opera wherever Tamara’s of easier I we
would talk about best piano practices we
would talk about ways of playing ways of
practicing ways of teaching and we would
play for each other and it was then that
I realized that my mentor had become my
peer and it was just a wonderful
symbiosis kind of full circle life thing
so in life there are also people that
teach
what best not to do and when I started
in the art world when I was 24 years old
I was basically mentored by someone
whose traits I didn’t aspire to to put
it mildly and but when you’re in an
environment where your creativity and
and and your your soul and your being
isn’t being nurtured it isn’t being
fostered isn’t being mentored then you
realize that you start to find lessons
of ways of being persistent of ways of
pivoting of ways to finding courage
through the challenging times and it was
such a really great life lesson and
learning experience and I wouldn’t have
it a turn either any other way because
when I was in fear and when I was placed
in a place of doubt and uncertainty
about myself about my professional life
that creativity actually becomes
essential in that environment and so
when I was in it I told myself wow gosh
what would I do if I would ever open my
own gallery and I guess 14 years later
Here I am and I wouldn’t be able to do
what I do today had I not been through a
challenging time and so find mentors
that nurture your growth but also find
people that both inspire you and
challenge you because we’re here to grow
through our changes and grow through our
differences and we’re not here to stay
stagnant nor are we here to just be with
like-minded people because I that’s
another TED talk but that’s the world
that we’re living in now so now the
second factor in the pursuit of
creativity is to build a routine we tend
to think as people that when we have
structure and when we have schedules and
we when we make plans and we build
routines that it it constricts our
freedom that it stifles our creativity
but I would like to argue that actually
the the opposite is true that when we
make a plan when we build a routine that
creativity has a basis and a foundation
to flourish
that plans make room for play and that
certainly is true because I’m playing
every day and it’s it’s it’s inspired as
a pianist um like I said I have 25
students and eight of them are adults
and some of them actually went to this
institution and study music and and some
of them are concert pianists in their
own right and I have to learn really
difficult music that that I have to be
able to teach and be effective in my
role as an instructor as a pianist and
so constantly my routine is learning the
measures learning note by note learning
the passages learning the the music
between the notes and how to best
express it to to my students and if you
can extrapolate music as it relates to
life you realize that it’s all about
building the foundation and the routine
for success to happen it’s all about the
practice of going full force with
whatever you do and through that
practice and through those difficult
passages in terms of music
and all the the hard things that we we
go through in our practice in our daily
practice whatever it might be
that we grow from those challenges and
we learn from our mistakes so teaching
piano is it’s really fun and really
inspiring
but but challenging as well I think also
it’s really important to have a routine
where you schedule in free time where
your schedule in self-care time where
you schedule in a routine where you can
think creatively and reflect back on
life and reflect back on what it is
you’d like to accomplish where you’ve
been where you’re going what you’d like
to create what you want to attract into
your life and that time for me is the
mornings I wake up when I want probably
around like 8 a.m. every day and I have
three hours of unconstructed free time I
wake up I have a tea ritual I go out for
walks when it’s nice out I meditate I
practice piano I read a lot and
and it’s that time of self-care and it’s
that time of reflection and it’s a time
of solitude where I can feel like I can
recharge and re-energize and and
rejuvenate and so not only it’s
important to schedule time to meet with
people and to take a class and to learn
something new but it’s also important to
give yourself time so that you can
recharge because my life is about
meeting people and everywhere I go I’m
always constantly thinking about ways of
building community ways of connecting
with another person truly connecting
with another person by understanding
where they come from understanding what
differences we have so that I can see a
new asset of myself and learn from their
experiences so it’s important to give
yourself some time in the mornings or
whenever you want to give yourself time
in 2008 I opened up an art gallery and
routine is certainly found in the
multi-faceted business of running an art
gallery it’s it’s it’s it’s like running
a little museum basically so I opened up
the gallery and I wanted it to be
inclusive I wanted it to be inspiring I
wanted to be inviting I want it to build
community through the gallery and over
the last 10 years since 2008 we’ve
hosted over 100 exhibitions we’ve worked
with 500 artists from across the
southeast and beyond we’ve built
collections and work with teams to place
art in institutions and museums and
corporations and and and and many many
private collections and what I found is
that the gallery has become a vehicle
for art to thrive the gallery has become
a community center for people to come
and enjoy art and not feel like they
don’t know what they’re seeing a gallery
is a place where people can feel
inspired and we’re not for the structure
and the plans and the the routine that
we’ve built
then we would not be successful because
we’re constantly planning we plan our
exhibitions year in advance so that we
have enough time for artists to create
so that we have enough time to promote
the shows that we’re planning openings
and and and fundraisers and nonprofit
events and pop-up exhibitions and artist
talks and we’re always always planning
and so the more you plan the better the
outcome though that doesn’t mean you
stay true to your plan the whole time
because on any given week when I go
there I don’t know what’s gonna happen
and I don’t know what’s gonna create
what we’re gonna create and I don’t know
who’s going to come in and that’s the
exciting and the daunting and the scary
part of being a creative is that we
don’t know and so on any given week a
set decorator might come by and want to
choose 10 pieces for the next movie
that’s being filmed in Atlanta or museum
might call us because they need pieces
for fundraisers and and the like and so
not only is it important to have a
routine and have a plan and have a
structure but it’s good to be flexible
and it’s good to be adaptable and it’s
good to let in something by not holding
on to your plans because like they say
life is what happens when you’re
planning and so you must allow life to
happen by being adaptable and flexible
to those changes and so if I can view
the last 15 years or so since I’ve been
here at Emory and and through my
professional life I’ve realized that
that process becomes inspiration and
that like they say the the the journey
is the destination and that certainly is
true because constraints and routine is
what fuels creativity so the third and
final pursuit of creativity in my eyes
is to build a strong Network and my
mother who’s here with my my father
imparted with me great notions that we
are all here to connect that we’re all
here to relate that we’re all here to
feel inspired and and true presence and
true connection
from being completely open with another
person being inquisitive and asking
questions and and opening yourself up
and listening to them and their
struggles in their life and their
excitements and all the things that that
we tend to forget about because we’re so
connected and we are always so busy to
get to the next thing that sometimes we
must slow down to allow ourselves to be
in the presence of another and there’s
nothing as wonderful as being truly in
the presence of another and and sharing
and and and creating that experience
because with every encounter and every
conversation and every connection we are
co-creating and creativity is is about
being creative and your thoughts and
being creative in your feelings and
being creative in your actions and in
applying your own uniqueness to
everything you want to create in your
life and everything that you’ve
practiced so if you want to open our out
gallery if you want to start a piano
studio if you want to be a doctor a
dentist a barista whatever you do do it
with your own unique flair the best
pianists and musicians are always
practicing their instruments the best
artists are always in their studio
creating and if you’re successful then
you always have too much to do the
creative life is vulnerable it’s
exciting it’s daunting it’s unlimited so
in your pursuit of your own passions and
whatever you choose to create in your
life find great mentors build a routine
build an expansive network and start
living creatively thank you so much
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
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