We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christy Ross. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christy below.
Christy, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
My main source of creativity comes from interacting with other people. A two days a week I get to teach students, K-8 at St. Didacus Parish School. They are a huge source of how I keep my creativity alive. Being an art teacher for K-8 students requires a lot of creativity and practicality. I try to put myself in their shoes and ask myself, if I were ten years old, what would be fun to do!
The rest of the week I get to teach adults in my Paint & Sip events all over San Diego. Each venue has its own personality. I enjoy getting input from the owner and staff of each venue when I create my paintings to teach. At Whiskers & Wine Bar in North Park, I teach people in a very unique environment where cats are hanging out with us while we paint. Before planning each event I try to imagine a cat lover’s painting. For the upcoming Holiday event I painted a cat in a gift box with a ribbon on its head playing with a Christmas tree ornament. Each event either sells out (18 people, 2 volunteers) or comes close, so I know I’m doing my job, getting people excited to paint and be with cats!
I love having conversations with the new friends I make in my classes and the people from the venues I teach in. For me, there’s no substitute for human interaction. Scrolling online, googling can be a starter for creativity. Getting to share my art with other fellow artists, via text or in person is invaluable. Ultimately its the interaction with other humans that really gets me thinking and excited to create!
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Christy Ross Art’s mission is to create community through creativity. I do this wherever I’m teaching art, whether it’s at my Paint & Sip classes at Deano’s Pub in La Mesa, Lemon Grove Coffee, Makai Sushi in Hillcrest, Whiskers & Wine Bar in North Park, or Clairemont Coffee or at a private party, my goal is to create connection through creativity. Great evidence of community building is at my Lemon Grove Library location where I teach painting classes there on Saturdays once a month. There are many familiar faces each class. It’s a full class, 28 people and often 10 on the wait list. A lot of the attendees have gotten to know one another and are feeling very comfortable creating. Yes, they’ve learned painting techniques, but mostly I feel like what they’re learning is how to give themselves the freedom to create and ultimately to be themselves. As the owner of Christy Ross Art, I feel proud that I’m giving something the world desperately needs: connection and creativity.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Having enthusiasm for teaching art, connecting with others and the act of taking risks have all helped me grow as an art educator and as a person. It brings me so much joy to get to teach others how to be creative by giving them the time, space, supplies and guidance. If you don’t try stuff out you’ll never know it it’ll actually work out.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
My number one obstacle is not having enough time! Recently, I declared to a close friend, “I’m going to take a break from Paint & Sipping so that I can work on a collection of my own paintings” Then for four straight days in a row four different people contacted me to do private events in the coming weeks and in the new year. I know it’s great to have this as a problem. “It doesn’t have to be,” said my friend, “Block off one day a week where all you focus on is your painting collection.” She’s right, things don’t have to be so black and white. I can do both. It’ll take some discipline and amazing time management. Let’s see if I can do it!
Back in August, a utility box on Ingulf, just off Morena got badly vandalized. I wasn’t sure how I’d have the time to sand, prime and repaint it. I made a post about what had happened on a neighborhood Facebook group. On the post, in the comments, Judy Sickler said she’d be happy to help me once I was able to repaint. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, I was in the process of prepping to head down to paint and I remembered her offer to help. I messaged her and met her at the utility box one and a half hours later and we got to it! Three more painting sessions later, all of which were two hours or less and today we finished! Having her help was invaluable. I couldn’t have finished it without her help and new friendship. We each signed the box with our names today.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.christyross.art
- Instagram: Christyrossart
- Facebook: Christy Ross Art
Image Credits
Cammy Lee Atkins, Maribel Diaz, Justin Ruffier
