We recently connected with Chelsea Olmsted and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Chelsea, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
That’s a great question. I have developed resilience from so many areas in my life and things I learned from a young age that has helped me now in my creative pursuits. I think that’s the beautiful thing about resilience is you can learn it from the dedication it takes to run a marathon, learning how to navigate life as a single parent, or anytime you face failure or heartbreak and learning how to get back up each and every time. I have always been a very driven individual, but sometimes I believe that life is what teaches you resilience. Like the quote from Bob Marley – “You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” I have always felt that, and there have been times in my life that being strong was the only choice I had. It’s in those moments of bravery and courage that true resilience is built.
I believe it is essential to have resilience when navigating through the creative field. It is unpredictable, there is no straight line to follow, and in regards to my main two art mediums: writing and painting, it can also be a lonely journey. The resilience I have cultivated through the years on this earth has helped build the strength that is necessary for such a pursuit as creativity.
Showing your art to the world is like showing a piece of your soul. It is an act of raw vulnerability which can be scary, but I have learned that as we use art to fully express the deepest parts of ourselves, we in turn allow others to feel seen and heard. That is the beautiful alchemy that is art and creativity and will always keep me in an endless pursuit of what I know is my hearts calling.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am an acrylic painter and a writer. I only started my journey just a few years ago due to life circumstances, but I knew it has been living within me since the day I was born.
I am currently writing my first book and as challenging as such an undertaking may be, the discovery of this first book was a beautiful unfolding process. My first book is called “Love Letters to Myself”. It started out one early morning when starting my journal practice, I had an intuitive ping to instead write myself a love letter. This guidance led me to continue to write these love letters, and eventually I realized that these love letters would help others too. What started out as a journey to loving myself more has transmuted into helping the collective heal, encourage and learn to love themselves on a deeper level.
Once my Love Letters book has been completed, my next book will be “Butterfly set free; A Journey back to self”. This book will be more vulnerable, personal and tender, but I have not decided yet if I will write it as a personal memoir or an autobiographical fiction story. If it’s the latter I may change the title, or let the title reveal itself as I write.
In addition to writing books, I have also been working on a blog called: butterflysetfree.com
It is a source for people to find inspiration, encouragement, and healing through life’s challenges and adversities. My goal through my writing, both in blogging and books, has been to help others. To uplift others, help people through their mental health challenges, and to help guide people towards loving themselves more gently. Interestingly though, even as my goal is to always help others, I truly write for myself and my own healing. That is the most beautiful unfolding of art though. We make art to help our own healing, and in turn help the world through our art.
This brings me to my painting journey. I currently have a collection of acrylic paintings that are a variety of landscape art, bringing lots of color and vibrancy to the eye. It has been a fun journey of equal self discovery as I challenge myself to allow inner concepts and inspirations come to life. That is one of things I love most about painting is you can have a creative vision or simply be inspired by something you see in nature and watch it come to life on a canvas.
The next collection of paintings and what I see my style morphing into is a beautiful fusion between realism, abstract and fantasy. My goal with my art will always be to evoke emotion and connect with people on a soul level.
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?
Reflecting back I see that the most impactful qualities on my journey have been my passion, my discipline, and my tenacity.
I have always been a very passionate person and I believe it is reflected in the art I create. Passion is a necessary quality to push you through when the journey becomes challenging or you start hitting road blocks. Passion will keep you inspired even when things feel dark. Passion will be the fuel you need to keep you going when and if you start to feel discouraged. My advice for those just starting on their journey, in order to find your passion is to follow your heart and what truly makes you happy no matter what. That which brings you joy, passion will surely follow. This passion will be the fire to fuel anything you can dream of.
Discipline I believe is what helps harness and focus that fire of passion within you. Discipline keeps you focused on your goals and what baby steps you need to take to get to where you want to be. It is what has helped me wake up between 4-5 am in order to have creative time before I go to work and the demands of the day bombard my time. Following a creative path can be a challenging one, especially if it is in the mediums of painting and writing, as most of your work you do alone. A creative path requires a lot of self-motivation. Discipline will help keep you motivated and focused on your path, especially during the challenging and lonely days.
Lastly, my tenacity has helped me to stay persistent with my goals and dreams as an artist. Tenacity is the relentless determination to keep at something that you believe in. Having this quality, especially for someone new on their journey, will help put blinders up when you need to in order to stay focused on your own path. This quality has helped me have blind faith in a vision no one else could see but me, which is sometimes necessary, especially if you have people filling you with any sort of doubt. Tenacity has been the quality that has allowed me to never give up despite any obstacle I have faced.
Whatever qualities someone possesses, especially early on in their journey, the biggest piece of advice I would have is to find a routine that works with your schedule where you can set aside time for your art. Most people have many obligations to juggle such as work, being parent, and just the day to day tasks that can pile up, but carving out time and prioritizing your art despite all these obligations will help not only bring so much purpose and meaning to your life but help others too the more you start sharing your art. My other piece of advice is to create from what is truly inside of you, not what others tell you to create, for that will have the deepest impact. Create for you, and everything else will follow.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My partner, Micah Knapp, has been the single most significant person in my life that has helped me overcome challenges and build essential skills I have needed for my growth and creative success. Micah was the first person in my life to gift me with the tools I needed to get started on my creative journey. He gifted me with canvases, an easel and paints so I could start painting. He gifted me with a laptop so I could start writing. He saw a talent and a passion within me and he wanted to help foster it. He infused his own belief in me on days when I was filled with doubts or discouragement.
I grew up in an environment that instilled the belief that you needed to follow a practical path and profession in order survive in this world and find success. From there, I was involved in many toxic and unhealthy relationships that held me back even further along my creative journey.
I’ve realized looking back just how important it is to have even just one person in your life that can help breathe life into your essence and the dreams you hold in your heart. Without that, it’s like standing alone in the wind, with your only support system pulling you in so many other directions.
Everything changed when Micah walked into my life though and I started to dream again. He may be involved in a completely different medium in the creative field, but art is art, and the journey to get to where you want to be can have many parallels on this path. He is my partner, but he has also become my mentor and my muse.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://butterflysetfree.com
- Instagram: @butterflysetfree and @chelseaolmsted.art
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chelsea.olmsted.5
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-olmsted-545a32a8
Image Credits
Credit: my daughter Aria, age 8
