As an emerging artist, or a creative startup, it can be stressful in the early days, until you find your niche and you can make a living by doing what you love.
Diellza Ilgner is a Malta-based transdisciplinary performance artist working across theatre, multimedia, and audience-engaged art. Her work addresses social themes like migration, disability, and environmental issues.
Her plan is to be successful both creatively and commercially.
That involves embracing business techniques in a creative way, to fit with her values, personality and ambitions.
Diellza said: “David’s message is that we can combine creativity and business. We can use the tools of business in a smart way, to be successful both creatively and commercially.”
Diellza has written and directed three plays, including BLACKOUT, a piece on media addiction, and her practice reflects her personal experience with disability, offering fresh perspectives on accessibility and movement.
One of the challenges facing many early stage creative enterprises is the overwhelming feeling of having too much choice, which can be very stressful. For someone like Diellza, with an abundance of talent, lots of ideas, and seemingly endless possibilities, how to you decide where to focus? How do you find your niche – or niches?
At this early stage, many creatives feel confused by too many choices, yet struggling to generate an adequate income. In reality, in this early period, they are doing practical market research, even if they don’t realise it or use that term.
Diellza is aware of this and she’s smart enough to ‘listen to the market’, meaning she is learning where there is demand for her particular talents.
She is willing to combine the ideas of others with her own inspiration, to find which projects she can use to build her business alongside her growing reputation.
Photo credit: Alina Schewtschenko
Reflecting on this situation, Diellza said:
“I’m in a phase of exploration and discovery, identifying what David calls my ‘unfair advantage’ in an abundantly talented artistic landscape. By recognising my unique strengths and building connections with aligned partners and clients, I’m creating a foundation where financial stability serves my art so that my creative practice can truly breathe and evolve authentically, doing work that genuinely matters to me.”
Diellza will go far as she carves her creative path!
Links
:
www.diellza-ilgner.com
Text copyright © David Parrish 2025.
Some rights reserved (Creative Commons Licence).
Images used with permission
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