Meet the Artist

Hi friends,

I am Sierra Truong, artist & meditation teacher behind Inner Beauty By Sierra & The Grounded Circle.

I was always into art at a very young age, but it took me almost 30 years of my life to finally have the courage to live my dream which is doing art full time. If we think of living our life purpose (or dharma) as being on a train of life which we have the control to pick the destination and to get on and get off at any station we want, I got off at a wrong station which was to try to become an architect earlier in my early 20s. I don't often consider any past experience as a wrong decision. But in this case, I used the word "wrong" because since the beginning I knew that I did not really want to become an architect. I still finished the architecture degree (plus the master degree) and worked as an architectural graduate and later as an interior designer for almost a decade. Deep down I knew all I wanted was to do art.

So I knew I got off the wrong station, I tried to hop back on the train again but this time I picked a different line. I found a spiritual guru (Sri Chinmoy - if you are curious who my guru was), became his disciple and joined his spiritual path. There was a saying along this line "when the student is ready, the master will appear" in which perfectly describes my situation. One day while walking around my campus and seeing a meditation class's poster "whenever you go, carries happiness with you", I was intrigued and decided to try the class on the same day. And that day was the first of over 3 years journey being on a path of devotion. In my spiritual path, everyone believed that a career isn't as important as your dedication to the Supreme (and to our guru). I kept on having my boring job while my main focus is the spiritual activities outside working hours. I was happy and buzzing being with the community of super hardcore meditators. But 3 years later, I experienced a mild depression from burning out of doing too much. I was working a boring yet stressful job and too many selfless service activities that making me resenting being part of my spiritual community. During this time, I was involved in different community projects such as meditation classes, retreats, fund raising activities, and many other activities (on top of my full time job). My day would start from 6am til 10 or 11pm most days. I totally forgot to look after myself when continuously saying yes to everything. My cup was empty. This probable was one of the most confusing time in my life up to this point. The only thing that could help me connecting with myself and the world again was to draw and art journal my thoughts and feelings. I left my spiritual path.

 

And I started drawing and putting my art out on Instagram. My artworks were all line art back then, simply hand drawings that being scanned and posted on Instagram and Facebook. My meditation helped me connected to my inner self and my art helped processing all my feelings and emotions. Then I could be able to sail to a safe habour myself without having the support of a big community I used to have. Leaving the community of people that I considered my chosen family was not easy. And creating art has helped me to share and connect to the world once again after 3 years of staying out of the normal world and hiding in my spiritual path.

In the end of 2019, I realized that my spiritual practices & my art are one. And thanks to all of my past experiences, I now are back on the train that are meant for me, the direct line with my life purpose. The thing is once we know the feeling of living on an alignment with your life purpose or dharma or sacred duty whatever word we use for this, we wouldn't want to get off the wrong station again. That's when I quit my 9-5 job as a commercial interior designer and started building INNER BEAUTY BY SIERRA. Like many other girls, beauty was something I chased after and didn't believe that I have it. Since I was a very little girl, I adored beauty in all things. It led me to love creating art and making things look nice and beautiful. I always wanted to look beautiful. Until one day, I realized that if I don't feel beautiful, it doesn't matter how I look. If I don't feel beautiful, it doesn't matter how pretty is the things I make or the art that I create. It is all coming from within. It is all coming from how I feel about myself. That's when the concept of my "INNER BEAUTY" started. The question was only about how to evoke that inner beauty? 

During my time in my spiritual path living as a nun (apart from still going to work everyday, I didn't engage in anything else of the outside world), I have experienced inner beauty very strongly on a daily basis. It is not a myth, it is more real than any cosmetic commercials out there. It is all about how to get to know myself better, how to listen more to my inner self, how to connect deeply to my inner self. Meditation, yoga, spiritual practices are great tools and so does creating art & crafts and so does doing sport. Because these activities could be very meditative, and they forcing us to be in the moment. Art is powerful as it is not only about creating beauty, but also about sharing the inner world of the artists to the outside world.

And with Inner Beauty By Sierra, what I am trying to embody everyday in myself and in my art is to inspire others to tap into their inner beauty in order to live their most authentic and abundant life. Because living your dream is very fulfilling, once you know it you won't want to live any other way, especially the ones that society has picked out for you. And happiness & abundance are byproducts of being in an alignment with your life purpose.

Love & gratitude,
Sierra
 

Leave a comment

Back to News