Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. We’re looking forward to going live with your interview soon. Just wanted to share your responses below if any changes are needed, please let us know within the next 3-4 days.
Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christina Shurts. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christina, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
The best way I can expand on my resilience is through the company I keep.
My resilience was seeded by my family, fed by my time as an athlete and challenged most, by loss. Tenacity may be something many are born with yet I believe I’m not gifted with that. I remember mostly when I was little playing in the backyard of our home in Indian Trail, NC with butterflies in the pines, kittens under the deck and puppy dog, Bear, by my side. Life outside was easy. Inside I remember drawing on anything I could, avoiding conflict of intervention through quiet crayon marks. Including on once white walls. Sometimes I’d get pulled up from lounging to dance the “sister dance” with my big sister, Shannon. Now, wow, she was born with tenacity. Too many hurdles to name in life and school and still she greeted each day with a giggle and a smile. I looked longingly at those 1970’s photos that captured her all smiles, sunshine backlight face with a frame of yellow Daisy fields. She is 12 years older than me and I wondered if my serious, sometimes stern face would magically turn into hers.
Our parents divorce coincided with my birth so 2 different homes is all I knew. It has ebbed and flowed with different blends of family combinations, housing situations from coast to coast. Many flights solo, earning airplane wing pins to visit one side of the family or the other. On the east coast was Dad, visual art and theatre, the west coast was Mom, school and the hard working restaurant business. Both taught me that access to backstage or a restaurant kitchen is only a few steps away. I loved the behind the scenes where things were made or played. That’s an equal gift my parents gave to me.
Today, that has grown to a great mental freedom imagining possibilities to create opportunities for myself and others. My arts mentor came into my life thanks to our Brady bunch style family. Tom, my step brother babysat me as he drew. Inspired me to think creatively and held my hand to show strategies in making things. Today still he guides me like the sage that he is to navigate life, practice mindfulness and expand creativity to other students as he shared with me.
Above all this and before it, really, my grandparents persevered over a Polio diagnosis for my grandfather, Red Howard. A decorated athlete playing basketball at John wooden iconic UCLA. The iron lung saved his life yet it was Grandma Katherine who sat minute by minute day and night willing grandpa to learn to breath outside of the iron lung. He was one of the first people in CA to survive outside the iron lung. They made a rich life of family and friends and my grandma had no middle name but tenacity should have been it.
Lucky for me I’m tall, strong and landed myself on the volleyball court. I was terribly awkward at it initially. My days drawing and playing with friends didn’t acquaint me with natural coordination. The coaches said I’d never make it and I “run like a girl”. I didn’t believe them and one awkward hit of the ball led me to believe I had something. Oh how I worked at it, my Dad took me to practices, club volleyball and practiced with me. I improved so much over the next year they moved me to varsity at the end of that year. Now on a new level, not welcome by the Rossmoor Cool Girl Posse hat wearing girls and still a bit quiet and awkward, I imagined even more. I had started so late so it would take more work, more focused practice. Along the way were generous coaches like Barbara May, Olympian Misty May’s Mom who was so supportive and proud of my successes. My measly successes mattered to her! All this added up and led me to earning a Division I volleyball scholarship and expertise in a sport that I’ve enjoyed for over 30 years now.
Returning to art after my volleyball career was over and I married my Cliff along with a beautiful baby Grace, I brought that fire to my art practice. Sometimes clawing my way to carve out art making time. It was more insistent mentally that I now had to make things. A compulsion that overtakes me. Grad school fueled the fire further and helped me create community.
Art shows happened and helped me travel all over the US and abroad. Exciting but the best part is in the making of things and our families new baby, Bellamy. Life was perfectly great and more than I ever imagined, but soon to be scalded by more than one breaking point.
Tragedy struck first when a collaboration partner destroyed something we had made and blamed me for it. Strange how many listen. Covid challenges was sandwiched in between this and the worst loss I’ve experienced. Our dear grandma Katherine passed away and not nearly a month later her young namesake Katy, my niece, drowned in Alamitos bay after a mysterious night with friends at her dads boat. Life stopped but everyone else around us didn’t. People were coming out of hiding and I couldn’t bear life. I trudged on, trying to “will” a sunshine of a smile. Trying to play a game of hard work I fell repeatedly not making headway here or there. I reclused when I could. I leaned into all of my original inspirers and my sweet family.
I tried to help my girls manage the loss of their big sister sized- hole of their cousin. I walked daily giving that time for my grief. Crying in other peoples gardens. I met a horse named Danny, he let me just be me, warts and all. I shifted my art practice to create a community through art making. Made a community mosaic mural emphasizing individuality coming together into Collaboration. Long story short, I looked to the community to renew inspiration.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am Christina Shurts, an artist and educator. My recent community mosaic mural stands 15 ft wide and 7 feet tall at Point Vicente Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verdes CA. Students made unique impressions in clay, the community donated crockery and I combined all of this into an inspiring image and message for students which mirrors the title “Beacons, Be The Light”. I have exhibited my personal work at international galleries and museums. I teach visual arts courses at LBCC, Mt. Sac College and in my free time I’m on the board for the Art at Your Fingertips art program and teach in the classroom at Point Vicente Elementary School that serves 6,000 students at the Palos Verdes Peninsula and beyond. My aim as an educator is to provide an equitable learning environment in the class and spread awareness of the important benefits, including creative problem solving, through arts education.
You can find more to
Learn on Christina’s YouTube art tutorials ShurtsWorks & ChristinaShurts.com
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Practice anything and it will help with everything. Practice, practice and more practice. Admit your faults, foibles and failures and show others you aren’t perfect. Please, remind ourselves of our humanity, it’s all we have for now. Embrace happy accidents as they are leading you in an exciting direction you could have never planned for. Learn more than you ever thought possible and more importantly learn how you best learn it. Lastly, know the rules before you break the rules or as Picasso said, know the rules so you may break the rules like an artist. Most of all don’t deny cliched advice, it’s a cliche because it works!
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
As I expand my public arts practice I am on the lookout currently for another location to offer mosaic making classes to communities and installation locations within Los Angeles City. In the grant writing process I’m interested in collaborating with non profits to support expansion of this type of collaborative practice. I’ve seen what my step brother Tom has achieved in Charlotte, North Carolina and. I’m excited to bring that knowledge to the west coast.
Contact Info:
- Website: ChristinaShurts.com
- Instagram: Christina_shurts_art
- Linkedin: Christina (Howard) Shurts
- Youtube: Shurtsworks
Image Credits
Clifford Shurts
