Meet Christa Franklin

We recently connected with Christa Franklin and have shared our conversation below.

Christa, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

I am an artist, and sometimes it’s a challenge to keep creating, but knowing that the funds from my art purchases goes towards helping people globally it keeps me motivated. If I had it my way I probably would have given up painting a year ago, because it’s time consuming, and comes with challenges,but seeing so many people in need in different ways encourages me to keep going.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m Christa. I’m a part time nurse, and part time artist.
I own a nonprofit art studio called Once Upon a Time, located in Youngstown, Ohio. My art is known by many as “ dreamy”, and “ whimsical “.
I started doing art when i was in elementary starting off with sketching, entering into color contest, drawing contest, etc. My passion for art carried on up until high school where I stopped for awhile, but then started back in college writing, and illustrating comics for Kent State University newspaper, later I transferred colleges, and started attending Penn State University where I learned to paint by taking a art class for extra credit hours. I decided why not paint for a cause. Long story short I started painting free art for kids with cancer. I painted whatever represented them, but it wasn’t until I went to a place called U. N Act that gave me confidence to start selling my art. I got a studio, and decided to take my art further by becoming a missionary, and using art sells to travel to far out countries helping people in underprivileged areas in any way I could. I even do missionary, and humanitarian work here in the states. I took it even further, by taking percentages out of my funds to help various global causes, including helping to fund El Salvador students who are also preparing to be missionaries. I don’t make much from my art sells, because I sell my art less then most original artist so that all can afford it, and I thrive off of generous donations to help keep what I do going, but just the thought of what selling one painting can do to help a soul in need keeps me motivated. It keeps me going.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three things that I learned during my process is no matter how much knowledge you have about something you can always, always learn more. I had to learn if something with my art didn’t work one way I had to find other ways to make it work. Secondly, I learned to talk to people. People are created to help one another, or at least that’s what we should be doing. Through talking with a wide range of people in social media, etc it helped my art grow. People have connections, ideas, never be afraid to reach out to people. Lastly, my struggle was hard, and still is very hard. Sometimes art sells are extremely slow, sometimes raising money for mission trips is a huge challenge, and convincing people to believe in what I do is a bigger challenge, but never give up. Keep going, and developing your passion, and sit back and watch it start to develop. Everything takes time.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me is teach me to love people, all walks of people, and never turn my nose down towards anyone. My dad had an excellent job when I was a kid, and his own business on the side. My dad always was humble, and people loved him, because he helped people. Local guys he gave them work in his business to keep them off the streets, and was a huge father figure to the fatherless. Til this day he remains humble. My mom was just as kind teaching us girls to love people unconditionally, not to see color, and bless those who need help. My mom died when I was in elementary from cancer, which is why my art originally started off focusing on cancer victims. My mom’s love, and kindness is still instilled in me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Once Upon a Time art line
• Facebook: Once Upon a Time art line

Image Credits

Not applicable