#028: Finding Your Voice When No One Is Telling You What To Create With Christi Meril

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they did a small show together.

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Um, and anna said I have this concept, I want to have a, have resident artists, I want everyone to, you know, be in an open space.

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And she was like, do you have anybody you would want to call?

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And mel Melissa said I have one person I will call.

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And she called me.

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And that was when she said you know, would would you like to to go to the design district, like, and I was like, yes, I will follow you anywhere, cause she's we had become such good friends that I knew that if it was something she was interested in, then I would be interested in it.

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So, like, that like really changed the path of my professional journey right there, because I became a part of ALG.

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That was in the summer of June of 2018.

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We moved on to Dragon Street at the end of 18.

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And Welcome to another edition of For the Love of Creatives podcast.

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I am Dwight and I'm joined by Maddox.

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We're the Connections and Community guys, and today our featured guest is the lovely Christy Merrill.

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Welcome, christy.

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Hi guys, I'm so happy to be here.

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Thanks for asking me to join you.

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Yeah, this has worked out so great.

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We're happy to have you here.

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Thank you so much.

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Of course.

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Now, Christy, we have known you for the last couple of years.

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I believe that we actually met at a creatives event that we had on during a summer.

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It was a summer gathering at a gallery in Deep Ellum and it was a huge blowout and I remember um, you, um.

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You made quite an impression on us there.

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Oh, thank you.

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Yeah, Uh, and I know that you've done so much in the way of giving back to the community and you have some incredible pieces that speak to nature and touch on themes of things, themes of modernity, and really get you to question, and I would I feel like I could do no justice and describing who you are and what you're about.

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So could you fill in any of our listeners to let them know about you in a couple minutes?

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Yeah, so again, I'm Christy Merrill.

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I live in Dallas, texas, and I'm a multidimensionary artist and I love to create with paintbrushes and with my hands, and so that's kind of as I've evolved as an artist, going from just traditional paint on canvas to starting to express myself through shapes and sculpture.

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So I guess I really love being immersed in nature and the creativity that comes out of me, and so, anyway, that's kind of where that all started and we can go into that later.

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But but I do, I just love to express myself through my work.

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I have a family.

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I have a husband that's amazing, his name is Scott.

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I have two daughters, sam and Molly, and a son-in-law, aaron, and we have four dogs, and we live in East Dallas and I work in the Dallas Design District.

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I'm a resident artist at ALG Fine Art, which is located on Dragon Street, and I've been there since it opened at the end of 2018.

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And so, yeah, that's a little bit about me.

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There's more, but my art is a big focus in my life at this point and I just love also giving back to the community.

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I'm on the board of DIFA Dallas.

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I'm in my second year on the board.

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I was on the Style Council in 2023, raising money for aid service organizations here in North Texas.

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I have been involved with Dwell with Dignity.

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I've served as art chair for them for at least twice and then also volunteered with them as an art consultant and DCAC and a few other things.

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So I do love giving back to the community and I feel like if I can't give back with my art, then why should I make art?

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So that's a little bit about me.

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What a great lead in Christy.

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I love how much you just put out there the whole community piece, because of course that's what Dwight and I are about.

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Yeah, yeah, I think that's why we connect.

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Yeah, I think that's why we connect.

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One thing that I think people would be of, will be, would be really interested in, would be how it is that you got started on your path, like how did you?

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What sent you in this direction?

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How did we?

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We get to see the fabulous Christy Merrill we know and love today?

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Thank you.

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Well, I did not go to art school.

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I'm completely self-taught, I was just minding my own business.

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I've always been super creative, whether it's like the interior design of our homes or painting things in my children's walls and when they were growing up, and things like that.

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So some of our very best friends their son was having his bar mitzvah very best friends their son was having his bar mitzvah.

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This was 20 years ago and I was at a stoplight one day and I, just my head.

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I was always going and I thought, you know, I want to do something different for them instead of buying them a gift that they are like family to us, and I wanted to do something for the parents that were our friends.

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And so I came up with this idea of creating a menorah in the shape of stones on canvas.

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And I'm not Jewish, I have a Jewish family and a ton of Jewish friends, but like I wanted to add Hebrew, so I had to like figure out like how to add a word in Hebrew.

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So I came up with this idea and I went and got a canvas and I created this menorah and it was really fun just to do the research on the different types of menorahs and everything.

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So I found out like the seven branch menorah is different than the Hanukkah branch menorah, which is like nine branches or nine candlesticks, and the seven branches like the oldest I think it's the oldest symbol of Judaism.

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So I thought, oh, this is really cool, so I did it.

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And then I got some Hebrew stamps and I figured out how to create the word light in Hebrew and I attached that on parchment onto the painting.

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So anyway, it was just a gift from my heart, a gift of love, and I'd done some painting before, but just nothing like professionally at all.

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And this was a gift.

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And the next thing I knew I was making menorahs for so many people and I ended up in the Jewish art fair at the Meyerson like a year later.

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So that's kind of where it all started.

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And then I just continued to just kind of explore different symbols with stones, with stacking stones, and then just kind of fell into evolving into abstract art.

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And then just one thing led to another and as my kids were getting older, it allowed me to have more time to pursue my art in a professional way and I would say in the last like 10 years especially, I've been able to really focus in on.

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You know my work 100 percent.

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So that's where we are now.

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So that's kind of how it all started.

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So what I'm hearing you say is that you didn't really set out to be an artist.

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No, I always say that if I had set out to be an artist, I would never have been an artist, because I am naturally a people pleaser.

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That's just kind of who I am, and I've been learning to grow out of that.

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You know, I think we people pleasers went from children on.

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If you're really lucky, you realize that that's not a healthy pattern, and so I've, you know, always I've been working towards that and I've gotten so much better.

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Um, but if back at you know college days, if I would have pursued art, I would have been freaked out about what direction you know professor would have.

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If I would have pursued art, I would have been freaked out about what direction you know professor would have wanted me to go into.

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This is right.

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This is wrong.

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Is my apple perfect?

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You know like all those things would have been really it would have killed my creative insight.

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You know like I think what's been really fun for me?

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It's like the one thing in my life that I always feel brave about is my art.

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It's just something that I don't make art to please people and that's why my art is really different.

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But it's so freeing and it's just my happy place.

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It's very therapeutic and I just have a lot of bravery when I'm approaching my art, and I'm not always that way in other parts of my life.

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So yeah, that's kind of how it happened.

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That's a really profound juxtaposition that you just laid out, because you just said that you suffered as a people pleaser your whole life, and the art is the one area where it's all yours, it's on your terms, it is what you want.

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Yeah, and I'm really lucky to have I've been surrounded by some really great, creative people that have supported me and encouraged me.

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I think, especially if you don't go to school for art, a lot of times it's hard to call yourself an artist and I now easily call myself that but it took a while it took about 10 years for me to feel comfortable using that word.

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But, yeah, just having people around me that encourage me to pursue things that maybe they haven't seen before, and tell me yes, tell me it, yes, it's the right direction, keep going.

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And I think I've been really lucky to have that as well.

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And I have a very supportive family my kids, my husband and and other members of my family as well.

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So it's, it's just, it's been a really joyful journey Overall.

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A really joyful journey overall.

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Wow, there's.

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There's two things that are really standing out for me.

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One is how many times in any given week we speak to creative people who have a hard time owning who they are.

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They have a hard time saying I'm an artist, or or I'm a dancer or I'm a poet, it doesn't matter what it is.

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It's like they'll say in fact, I just put out an article today that was about this very, very topic I write poems, but they won't say I'm a poet, I dance, but they won't say I'm a dancer, I paint, but they won't say I'm an artist.

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I'm a dancer, I paint, but they won't say I'm an artist.

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It's such a common theme.

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I would like to hear that day, when you finally said the words I am an artist Maybe you said them to yourself, maybe you said them to someone else what shifted for you that day when you made that declaration out into the universe?

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Because that's what it is, when you, the first time, you say I am an artist, that is a declaration out into the universe.

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Yeah, I don't have a specific day, I do think it is.

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I think it started about 10 years ago and I had gotten into some studio space outside of my home for the first time and I think just being like welcomed into a community of artists and seen as an equal was really is definitely I feel like it.

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Maybe not it was a single day or time that I remember, but I think it was a.

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It was a gradual like process where I started being surrounded by professional artists and they respected me and respected my work and then I went from that studio space to the Continental Gen and Deep Ellum and then, you know, and then I was asked to join ALG and I think it was probably before I went to Continental Gen.

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I would say that I just I started feeling comfortable, I started selling my work.

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I think I think, when you know it's just all those things mixed together, it's not like you have to sell your work to be an artist, but it was like I think it was a combination of being befriended by artists.

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I did a women's group that was women artists that I met with like once a month.

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You know, I just started developing relationships with people I really respected as artists, and and the fact that they embraced me and what I was doing, I think really gave me the courage to feel like, oh yeah, I'm an artist too.

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I'm part of this club too, you know.

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So.

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And that's beautiful.

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You're touching on notes of community.

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I loved how, even with your, your origin story, you were talking about how it was so important for you to give of yourself to that close family friend and you mentioned your family.

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And you mentioned being embraced by this artist community and I I know that through your work with with Diffa, you, you, you're touching other communities.

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Could you tell us a little bit about all of the different communities that you're involved in?

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Yeah, it's really funny a little bit about all of the different communities that you're involved in.

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Yeah, it's really funny.

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I guess sometime during my art journey I decided to start giving back with my art, and it was probably around 2011.

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And, honestly, I wouldn't be talking to you today if I hadn't started down that path.

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And it wasn't something that was calculated, I actually just it was a way to like give my art, give back to something I believed in, and then I met some really wonderful people and started developing relationships.

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And, honestly, that's why I'm here today talking to you guys, because I back and and I got to know some of the most beautiful people.

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Because I think when you get to know other people that have similar desires to give back and support the community, then you like just find some beautiful, wonderful people that journey with you in life, um, and professionally as well.

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But so some of the things that I have been um focused on, focused on, I've done one of the first art shows that I did called Summer Colors.

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Jenny Grumbles started it and it supports Scottish Rite Hospital.

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So I love doing things that support children, so that is that's something that I've done almost every year.

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I think I missed it last year, but I've done it at least for 10 years, mixed during that time supported it, and then Dallas Children's Advocacy Center is something that I've become more involved with in the last five years.

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I served on the curatorial committee.

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For two years I've donated my art.

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Alg has been a sponsor, so all of us all the resident artists at ALG were involved and we have our own gallery wall so we donate original pieces that we've created just for that event for Art for Advocacy, which is their big fundraising event.

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Dallas Children's Advocacy Center serves children and their non-offending family members that are dealing with criminal level child abuse in Dallas County.

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They serve about 10,000 children a year, which is just gut-wrenching to think that there's that many criminal level abuse cases every year and they walk with the child and their family like through the legal process.

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They have therapy, they really bring them through all the layers of recovery and the justice that comes with it as well through the courts, and they just do amazing work.

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That is incredible.

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So those are some things with children.

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Homelessness is another thing that I'm pretty passionate about, so I got involved with Dwell with Dignity and Dwell with Dignity has some art-based giving back where they have something called Thrift Studio once a year some art-based giving back where they have something called Thrift Studio once a year and artists in the Dallas area donate original work and it's sold at Thrift Studio.

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And Dwell with Dignity provides interior design for people coming out of homelessness, and children are also always involved in the picture.

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It's always a family, and I actually have been art chair once individually for the Thrift Studio and then ALG was art chair another time, and then I served as an art consultant with them for about a year and a half, where I would go in and meet with the clients that they were serving and find out what type of art would work in the space and help come up with ideas to let volunteers create art, or sometimes I would make art.

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So, and then DIPA kind of just fell into my lap and so I have so many people in my life that are impacted or not served by, necessarily, aid service organizations.

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But I knew I wanted to do something that focused and again, it's not something that only impacts the LGBTQ plus community, it is also, you know, other communities as well but I wanted something that supported so many, many people right on the whole spectrum, and I and I felt like I just got an opportunity.

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Honestly, ken Weber reached out to me I had I had donated work to AIN, which is an AIDS service organization, got to know some people through for their gal galas, and then, um, anyway, I was pulled into diffa by ken weber and jr hernandez and they asked me to be on style council, which was really funny because I am not a model as you can see.

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Um, I am five foot one and um, I don't walk runways.

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But that's part of the style council for diffaa is, you're an ambassador for Diffa in Dallas and they have about 15 people that are selected to be in that role for the year leading up to the gala in the spring, and so you raise money for the organization and then part of it, once you reach your goal of raising money, you walk the runway.

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So I was just like, do I have to walk the runway?

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Can I just raise money?

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Like I really don't want to walk the runway, but you know it was great.

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It pushed me out of my comfort zone and I got down the runway in really tall platform shoes, so it was definitely out of my comfort zone, and so then after that, I was asked to join the board and I have been jacket chair for the last two seasons and we have that coming up soon.

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It's every spring.

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So jackets we curate like 60 to 70 jackets.

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We have different designers and artists that create them in Dallas and outside of Dallas, and it raises money for this incredibly important cause.

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Yeah, that's not gone away, it's still here.

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I think some of those people think HIV, aids, oh, and that like already taken care of, it's like.

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No, it hasn't been, and I just am really proud to be a part of that board.

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I've met some of the most amazing people and they're so inspiring and and just I'm like why am I here?

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Cause you guys are so awesome.

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So, anyway, those are some of the things I've done.

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Well, and that's it's.

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It's really inspiring how you're willing to do so much outside of yourself.

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You're willing to do so much outside of yourself.

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And you know, I I know that a lot of the creatives that we talk to struggle with the inertia that comes from not being able, not having what it takes to just have that forward movement for the next step.

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But it sounds like you are so focused on things outside of yourself that you're not haunted by those demons.

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Oh, you know, I haven't ever thought of it that way, but I will say I mean, knock on wood, I don't struggle with my creativity, I don't struggle with creative ideas or getting.

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I've never been in a place where I'm like, oh, I'm stuck, I can't do it, and maybe it is because I do have so many other things pulling at me that I can't really navel gaze too much when it comes to to my creativity.

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I celebrated, it's like a really joyful slice of my life and, yeah, I just try not to be stretched too thin is sometimes, uh, something I struggle with.

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But oh, and another thing as a founding board member of dallas galleries for advocacy, um, and I rolled off the board, um, in january after, uh, two and a half years because just again was spread too thin.

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I was like, okay, okay, I can't do all of this and make art.

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Christy, your story is such a testament to the value of community and you have so beautifully illustrated how community has benefited from all of the things that you participated in and put energy into.

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But it's a two-way street, so I would love to know what was some of the value that you received in those communities from your participation.

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Yeah, I think the thing that always I've said it once, once, I think I've said it a couple of times I think relationships for me, um, the people that I've met, like you can't, that's just a priceless thing um, I they've changed my life and like they've just they're just a huge part of who I am.

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I think the relationships are the biggest thing for me, that the biggest blessing, um, I think the other thing is, um I've had some, you know, tangible opportunities to get my work out and be seen um by people in the community through donating.

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You know that's, that's something that's always a nice thing when you get a commission, or you know someone comes to the gallery, or you know things like that that are like a professional plus right.

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Do you feel like it opened up doors for you that maybe otherwise would not have been opened?

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Oh, yeah, I like again.

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I think, through the relationships that I've built, um, those doors have have opened.

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I I mean, uh, I met some Melissa Ellis, and I met gosh.

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It was like 2011.

00:23:49.796 --> 00:23:57.413
We met at a, something that we had donated to Um I can't not right now, it's blanking on what the name of the event was.

00:23:57.413 --> 00:24:06.945
Anyway, we met and then, a few weeks later, met again because we both donated to Dwell with Dignity and then became fast friends.

00:24:06.945 --> 00:24:13.883
And you know, other artists that I love and adore are also still in my life from that early time.

00:24:14.730 --> 00:24:20.743
And then Melissa met Anna Kearns in the spring of 2018.

00:24:20.743 --> 00:24:22.455
I was at Continental Gin.

00:24:22.455 --> 00:24:30.037
Melissa was painting out of her home at that time and she met Anna and they were doing, they did a small show together.

00:24:30.037 --> 00:24:39.034
And Anna said I have this concept, I want to have resident artists, I want everyone to be in an open space.

00:24:39.034 --> 00:24:41.957
And she was like do you have anybody you would want to call?

00:24:41.957 --> 00:24:44.219
And Melissa said I have one person, I will call.

00:24:44.219 --> 00:24:45.160
And she called me.

00:24:45.160 --> 00:25:02.042
And that was when she said you know would, would you like to to go to the design district, like, and I was like, yes, I will follow you anywhere, cause she's, we had become such good friends that I knew that if it was something she was interested in that I would be interested in it.

00:25:02.042 --> 00:25:16.006
So, like that like really changed the path of my professional journey right there, because I became a part of ALG.

00:25:17.230 --> 00:25:21.159
That was in the summer of June of 2018.

00:25:21.159 --> 00:25:24.090
We moved on to Dragon Street at the end of 18.

00:25:24.090 --> 00:25:30.961
And it just has been that's been my professional like launchpad since then.

00:25:30.961 --> 00:25:38.372
And so, yeah, I mean, I know that I don't know if that's that's kind of like the answer for me, it really is.

00:25:38.372 --> 00:25:53.682
There's other people I could list that just they have helped shape my life like in a great way, and it's been people within the organizations and leadership or, you know, other volunteers and things like that.

00:25:53.682 --> 00:25:56.451
So, yeah, I think that's people, people.

00:25:58.115 --> 00:26:05.445
Melissa Ellis is a force of nature because we know, other people who she has changed their lives as well.

00:26:06.109 --> 00:26:07.875
So, yeah, what a beautiful story.

00:26:07.875 --> 00:26:13.978
Yeah, she's been like my sister, so we've journeyed through a lot together.

00:26:13.978 --> 00:26:17.220
Yeah, a lot of life, a lot of art, yeah.

00:26:18.211 --> 00:26:19.849
Christy, I'd like to back up for a minute.

00:26:19.849 --> 00:26:31.566
You said something back there, probably 15 minutes ago, that caught my ear, when you said I create art that I want to create.

00:26:31.566 --> 00:26:35.101
I don't create art to please other people.

00:26:35.101 --> 00:26:38.098
I'm probably not wording it exactly.

00:26:38.550 --> 00:26:39.394
Yeah, yeah, no, you're good.

00:26:41.932 --> 00:26:53.191
And I'm curious because this is kind of a topic that we certainly hear from time to time this artists and of course it doesn't apply just to artists, it applies to almost anybody that creates.

00:26:53.191 --> 00:26:54.753
It doesn't matter what you're creating.

00:26:54.753 --> 00:27:02.650
There's always this voice in your head that's like creating.

00:27:02.650 --> 00:27:10.253
There's always this voice in your head that's like, okay, do I create what I know will sell, or what I'm pretty sure will sell, or do I create what I love, with no regard to whether it sells or not?

00:27:10.253 --> 00:27:20.141
Now, you've clearly chosen the path that you create, with no regard to whether it sells or not, and what a beautiful position to be in.

00:27:20.141 --> 00:27:36.777
But I guess what I'm looking for here because I think that there are people out there that need to hear this Are you often surprised at the things that you absolutely created because you loved them and they had meaning to you, and they did sell?

00:27:37.498 --> 00:27:45.297
Yes, I feel like all of my work, whenever my work does sell, which is important to me like it's something.

00:27:45.297 --> 00:27:56.232
This is, you know it's, it's something that is a goal of mine is to sell my art and to help support my family, um, but it often does surprise me and it gives me so much joy.

00:27:56.232 --> 00:28:15.767
I think, um, because I I know that the work I create people don't get in their car and drive thinking I want what she created in my space, like I, just it's, it's not like, it's not like a beautiful landscape, right, it's like that.

00:28:15.767 --> 00:28:18.473
That are beautiful, I love landscapes, but it's like.

00:28:18.473 --> 00:28:28.281
It's like somebody might be thinking, oh, I'm going to go look for I want a landscape over my you know, my sofa or in my dining room or whatever, which is great, I love, I love them.

00:28:28.281 --> 00:28:35.070
But when they walk in and see my work, it's definitely not that, and so I'm always like it's always.

00:28:35.070 --> 00:28:44.142
I guess it just brings me so much joy when people connect with what I'm trying to say or just however.

00:28:44.142 --> 00:28:50.460
They like the direction, they take the piece in their head and it's really, really exciting.

00:28:50.460 --> 00:29:00.343
I'd like I have a show coming up that's opening this weekend and there's a piece and it's called Close Knit, k-n-i-t.

00:29:02.236 --> 00:29:16.894
And my husband has Parkinson's disease and he is a hero, a superhero, and he's like a Michael J Fox situation early forties out of the blue, our kids were really little.

00:29:16.894 --> 00:29:26.073
Out of the blue, our kids were really little and he just, is always.

00:29:26.073 --> 00:29:27.194
Just, doesn't let it hold him back.

00:29:27.194 --> 00:29:29.460
He's just an incredible man and human.

00:29:29.460 --> 00:29:36.923
And so about a year and a half ago he taught himself off of YouTube how to knit, because it helps with his fine motor skills.

00:29:36.923 --> 00:29:38.515
He doesn't have a tremor, he has.

00:29:38.515 --> 00:29:50.086
His diagnosis was really hard to figure out what was going on because he doesn't have the stereotypical, like Parkinson's symptoms, so he taught himself how to knit.

00:29:50.086 --> 00:29:54.015
So now he knits these beautiful scarves Like my daughters have.

00:29:54.015 --> 00:30:03.057
I have some, my daughters, his sisters, like any, my sister have some my daughters, his sisters, like any, my sister, my niece, like our niece, I mean anyone who will take one.

00:30:03.057 --> 00:30:04.019
He, like you know, knits.

00:30:04.058 --> 00:30:17.155
So there's a piece called Close Knit and I took some of the remnants of his knitting and I mixed it with my sculpture out of paper and I actually there.

00:30:17.155 --> 00:30:24.881
We're on Dragon Street street and several months ago a car had its window bashed in and there was, there's still auto glass.

00:30:24.881 --> 00:30:28.170
It's kind of like now in the crevices of dragon street along with gravel.

00:30:28.170 --> 00:30:31.661
And one day I walked out and I looked down and the sun was hitting it and I was like that's really pretty.

00:30:31.661 --> 00:30:35.676
So like I scooped it up and I added that to my painting.

00:30:36.357 --> 00:30:57.634
Um, this painting, and it's just very urban, it's very industrial, it's not beautiful, but it is beautiful and to me it's just represents like perseverance and like holding on to each other and just being intertwined, like as a couple.

00:30:57.634 --> 00:31:19.402
But then also our children are rock stars and like we're just a really cohesive, tight little bundle and like we've really been able to like not stop life, even though having a diagnosis like that as a at a very young age, um, we've continued to pursue life as full as we can.

00:31:19.402 --> 00:31:24.436
So that's like one of my pieces and I I love it and I think it's really beautiful.

00:31:24.436 --> 00:31:34.772
It's it's a lot of white and black and there's some pops of fluorescent and it's, and then you've got the glass and you've got you know, you've got all this stuff and it's it's just.

00:31:34.772 --> 00:31:38.957
Anyway, I can't wait to see who ends up connecting with the piece.

00:31:39.938 --> 00:31:45.603
You know I have dabbled with painting at times, but I have never gotten far enough in.

00:31:45.603 --> 00:31:47.605
I never did it in order to sell paintings.

00:31:47.605 --> 00:31:54.109
I didn't care whether they sold or not, it was a hobby.

00:31:54.109 --> 00:32:04.753
But I just.

00:32:04.773 --> 00:32:35.655
I'm listening to you and I've listened to so many creatives and I have this feeling that when we create from the depths of our being whether it's coming from a place of pain and struggle and trauma that you're trying to release, or whether it's coming from this great love for somebody in your life who knits these beautiful scarves I have to believe in my heart of hearts that what will draw the buyer to your piece is not whether it's commercially beautiful or not, but it will be that energy behind what created it.

00:32:35.655 --> 00:32:58.896
I'm wondering, because I do see so much struggle what words of wisdom would you have for any creative whether it be an artist or an architect or an interior designer doesn't matter when they're trying to decide that question of do I make what I know will sell or do I make what is coming out of my soul?

00:32:58.896 --> 00:33:01.082
What words of wisdom would you have for them?

00:33:03.070 --> 00:33:09.349
I think and all the industries are different I think, being a visual artist, I have a lot of freedom right.

00:33:09.349 --> 00:33:30.979
I have a lot more freedom to do whatever I want to do, versus maybe an architect would or an interior designer, but there's still wiggle room in there and I think that go for it, like just go for it, because I think that that's what makes us different and unique and, again, you know, I it makes it.

00:33:30.979 --> 00:33:35.952
It does make it harder, like in ways, but there's so much joy and I think it.

00:33:35.952 --> 00:33:43.053
And then you have this individuality that I hope people think of when they think of my work.

00:33:43.053 --> 00:33:53.792
I mean, I can't, I don't know what people think when they think of my work, but I hope they see it as something different, as something that's unexpected, that does come from my soul.

00:33:54.192 --> 00:34:49.891
And I feel like a lot of times when people come into our space at the ALG through the years, they feel a sense of energy in that space and I think a lot of it is because we create what's hanging in that space so much of it, unless we have visiting artists in but there's so much ownership and love in what we're doing and what we're making that I think you do feel that energy that you speak of and I hope that, um, that just translates to people when they see my work, and so so to other creatives I would say, like, just do what you love and your vision and take risks, and I think that the people that are open to allowing you to do that are the are, will be so blessed and joyful in what you do create and and they'll just it'll, I just hope, like my pieces and I think every artist does like.

00:34:50.231 --> 00:34:59.222
If someone buys a piece of mine, I hope that they love, they want to pour this themselves a glass of wine or bourbon or sparkling water or coffee or whatever and just stand there and look at it.

00:34:59.222 --> 00:35:03.061
You know, like there's just something about it and it's not because I'm a great artist.

00:35:03.061 --> 00:35:04.932
I don't think I'm a great artist.

00:35:04.932 --> 00:35:10.070
I think that I am a very authentic artist because of what I create.

00:35:10.070 --> 00:35:22.606
I I'm obviously not technically trained, but I hope that my art like, speaks and and provides something special you know to people.

00:35:23.391 --> 00:35:29.061
I would argue that because you are an authentic artist, you're a great artist.

00:35:29.621 --> 00:35:30.603
Thank you, yes.

00:35:31.809 --> 00:35:43.460
You know, christy, I want to champion you and suggest that you let go of what you just said, the words, because I'm not technically trained.

00:35:43.460 --> 00:35:54.844
I mean, you do what you love and it sells, and you're in a very well-known gallery.

00:35:54.844 --> 00:35:57.672
I mean, does it get me better?

00:35:59.016 --> 00:36:02.791
you're in, you're in good company you're, I am in great company.

00:36:02.931 --> 00:36:03.934
I'm like I said.

00:36:03.934 --> 00:36:16.635
I've been surrounded by some incredible people and I continue to be, and, um, I just, I just am so grateful for them because I wouldn't be where I am without people saying do it, you know, go for it.

00:36:17.096 --> 00:36:18.159
And now I feel now.

00:36:18.199 --> 00:36:22.271
I feel now I feel like, oh yeah, I'm gonna fucking go for it.

00:36:22.271 --> 00:36:23.353
Like I don't.

00:36:23.353 --> 00:36:40.965
I feel very, um free, a lot of freedom now in my creativity, because I think I've finally hit the place of like internally, where I've hit a place of just like, yeah, make it, just make it, you know.

00:36:41.405 --> 00:36:57.202
So I just want to say that, historically, some of our most profound composers, some of our most profound painters, some of our most profound musicians, have been people that were not technically trained.

00:36:57.543 --> 00:36:58.005
Right Dave.

00:36:58.085 --> 00:36:58.465
Grohl, y'all.

00:36:58.465 --> 00:36:59.047
Yeah, it's just y'all.

00:36:59.668 --> 00:37:03.719
Yeah, it's just, I think, when it comes from inside, of you.

00:37:04.110 --> 00:37:06.818
You got natural what somebody else has to go and get trained for.

00:37:06.818 --> 00:37:09.634
I mean from where I'm standing.

00:37:13.001 --> 00:37:13.483
Thank you.

00:37:14.210 --> 00:37:15.577
I mean from where I can stand.

00:37:15.577 --> 00:37:16.695
Do I need to finish that sentence?

00:37:16.695 --> 00:37:17.512
From where I'm standing?

00:37:17.512 --> 00:37:18.936
You know where I'm going with that right?

00:37:18.936 --> 00:37:20.681
Yeah, thank you.

00:37:20.681 --> 00:37:27.163
Well, you got a God given gift that somebody else had to study under someone else to end.

00:37:27.510 --> 00:37:35.760
Basically I don't want to say copy, but no, yeah, I think it's great for people that study, have studied and attended our school.

00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:36.521
I admire them.

00:37:36.521 --> 00:37:37.563
I think it's wonderful.

00:37:37.563 --> 00:38:02.800
I just know, for me and it wasn't even like I literally fell into creating art I mean, again, for my whole life I had doodled and painted and done things but like I really did truly fall into like, oh, this makes me happy, oh, I have a passion for this, oh, like you know, and kind of figuring out ways for it to fit into my life at a time when my kids were really young.

00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:13.920
And then, and continuing to allow it to give me therapy and direction, I'd only been painting for a couple of years when my husband was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:17.581
So it's been such a lifeline for me.

00:38:17.581 --> 00:38:19.472
So it's been such a lifeline for me.

00:38:19.472 --> 00:38:25.320
There's no better feeling than when I can lose myself in creating, and I think a lot of creative.

00:38:25.320 --> 00:38:29.690
I think that's just humans, we're all creative, everyone's creative.

00:38:29.690 --> 00:38:38.594
I mean whether it's cooking or gardening or you know all the different things, scrapbooking, I mean there's creativity all around us.

00:38:38.594 --> 00:38:41.342
You know anything, we all need creativity.

00:38:41.342 --> 00:38:46.280
But for me it's visual art and I just can get lost in it and it's wonderful.

00:38:47.090 --> 00:39:00.938
You know, I think the one thing that separates people from those that don't really think they're creative and those, you're right, we are all creative, but what separates us one from the other is our ability to own it.

00:39:01.829 --> 00:39:02.090
Yeah.

00:39:02.291 --> 00:39:04.780
It is so important to own it.

00:39:06.230 --> 00:39:06.429
Yeah.

00:39:06.889 --> 00:39:21.858
And sometimes we just need to have a little bit of direction and you know, have someone pointed out to us allow people to, let us see what we're blind to right, like my sister.

00:39:21.898 --> 00:39:23.903
My sister is I'm a very type.

00:39:23.903 --> 00:39:27.717
I say there's not a type b, I'm a type z, my sister's a type a.

00:39:27.717 --> 00:39:31.525
Um, she's an academic, she's brilliant, she's amazing.

00:39:31.525 --> 00:39:33.215
Um, she lives in the dc area.

00:39:33.876 --> 00:39:37.063
But she is always like I am not creative at all.

00:39:37.063 --> 00:39:39.715
I can't do any interior design, I can't, you know.

00:39:39.715 --> 00:39:42.038
I don't like to go shopping for clothes, I don you know.

00:39:42.038 --> 00:39:47.965
But my sister is one of the best cooks she will ever experience and she doesn't.

00:39:47.965 --> 00:39:52.217
She's like you know, oh, this is this Bon Appetit, you know recipe.

00:39:52.257 --> 00:40:03.327
I mean, like that's just her form of creativity is being in her beautiful kitchen and creating these incredible meals, and she doesn't do it just when people come over.

00:40:03.327 --> 00:40:03.835
That's what I.

00:40:03.835 --> 00:40:08.751
I like to cook, like when it's a creative act and I'm I'm doing something for other people.

00:40:08.751 --> 00:40:15.838
Like I enjoy bringing people in our home, not every, every so often, it's not something all the time, but like that's when I like to cook.

00:40:15.838 --> 00:40:18.329
I do not like the mundane cooking every day.

00:40:18.329 --> 00:40:20.496
My, my husband and I eat out way too much.

00:40:20.496 --> 00:40:37.967
Um, I'm very satisfied going to Taverna and ordering pasta and coming home and just vegging my sister though they loved to fine dine and stuff, but she almost I bet five, six days a week she's creating something that you would eat at any fine dining restaurant.

00:40:37.967 --> 00:40:41.902
So I do think creativity it's just there's so many ways around it.

00:40:41.902 --> 00:40:43.826
So I always tell her you are creative.

00:40:45.027 --> 00:40:45.730
Absolutely.

00:40:46.456 --> 00:41:12.648
And on the topic of being a true artist, I think that there is a realm, even within the visual arts, where you can be a spec artist right, where, if you're just a cog in a machine and you're just designing things as you're told you're creating things to order we can detect how there's no soul, there is not a light there.

00:41:12.648 --> 00:41:31.724
That's the kind of thing that you could probably move off to have done in an automated fashion and have no people involved at all, whereas the things that you create we can look and see that there is that inner light, there is something with substance.

00:41:31.724 --> 00:41:36.960
We can reach out and touch, something that puts us in touch with the divine.

00:41:37.940 --> 00:41:45.050
Yeah, oh, wow, thank you, I have never seen anything that even remotely looks like your work.

00:41:45.050 --> 00:41:52.007
Your work is very unique and it's very recognizable.

00:41:52.007 --> 00:41:56.139
In many ways, it's very eye catching.

00:41:56.139 --> 00:42:01.567
Yes, so I'm going to take us in a little bit different direction.

00:42:01.567 --> 00:42:01.947
I have a question.

00:42:01.969 --> 00:42:02.972
Yes, take us in a little bit different direction.

00:42:02.992 --> 00:42:03.474
I have a question.

00:42:03.474 --> 00:42:10.943
Yes, what story do you wish that somebody would ask you to tell that you have never told?

00:42:10.963 --> 00:42:13.266
Oh gosh.

00:42:17.010 --> 00:42:19.737
Hmm, what do you think?

00:42:19.737 --> 00:42:21.704
Take your time.

00:42:22.465 --> 00:42:29.322
Yeah, take your time.

00:42:29.322 --> 00:42:51.302
Yeah, um, maybe, like I don't know, maybe the story of like how my art, like where the roots of it come from, um, I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately on that and it's pretty simple but it's powerful for me because it's where my art kind of lives.

00:42:51.302 --> 00:42:53.902
Um, I love urban settings.

00:42:53.902 --> 00:43:07.371
I, when I was little, I would have my parents, uh, drive me to downtown Dallas and open the sunroof so I could look up at the buildings, so I could look up at the buildings, and I just was fascinated by anything that was urban.

00:43:07.371 --> 00:43:17.465
We lived in the suburbs, so whenever we could, I would just please take me, like you know, and so, like, new York City is like one of my very happiest places.

00:43:17.465 --> 00:43:19.222
I love the energy of people.

00:43:19.222 --> 00:43:29.030
I love sitting in a coffee shop and just not talking to anyone but just feeling the energy of people and then living their lives and walking down a busy sidewalk.

00:43:29.030 --> 00:43:33.322
Even it sounds weird, but even sitting in rush hour traffic doesn't really bother me.

00:43:33.322 --> 00:43:38.943
I just I love the energy of being around people and them doing what they're doing.

00:43:38.943 --> 00:43:40.085
I don't necessarily want to talk to them.

00:43:40.085 --> 00:43:44.900
I'm fine to talk to them, but there's some, so there's that there's just this like them.

00:43:44.900 --> 00:43:46.447
I'm fine to talk to them, but there's some.

00:43:46.447 --> 00:43:47.152
So there's that.

00:43:47.152 --> 00:43:47.855
There's just this like.

00:43:47.855 --> 00:43:51.356
I crave that.

00:43:51.356 --> 00:43:51.735
I crave that.

00:43:51.735 --> 00:43:51.797
Um.

00:43:51.797 --> 00:43:52.739
But then I have this other whole side of me.

00:43:52.759 --> 00:43:54.583
When I was little, um, we would always go to Colorado for vacations.

00:43:54.583 --> 00:44:01.525
We didn't do a lot of traveling, so that was kind of where we would go and my mom had a huge passion for, uh, being in the mountains.

00:44:01.525 --> 00:44:03.208
She'd grown up going to the mountains.

00:44:03.208 --> 00:44:28.275
So I just remember as a little girl, like just feeling this presence when I was immersed in in the mountains, hiking or whatever we were doing, and just the air and the smells and the feeling of it and this, this majesty, and, and so I, you know, I would collect rocks, and I remember getting a little.

00:44:28.456 --> 00:44:38.014
I had a necklace that was an Aspen leaf that was had been dipped in resin, and now I use resin and all my so much of my work, and not because of that, but it's just really weird.

00:44:38.014 --> 00:44:46.235
And like I had a little pine cone that was dipped in silver that I, you know, would wear and like it's.

00:44:46.235 --> 00:44:46.976
It's funny how I guess it's.

00:44:46.976 --> 00:45:09.760
I don't know if that's really an exciting story to tell, but to me it is a story of just how things early on in my life that gave me this when I was too young to be able to express how they made me feel there was something that I was just so drawn to and it it felt like it helped complete that I was just so drawn to and it felt like it helped complete, complete me.

00:45:09.760 --> 00:45:22.369
And now, like I'm just, my work has just become more and more and more expressive of both of those things you know, like marrying that urban, industrial um with nature and and that pure beauty of nature.

00:45:22.369 --> 00:45:24.632
So that's a great story.

00:45:24.632 --> 00:45:26.996
I just I can't really think of another story.

00:45:28.318 --> 00:45:35.010
I think that's a great story and I love it and I'm so glad that we got here at first.

00:45:35.010 --> 00:45:37.304
You've never told that story before.

00:45:37.686 --> 00:45:39.454
No, I mean, I've been thinking about it a lot.

00:45:39.454 --> 00:45:48.396
I've been writing things down because of this show coming up and it's focused on it's called Reviving Giants and I've I've.

00:45:48.396 --> 00:45:59.125
There's Old Growth, redwood, that I am working on as canvas and I've just been writing I've had to write stuff for like press release and some things like that.

00:45:59.125 --> 00:46:06.027
So I've been really thinking a lot about how to just you know what, where did all this come from?

00:46:06.027 --> 00:46:08.840
And, like you know, it really came from.

00:46:08.840 --> 00:46:20.739
Like those moments and and things have, as I've just lived life, from those moments as a child, but like two core things for me have always been like being in those places make me feel good.

00:46:20.739 --> 00:46:32.119
You know just, when you're a kid, you just know it makes you feel good to be amongst the pine trees or looking up at a mountain peak, or looking at the sunroof and seeing these buildings.

00:46:32.179 --> 00:46:46.422
You know like, yeah, yes, Well, and Dwight and I have had the pleasure of seeing some of your old growth redwood art and you know, for anybody listening right now, there will be a link to Christie's website in the show notes.

00:46:46.422 --> 00:46:53.916
And we, you know, for anybody listening right now, there will be a link to Christy's website in the show notes and we encourage you to go and view her art because you won't have seen anything quite like it.

00:46:55.757 --> 00:47:19.893
Yeah, my husband and I went to the Mendocino Coast in 2022 and we stumbled upon a craftsman who makes furniture out of redwood and I was like it was the day before we were leaving so we bought a few pieces to have shipped back to Dallas and then last summer we went back up there and actually scheduled a meeting with him.

00:47:19.893 --> 00:48:16.594
We went out to his property about 10 miles in from the Pacific Ocean into the forest, and he has a couple of acres and he has a building where he houses these beautiful pieces of redwood and they're all sustainably sourced old growth, and I've learned from him old growth Redwood means the tree is at its youngest 200 years in age and those forests can date back to 2000 years, um, and so all the pieces that I purchased from him are all old growth pieces and they're and uh, those pieces were kind of just those trees were just kind of cut down just at will by the timber industry from 1850 to 1950, and then I think think, you know, as humanity often just destroys things people went oh wait, maybe we shouldn't cut down these giant trees that have been growing for some thousands of years, so they started putting protections on them in 1950.

00:48:16.594 --> 00:48:21.164
So these pieces, there's a good chance they were cut down before 1950.

00:48:21.164 --> 00:48:56.503
He pulls the trees out of the rivers that flow into the pacific ocean, off the beaches or, um, out of private land where they need a stump removed, but none of the wood has been cut down, um, you know, for this art, obviously, or for really any other purpose, they do still do lumber with redwood, but it's not the old growth trees um, so to be able to get these trees like new life I've been working on wood since 20, I think 17, as well as sculptures, and to have these pieces and all their majesty like be my canvas is intimidating.

00:48:56.965 --> 00:48:57.706
It's an honor.

00:48:57.706 --> 00:49:07.606
It makes me cry sometimes when I look at them and I just hope to give them another life and as modern art, and I'm excited to share the collection with people.

00:49:07.606 --> 00:49:12.190
So yeah, Beautiful.

00:49:12.956 --> 00:49:13.559
I can't wait.

00:49:13.559 --> 00:49:24.527
You know, the last time we were in the gallery, you had received a whole shipment of the old growth redwood and you hadn't started working on it yet, so we haven't seen any of those finished yet.

00:49:24.777 --> 00:49:25.650
I'm excited.

00:49:25.650 --> 00:49:26.956
We are looking forward to that.

00:49:26.956 --> 00:49:28.519
Yeah, I'm excited to share.

00:49:31.065 --> 00:49:32.389
Yeah, it's going to be amazing.

00:49:32.389 --> 00:49:42.885
I kind of like how those two experiences that you had, the things that light you up, are like sides of a coin in a way.

00:49:42.885 --> 00:49:53.382
You know the urban giants and those things that you see only in nature that also are of a large scale.

00:49:54.525 --> 00:49:55.106
I hadn't thought of that.

00:49:55.106 --> 00:49:56.208
Yeah, exactly.

00:49:57.295 --> 00:50:00.304
I have some of that going on and I had never really thought about it.

00:50:00.304 --> 00:50:16.382
But I grew up in a small town and so when I ended up in the big city of Dallas and arrived in all the skyscrapers I was kind of in awe and very much am an urban dweller, like like I break out in hives when I go out to suburbia.

00:50:17.003 --> 00:50:19.188
Oh yeah, no, but at the same time.

00:50:19.394 --> 00:50:30.681
You know, I the times I have gotten to go into a rainforest or beaches or they speak to my soul and just the most beautiful and deep way, so I get it completely.

00:50:31.914 --> 00:50:35.144
Yeah, it's an emotional place for most of us.

00:50:35.144 --> 00:50:40.248
I think, yeah, you feel your smallness, you feel nature's greatness.

00:50:40.248 --> 00:50:42.259
There's just beauty.

00:50:42.259 --> 00:50:45.061
If you take the time to look, it's incredible.

00:50:45.061 --> 00:50:47.735
But yeah, it's, it's.

00:50:47.735 --> 00:50:47.956
So.

00:50:47.956 --> 00:50:58.916
I to me, I don't know that it's like super original to create art based off of those emotions and that's great and that's okay, because I think it's a commonality that we all share.

00:50:58.916 --> 00:51:09.326
Like you can't if you breathe, you've got to, you've got to have some sort of connection with nature, right, like, whether you've taken the time to like really feel it or not.

00:51:09.326 --> 00:51:11.378
But yeah, I feel the same way around the ocean.

00:51:11.838 --> 00:51:14.565
I I'm not a I'm not a sunshiny ocean girl.

00:51:14.565 --> 00:51:20.601
I like the rugged, rocky, cold oceans where I don't have to put on sunscreen so much.

00:51:20.601 --> 00:51:25.288
I can wear a hat and sweatshirt and roll up my jeans.

00:51:25.288 --> 00:51:27.271
But I do love the ocean.

00:51:27.271 --> 00:51:30.061
It's funny, I'm more the ocean scares me.

00:51:30.061 --> 00:51:33.387
I feel a little bit more fearful with the ocean.

00:51:33.387 --> 00:51:34.836
I love the set.

00:51:34.836 --> 00:51:36.923
Now, the sound of the ocean is the most peaceful thing in the world.

00:51:36.923 --> 00:51:42.101
But, like, the ocean itself is very like intimidating to me.

00:51:42.101 --> 00:51:49.440
But mountains is weird, or should be just as scary, but they don't scare me, uh as much.

00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.570
Uh, but like I just uh, I love both places.

00:51:52.570 --> 00:51:57.882
So they both speak to me and I've been really lucky to be able to spend time in both extremes.

00:51:57.882 --> 00:52:03.282
So I think people usually those two places are where people connect with nature the most.

00:52:04.204 --> 00:52:05.447
Yeah, I think so too.

00:52:06.835 --> 00:52:12.583
It begs the question if it's a matter of the things that you can't see there in the ocean.

00:52:13.023 --> 00:52:13.985
Oh my God.

00:52:13.985 --> 00:52:15.367
Yes, I was about to say that.

00:52:15.367 --> 00:52:16.449
I was like, oh, I'm going on too long.

00:52:16.449 --> 00:52:18.300
Yeah, no, that's totally it.

00:52:18.300 --> 00:52:50.679
I know there's like I look out over the water and then I know underneath it there's this whole different world and it kind of creeps me out Like it's beautiful and incredible and there's just, I think it's just that unknown and my imagination just gets a little creeped out, you know, and like they don't, like there's nowhere to go sleep, like, at least like I know, like bears can like create a little place to sleep in the winter, like, or like a moose, or like a deer or like whatever, like a beaver, a dam, like there's a place to go sleep.

00:52:50.699 --> 00:52:58.713
They're like more like us and you're like this, the ocean, like these animals, like, yes, they have their form of sleep, but there's just constant movement, there's never.

00:52:58.713 --> 00:53:23.344
That never stops, and I think that that makes me feel a little anxious, yeah, weird, but and I feel my smallness, like around the ocean, you feel how tiny you are it is something definitely to be respected yes, very powerful, yeah dwight, you got some rapid fire questions for kr.

00:53:24.445 --> 00:53:27.349
I do If you have some rapid fire answers.

00:53:27.994 --> 00:53:28.978
I'll try my best.

00:53:28.978 --> 00:53:30.965
I'm not the quickest thinker, but I'll try my best.

00:53:31.815 --> 00:53:32.275
All right.

00:53:32.275 --> 00:53:41.440
So we have three rapid fire questions, the first of which is what is a book or resource?

00:53:41.440 --> 00:53:42.922
Every creative should read.

00:53:55.226 --> 00:54:08.865
You think that, oh gosh, I, I think, um, honestly, I love fashion magazines because I think fashion for me is like it is its own form of art, and I know we've been talking about nature and all this stuff.

00:54:08.865 --> 00:54:15.284
I think this kind of leans into my urban side, but I think I'm a very visual person and reading is great too.

00:54:15.284 --> 00:54:15.987
Don't get me wrong.

00:54:15.987 --> 00:54:43.425
There's great books to read, but when I'm thinking about about like just creatives, like I feel like sometimes, when you're looking through and you're seeing the colors and the textures and the layers and you know all those things to me, I, I, you know, whether it's any, any kind of, I love magazines Like, um, I don't subscribe to them I should, but I will pick them up when I have time and I love to just look through them and just kind of absorb what's going on.

00:54:43.606 --> 00:54:54.570
Whether it is, you know, vogue or it is something that's a little bit more artsy and more narrow in its field.

00:54:54.570 --> 00:54:57.960
I just love, I love looking at the.

00:54:57.960 --> 00:55:05.346
This is the visual stimulation that I get I think is always helpful If you're in a rut, like it's a good place to look is.

00:55:05.346 --> 00:55:08.322
Yeah, I think magazines are great.

00:55:08.322 --> 00:55:11.021
That's cool, sounds so intellectual.

00:55:11.335 --> 00:55:13.400
Because that's not your typical answer.

00:55:13.400 --> 00:55:14.603
I love it Right?

00:55:14.603 --> 00:55:14.704
I?

00:55:14.744 --> 00:55:15.425
mean I could.

00:55:15.425 --> 00:55:19.105
Yeah, I mean there's a lot of great art books and stuff, but I don't know.

00:55:19.105 --> 00:55:23.487
I just like, I like letting my mind go and absorb.

00:55:25.355 --> 00:55:28.445
So, yeah, that that's a terrific, terrific answer.

00:55:28.445 --> 00:55:32.483
So next one should be a lot easier.

00:55:32.483 --> 00:55:36.525
What three words define your artistic approach?

00:55:42.056 --> 00:55:47.485
I would say raw is like I use a lot of raw material.

00:55:47.485 --> 00:55:54.460
Um, I would say color.

00:55:54.460 --> 00:55:55.742
I love color.

00:55:55.742 --> 00:55:59.088
I think that's something I'm naturally able to just pull together.

00:55:59.088 --> 00:56:12.264
For some weird reason, um, I don't really plan out my palettes and I just kind of start going with it, and so I think color is something I really enjoy working with and playing with.

00:56:12.264 --> 00:56:23.213
So raw color and I would say unexpected, because I don't really know what I'm doing at the time.

00:56:23.213 --> 00:56:32.742
I mean, I know what I'm doing but like I don't plan out the piece, like it's definitely an evolution, so it's just an unexpected to me, as well as maybe the person that buys it.

00:56:32.742 --> 00:56:38.364
I know it's going in the right direction or I'll do, but I don't plan things out really.

00:56:39.295 --> 00:56:53.442
And it's kind of interesting how it's almost as if we collaborated on these, because your answer to that question kind of informs the next question what is the most unusual material you have incorporated?

00:56:53.442 --> 00:56:54.204
Into your art.

00:56:55.987 --> 00:56:56.588
Oh gosh.

00:56:56.588 --> 00:57:04.302
Well, there is a story about why I have nails in my art, and if we have time, I'll tell it.

00:57:04.302 --> 00:57:10.940
Sure, why I have nails in my art, and if we have time, I'll tell it.

00:57:10.940 --> 00:57:25.842
So yeah, so in 2020, my husband and I he wasn't, he just recently retired due to his Parkinson's, but, believe it or not, my husband was an anesthesiologist, and during 2020, they weren't doing elective surgeries, and so we were like, let's go to Colorado for six weeks, which we'd never done.

00:57:25.842 --> 00:57:30.298
So cause we I mean he would get like weeks off, but it wasn't like we would just take off for six weeks.

00:57:30.298 --> 00:57:53.664
So we went and we rented a place where we could take all of our dogs and we had a Bernie's mountain dog, I mean a Bernie doodle, a Garfunkel, and we lost him last year, but he's my, my hiking buddy, and so we would go hike every day like just Garfunkel and I and I do a lot of creative thinking when I'm hiking and so we were there for so long.

00:57:53.795 --> 00:58:12.958
I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do when I got back to Dallas, and I had been wanting to add sculpture to my work, and so I was like, huh, I wonder if I could use paper and like that's a byproduct of trees and I work on wood and blah, blah, blah and I was like, but I want to attach them with nails.

00:58:12.958 --> 00:58:24.893
I want to attach the paper with nails because I forever you can look at my camera roll I take pictures of the nails that are in the mining rooms and I always think, like, who put this nail here?

00:58:24.893 --> 00:58:37.938
I don't know, it's like weirdo me, but that's what I think and I'm like, oh, I wonder what it was like to not have Patagonia, like when they you know they're like out here in the middle of nowhere, like making these cabins like 1800s and, you know, freezing to death.

00:58:37.938 --> 00:58:54.329
So, anyway, I got back home and I started doing that and the first box of nails I bought were these like old, primitive looking nails that you can buy like at Hard Rock, elliot's or something, and they're kind of like triangular in shape with a flat.

00:58:54.329 --> 00:58:59.072
They're kind of flat, and I thought, oh, this is super cool, this is very like Colorado looking.

00:58:59.072 --> 00:59:06.344
And I punched it through the canvas and it popped right back out because it was so thick.

00:59:06.344 --> 00:59:07.367
So I was like, well, so put that box aside.

00:59:07.367 --> 00:59:10.277
And then I just trial and error, started working with and I found what would work.

00:59:10.277 --> 00:59:11.179
So I've been.

00:59:11.320 --> 00:59:20.891
I've been working on at this point about three and a half years and my mom passed away in 2019 from pancreatic cancer.

00:59:20.891 --> 00:59:29.998
She was only sick for about four months and she actually had been in Colorado for a couple of months with my dad when she got home and started not feeling well and she was hiking and playing tennis.

00:59:29.998 --> 00:59:41.047
My mom was young and very active and so this took us all by surprise and she was my best friend other than my husband, and so, anyway, thank you, I miss her every day.

00:59:41.047 --> 00:59:46.155
So, anyway, my dad he stayed at their house until about 2023.

00:59:46.155 --> 00:59:51.936
He moved into assisted living, but he's in an independent living, so it's good, he's still very independent.

00:59:52.458 --> 01:00:06.123
But it was my job, being the one that lives here, to kind of clean out the house and I that was in the upstairs, one of their closets upstairs, and I have it now at the studio but I have this piece of wood that my mom had collected.

01:00:06.123 --> 01:00:20.726
My mom always picked up rocks and stuff, and I do the same thing, but it was a piece of wood with nails in it and they were nails she had collected from old mining runs and the nails were the shape of the first box of nails that I bought.

01:00:20.726 --> 01:00:27.476
And so now I started incorporating that box of nails into different ways into my work.

01:00:27.476 --> 01:00:33.576
So if you see this reviving giants, I have a lot of those nails tucked into some different places.

01:00:33.576 --> 01:00:41.719
So again, it's just kind of a nod back to who I am and like the relationships that build me and build all of us.

01:00:41.739 --> 01:00:46.717
But my mom, as all of our moms, are just like the biggest thing in our lives.

01:00:46.717 --> 01:01:09.847
You know that so, so shaping, and she shaped my love for the mountains and made me I didn't realize it until I got older, but she was the one that why I always stop and take pictures of old campfires and why I always, you know, take pictures of nails and cabins and like they're this special thing and they are special but they're very common too, but they're just magical to me.

01:01:09.847 --> 01:01:16.065
But so that's kind of one of the one of the things I think that sometimes people say, why are you using nails?

01:01:16.065 --> 01:01:27.425
And it really just goes back to that very simple story of I just wanted to attach the paper with something that reminded me of you know, something I'm always drawn to.

01:01:27.425 --> 01:01:30.121
It's very common, common little object.

01:01:30.121 --> 01:01:31.246
Nothing fancy about it.

01:01:34.365 --> 01:01:38.903
Kind of like me, but what an amazing story.

01:01:38.903 --> 01:01:40.302
I mean that's you.

01:01:40.795 --> 01:01:41.981
Yeah, it was wild.

01:01:41.981 --> 01:01:45.525
I almost died when I pulled that out of the closet.

01:01:45.525 --> 01:01:49.083
I was like I just had never seen her collect the nails.

01:01:49.083 --> 01:01:55.579
I've always seen her collect other things, but not that and that she had them on this really cool little piece of wood just laying there.

01:01:55.579 --> 01:01:57.244
So they're at my studio now.

01:01:57.244 --> 01:02:12.103
Some people would say that you had a visitation from your mom, I agree, I agree and the show I'm working on I felt my mom so much in this show, so much, yeah, yeah.

01:02:12.565 --> 01:02:13.766
Can't wait to see it.

01:02:14.568 --> 01:02:16.010
I know I'm excited to share it.

01:02:16.815 --> 01:02:18.318
Christy, this has been awesome.

01:02:19.382 --> 01:02:20.605
Thank you, thanks for taking the time.

01:02:20.625 --> 01:02:24.041
Thank you so much for you know, pouring your heart out and sharing your story.

01:02:24.623 --> 01:02:25.704
Yes, it's been amazing.

01:02:26.226 --> 01:02:26.807
You're welcome.

01:02:26.807 --> 01:02:35.166
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to like explore those things and share them, and hopefully they'll be a good little nugget to somebody.01:02:36.456 --> 01:02:37.481


I have no doubt.01:02:38.494 --> 01:02:40.782


So, anyway, well, thanks guys.01:02:40.782 --> 01:02:59.387


You guys are amazing and y'all have brought a lot of light into my life as well, and I love what you do and how you are just, you know, so genuine and, again, authentic and how you approach connecting with people, and it's just you can't be helped but be drawn to both of you.01:03:00.195 --> 01:03:02.141


So thank you, christy, that means a lot.01:03:02.704 --> 01:03:03.929


Of course, of course.