Ep. 104: Letting It Be with Artist Tony Powell

Dubbed a 21st-century "Renaissance Man" by The Washington Post, Tony is a choreographer, composer, painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, graphic designer and writer. He's a graduate of the Juilliard School and directed his own dance company, Tony Powell Music and Movement, for 10 years. He is a native Washingtonian whose work can be found on the cover of Washington Life, Arena Stage Productions, National Geographic, and much more. His photography includes work with Pope Francis, U.S. Presidents, and famous movie stars. On this episode, Tony joins us to talk about his success and his struggles, and we hope his story is an inspiration to everyone.

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Show Notes

[5:24] That experience, even though it didn't happen at the time, it planted the seed in me to know that I could write music, that I could be a choreographer, that I could be a dancer, that I could be a singer.
[5:35] That one experience, I think I would have to say was the fountainhead for me in terms of just realizing that there could be a career doing what I love so much, which is whatever I was writing, painting.
[5:58] It's about putting these disparate elements together to make a cohesive whole.
[6:31] Creativity is probably what most civilizations will be remembered by.
[6:40] When we look back at the Renaissance, we don't think about mundane things. We think about the beautiful paintings and sculptures that were left behind by Leonardo and Michelangelo and these great artists. We don't think about other things. We really look at what they left behind artistically, culturally.
[8:10] My dad was a musician and he told me he did it to make enough money to buy beer.
[9:36] A really important part of my upbringing was being able to have this resource to really see what was really out there.
[11:07] I didn't realize how sick I had become from the disease of addiction. I hadn't realized that instead of going to classes, I was now skipping school to do drugs and to drink all day and really had no idea just how bad it was until I actually got kicked out of Juilliard.
[12:31] I'm just so grateful that they allowed me to come back, because that was one of the first times I could really see a correlation between sobriety and achievement.
[13:10] That beneficent path when I'm walking that path, the options are just endless.
[14:14] There's a beautiful love story there. But it was punctuated with all of the sickness with this alcoholism and new children being born and hospitalizations and rehab and detox and psych wards.
[14:58] I rested on my laurels and thought that with this adulation, I could now somehow safely drink.
[15:15] I had to lose everything just to see how beautiful life is today.
[16:08] This is my prayer back that thanking the universe for this incredible life, for this opportunity to share with you all what it was like and what it's like now in hopes that maybe someone can hear this and it'll benefit them.
[17:32] When I tie my worth, my value, my esteem, so to speak, when I tie that to the opinions or something external outside of me, I'm easily manipulatable. But when I find that source of security and strength inside, when I find that within myself, I'm not affected by anything outside of me.
[18:59] I think the most important thing I can do is to tell someone how I'm feeling.
[22:07] The most important way I relax today is daily meditation has changed my life.
[23:41] In Buddhism we talk about letting be, which is very different than accepting. Acceptance means that I somehow think something's wrong. And now, as the result of all of this work and the teachings that I follow, I realize that nothing is out of place, absolutely everything is for my benefit.
[24:05] I've gone from things happening to me to everything happening for me.
[25:18] Someone gives you a vase filled with flowers. Are you going to not love the flowers less because you know they're going to die in three days? No, you probably love the flowers more because you realize they won't be there for a long period of time. And it's the same with anything else.
[26:08] Real love is appreciating who someone is for the time that you have with them.
[28:57] When all else fails, smile at somebody, be kind to someone, try to do something and not even let them know about it.
[31:28] If there's someone really sick in a family, that sickness radiates outward and affects everyone else.
[33:37] It's up to me to try to get better, but I need my family to come along for the ride.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“Creativity is probably what most civilizations will be remembered by.” - Tony Powell
“When all else fails, smile at somebody, be kind to someone, try to do something and not even let them know about it.” - Tony Powell
“When I tie my worth, my value, my esteem, so to speak, when I tie that to the opinions or something external outside of me, I'm easily manipulatable. But when I find that source of security and strength inside, when I find that within myself, I'm not affected by anything outside of me.” - Tony Powell

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