Over Drinks and Talks

“It isn’t the piece of art itself that’s so incredible, it’s the the story behind it.”  I overheard a woman saying this as she stood back from a painting, contemplating it’s meaning, asking the artist questions…then debating with her husband on whether she would buy the piece or not.

I saw some astounding art today, (yes, I will share with Charlie soon.) In total, I went to 11 galleries this afternoon. Wearing my most broken in fringe boots-appropriate for walking in style and with fancy-free speed. I hopped from gallery to gallery, up Canyon Road, down through the Plaza and over to Lincoln Avenue. I talked to every single owner. I asked ALL THE QUESTIONS.

Sure, there were a few galleries that I had peered in through the window and thought to myself, “meh… not really my cup of tea.”  However, despite my first judgment, I went in anyway. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, give everything(one) a chance, the phrases for non-judgment went through my mind…. And sure enough, this is where the lesson lays;

When you know the story behind the story. The river beneath the river, you are able to appreciate what’s on the outside so much more.

Nothing is as it seems as first glance. Every piece of art. Every gallery. Every person. Every season that the artist decided to use that specific hue of peach, there was a reason for it.

As creative people, finding a way to make your art DYNAMIC, 3-D, expansive below the surface by cultivating a story for it, hammering out the details and layers is an imperative step.

Or as actors say, “What happened the moment before? What’s the internal dialogue?”

Today, SEE BEYOND THE SURFACE. In your life/art and in the art, people and stories around you.

x
Chelsea

(Image note: Art by Lynden St. Victor, look for the “story” of this piece soon in Mona Liza….)

It is always important to know the story. But majority of people just look on the outside, the first impression. That’s why it’s important to make a good first impression, no?

I know, i know- i’m sure for some of you this email is met with moans and groans, it’s always hard to get back into the rhythm of the week. You aren’t alone. I’ll match that with this though… (hopefully it will give you the flame necessary to light up your week…)

Over the weekend I went to Santa Fe, New Mexico on an impromptu trip with my family ( Actually, I’m writing you covered in lavender oil and I’m pretty sure there is still mud stuck under my fingernails from the mineral spa I discovered this afternoon.) I found my creative space over the weekend, just like I hope you found yours (amidst your Charlie instructed adventures) and while I was surrounded by artists, writers, painters, farmers…I thought to myself, “wow, what a wonderful and supportive COMMUNITY there is here.”

Community.

Ah, yes. Community is essential for an artist to thrive. When you are surrounded by other people creating, foraging for inspiration and bravely sharing their art with the world, it gives you the motivation pay attention to YOUR art. If you know that your endeavors are supported, the uphill climb is less taxing. With community, you can endure, with grace and fortitude, the inevitable roadblocks along the way.

This week, how can you acknowledge, sustain and support YOUR community? How can you make it stronger?

Here’s a few ideas to build your community:
Introduce yourself to your neighbor.  Find an “artistic accountability partner,” check in with one another a couple times a week to see how your project is doing, encourage one another when you’re struggling. Have a potluck. Introduce yourself to that person you see at the coffee shop every morning. Offer to help out, do it genuinely. Sit on your porch, your stoop, OUTSIDE in general. Build something with a GROUP of people. See a local exhibit, support their art- pass it on to a friend. Get out into the garden, share your food. Start a tradition. Look people in the eye. Host a game night. Make an effort to understand someone who is different than you, ASK TO LEARN THEIR STORY. Then, tell them yours.

Play Twister.

And remember, you always have You, Me and Charlie.

SHARE YOUR STORIES OF BUILDING COMMUNITY WITH US.

xo
Chelsea

I am a loner. An introvert. And I don’t know how to socialize with people. Mainly girls, I’d say.

I always say the wrong things even though it seemed fine in my head. But the moment those words leave my mouth. That. Is. It.

I don’t think I can ever feel part of any community.

Sunday is the best day.

I say this every Sunday regardless of whether I have plans or not. Even if I’m tired, or bored. I accept the rest, or the busyness. Perhaps it’s the intention I wake up with, or that it really is a magickal day, but either way- it always is wonderful. I’ve built my relationship with the day to be a good one, I EXPECT it to be wonderful and if expectation is all I have to possess for wonderful to unfold, then expectation it is.

Are you going to expect a wonderful day? If it can work for one day, doesn’t that mean it can work for all the others? Sunny outlook, engaged.

My Sunday started out great!

I met up with an awesome friend because we haven’t met in a long while. We spent Maccas brunch catching up. Well, mostly me filling him in. And then we went on a photography walk along the beach with my lomo cameras. But he was awful because he only took 3 shots. THREE SHOTS!

The day was wonderful. The beach was awesome. It didn’t feel like the usual ugly, dirty filled with people beach. Today, the beach was awesome awesome awesome.

The sand was almost white, there wasn’t a lot of folks along the beach, the sea was so blue, so blue that it just felt heavenly to dive in, the skies were so clear, so blue, so lovely.

We sat on a rock and just took everything in. It didn’t matter that the hot scorching sun was bearing down on us because a lovely cool wind kept blowing on and on.

Then we walked a distance away to an ice cream parlour to have waffles with homemade ice cream.

Heavenly.

Then it got crappy when I got home. The babies were awake, the guy wasn’t happy and helping with the babies (he just played his computer games). And I was unhappy. Like I couldn’t spend some hours with an old friend. Like I shouldn’t.

God help me.

Happy Saturday morning. Or pardon me, happy Saturday afternoon- I sure do hope you slept in.

In fact, here’s your itinerary for the day: If you did NOT sleep in, set your alarm for an hour from now. Please return to your slumber (continue reading after.)

1. Your first meal: We like brunch, brunch is flexible and often includes champagne. You get to sleep and eat french toast AND eggs benedict in one day. Glorious. Go to your favorite brunch spot and tweet: #Charliebrunch
2. After you’re done eating, explore the 5 surrounding blocks, what did you find? Tweet your answer with #Charlieontheblock
3. Now that you’ve explored, take a seat and watch. Notice your surroundings. What did you see? Tweet: #ThatsSoCharlie
4. Call your best friend. Tell him we told you to, tell them we also say hello. Waves hi!
5. Take the last sentence your friend tells you on the phone and make it a journal prompt, Tweet the line with: #CharlieSays
6. When you return home, pick a book that reminds you of your Mom, open to a random page- what’s the first line you see? Tweet with #Charliereads
7. Take the line from the book and create a piece of art inspired by it. Tweet with a photo and #CharlieArt

Enjoy! Can’t wait to see your adventures!

I adore brunch. In fact, I’m currently on a Brunch Quest. I’ve managed to try out three places I’ve been wanting to brunch for a long time. And I’ve got a long list to cover. So let’s go!…

And I’ll probably do those pointers one day. Some day.

Big cities, big dreams, they often, they go hand in hand. They compliment one another like peanut butter and jelly, or dark chocolate and sea salt. Beets and goat cheese. (Clearly, someone is hungry while writing this….but I digress.) While yes, they work in sync, dreamers still need space to dream.

Between your twice daily 45 minute commute, your cramped apartment and the constant bombarding of people, lights, packed calendars! All the emails! Hustling, bustling, motion…. it’s easy for us to lose sight of stillness and connection to our OWN ideas.

Whether you’re in Los Angeles, New York City or you aren’t in a big city at all, we can ALL relate to the feeling suffocation. Be it from a person, a job, or your social life. When you’re too crowded, your creativity doesn’t always have the ability to run up the wall, do a leap, STRETCH OUT, “free form.” This can be taken literally, or not. Your call.

POINT BEING. Give your creative brain ROOM. Let the roots bust through the sidewalks, encourage the “wild hair,” and when you do make sure that you don’t have to “pencil it in.”
After all, that would be considered a plan, not an impulse. Creativity is notoriously impulsive. An unannounced muse coming to say hello.

THIS WEEKEND I urger you to find space.

Clear out your inbox. Sidebar that deadline. Take a sabbatical from the internet. Take a drive. Hit the road. Let that thought that takes up too much of your mind, GO. Stretch through your ribs and your heart. Say no to the things that crowd you and YES to the things that remind you of your WINGS.

Fly little Charlies. HAPPY FRIDAY.

I wish I had time to just take off and not look back. Even for awhile.

THERE IS NO TIME.

That is all I have to say.

It’s natural for artists and creative types to experience “ruts,” if you will. You know the times when you stare at the blank page, or computer screen and think to yourself…. I got nothin’.  Dry as a bone. It happens and almost the instant that it happens, the fear that maybe you’ve created your last amazing thing and this is the end of the road, sneaks its pesky little head in. Which, subsequently makes the rut deeper….because you and your “fear shovel” keep on digging.

Today, if you feel STUCK in your life, or your art decide to put the shovel down. What is it that you keep doing that makes the rut deeper? Perhaps it’s simply that you keep stating, “I’m so stuck.” Which stalls you from even STARTING in the first place. Put the shovel down.

When you’re busying yourself with other projects, because you’re afraid to finish the one you’ve already started, put the shovel down. When you start picking on yourself for not being faster, smarter, more inspired….put the shovel down. When you want to dig- fill up the rut instead.

Fill it with brainstorm sessions, a walk, a call to your best girlfriend who says that “thing” that sparks the creativity again. Fill the rut. Put the shovel down…. you have dreams waiting to flourish.

x Chelsea

I wish I had time. I mean, the shovel is ALWAYS in my hands. And that’s the only thing I can do: shovel. I need to put it down. But I need to find time.

When?

The truth and wisdom are flowing through to you at all times, if you decide to listen to yourself. At the root of self awareness is the kernel of truth.

This morning while I was driving to the Charlie HQ, I was in my morning-daydream, “Rhiannon” was blaring on my stereo and a dream I’ve been sitting with was spinning in the hamster wheel of my mind. I let it spin to the place of visualizing the dream becoming a reality and not just a “Chelsea’s imagination on coffee.” I could see it so clearly, taste it, smell it, feel the rhythm of it and how I looked living it. Then, I did something that surprised myself and I said out loud, “Wouldn’t that be crazy?”

Almost immediately, I considered my reaction to the idea of my dream coming true, the kernel was telling me that I thought it was a crazy idea, like an elephant growing wings, or being able teleport yourself like Mike TV in Willy Wonka. In a sense, my thinking that the dream seemed “insane,” if it were to come true was also inferring that, for it to become MY reality it would be akin to an elephant growing wings. A.K.A. Sweet dream dude, but not happening anytime soon. Too bananas to be actualized. Fruitless. Silly little bird.

As a self-proclaimed Dream Warrior, I was disappointed to my internal response. I literally thought about this all day, repeating, “Wouldn’t that be crazy?” but this time, I followed up the question with, “…what’s so crazy about it?” The answers I came up with weren’t crazy at all, in fact, if one person has achieved a crazy dream, then why are you any different? If you give the unreasonable parts of a dream a name, you realize they aren’t all that scary and unreasonable at all.

Catch your thoughts today and when you’re on the edge of thinking something is too big, or too incredible for you, shake your head and remember the only thing that’s crazy about that is you thinking it wasn’t made specifically for YOU. You crazy little thing.

x Chelsea

I always have something crazy that I dream. Unfortunately, it’s usually negative. So I shall keep my crazies. For now.

As artists you have to be able to tap into a stillness that allows you to create freely and without judgment. Yesterday we were reading a go-to book for inspiration, “Writing down the bones” by Natalie Goldberg and she said:

“Listening is receptivity. The deeper you can listen, the better you can write.”  She goes on to say, “So just listen, read and write. Little by little you will come closer to what you need to say and express it through your voice.”

When we read that we realized that it isn’t just WRITING, that this piece of wisdom goes with, it’s life. It’s creating of any type. Listen. Whether you’re listening to what’s around you, or you’re simply listening to what’s going on within. Start there. And begin.

Team Charlie

I need this. I mean, I hear, but listening is a totally different thing. I struggle with my voice. I struggle to make it heard. Make someone listen and understand.

I need this.

This is Arianna. I met her when she was just 2 years old. She went to the daycare where I worked in Atsugi, Japan. Today, she is 5 years old and lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

Arianna has spent the last 3 years fighting a very rare form of cancer: Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor (or ATRT). It started off as a simple trip to the doctor because she wasn’t feeling well. While waiting for some blood results, Arianna started to have seizures and was taken to another city’s hospital. We lived on a Navy base in a foreign country, so we didn’t have the special machines and imagery needed to diagnose Arianna correctly. Her parents finally found out what was causing these seizures; their nearly 3 year old baby girl had a tumor on her brain.

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital has taken amazing care of Arianna and her family. They even started calling her ‘The Princess of St. Jude’. Disney Princesses are Arianna’s absolute favorite. During every Chemo treatment, she wore a Princess dress and held a Princess doll.

She was cancer free for almost a year, but last spring, a tumor reappeared. The scans showed that it was spreading to other parts of her body and the doctors told the family to prepare for the worst. There was a special Christmas in July for Arianna last summer. Christmas is her favorite time of year and the doctors said she might not make it to the actual holiday. Snow White was in attendance.

It is now March, almost a full year since Arianna’s family was given the horrible news that she only had a couple of months to live. Yesterday, she went to Disney World. This is a picture of a very special Princess and her Prince Charming.

Some people have bad days. Some people have bad weeks. Arianna has had bad years, but that doesn’t stop her. Cancer doesn’t stop her. This picture brings a smile to my face every time I look at it. One day, she is going to get her Happily Ever After, I know it. She deserves it.

Dance, Arianna.  =]

Maria Cole
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Thanks for sharing with the rest of us Maria.

Team Charlie

This is sad and sweet.

Thanks for sharing Lila.  Have a beautiful Sunday Charlies!

Team Charlie

My problem is that I don’t know what makes me happy. If it was only that simple. Really.