Meet Tessa Elisabeth

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tessa Elisabeth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tessa, 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.

To keep my creativity alive I try to remember to remain close to things that keep me feeling inspired.

Taking time with myself in nature, taking good care of myself, lots of laughter, and being part of a supportive community are all wonderful sources of inspiration.

That’s not to say all inspiration is necessarily positive. Going through some of the more challenging roads of my life have also been very strong sources of inspiration for arguably some of my favorite projects.

To me, being a Creator is to be a channel to a collective network or stream of inspiration waiting for a conduit to bring it into being in the physical world.

Stepping through fear and trying new things is another way I’ve sought to keep the creative fire stoked.

An old friend once told me that no matter how old you get, you’re never learned enough to not be a beginner at something. It was very humbling and I try to remind myself of this often, especially when I’m feeling any lack of inspiration.

When life begins to feel uninspiring, that’s usually my signal to shake things up and seek out new experiences, to dare to try something new again and reignite that creative spark.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a creator, teacher, and mixed media artist.

I like to share my love of painting through Therapeutic Art Workshops, Murals, and Fine Art. I also teach Elementary and Middle School Art in San Diego, Ca.

I began my dedication to my creation journey which I call Moon Sluice Art, about 7 years ago.

A sluice is an opening or passageway that allows water to pass through when opened.

The Moon holds influence over the Ocean, the largest body of water on Earth, and as we know our bodies are made of mostly water.

Thus, a Moon Sluice is any being that remains open to source, becoming a passageway for creativity to pour through.

I believe there is a creator in every one of is and we are collectively weaving the world we live in.

Images are powerful things, and I often find that I think in images more than words.

Carl Jung had a theory that we are all bound together by a thread of ancient knowledge via recognizable symbols and images which he called the collective unconcious.

I intentionally like to weave symbolism and archetypes into my creations.
If an image holds the power to shift the perception of an individual, then it is possible that it would have a knock-on effect on the outer manifestation of the collective consciousness.

It is my goal to bring joy to the world via Art. I see Art as one of many tools used towards healing and wholeness, and getting to share that is really empowering.

Moon Sluice originally started as a handmade craft and jewelry project made of all recycled, re-purposed materials in 2017, and my focus shifted more towards painting in the last 4 years.
Lately I’ve been centered on teaching more Art Classes, and I am beginning to move towards illustration and animation. It has been such a fun journey of creation and discovery, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Three skills that have been the most impactful on my journey would have to be Adaptability, Faith, and Persistence.

Adaptability has been a crucial one.
There is a quote by Charles Darwin that made a huge impact on me, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” 
I wouldn’t call myself Darwinist or anything, but I have found so much truth to that statement in my own experience. If there is one thing that is for certain in life, it’s change. Being able to adapt to the tides that are sure to come and go is so important to seeing your vision come to fruition. I’m always reminding myself that it’s important to stay focused on my goals, but also remain flexible to how I get there.

When I say Faith, it can be in anything, but mostly in your vision and in your power to manifest that vision or dream. I have found that once you put a vision out into the world, it’s going to come up against lots of challenges. The world really wants to know how strong that dream is and it will be tested in every way under the sun. Faith is the act of believing in something even when you’ve seen no results or evidence. It can take a long time to see real results of your vision coming to life, and Faith has been a strong pillar for me in those longer stretches of waiting.

I was once given a list of 10 things that supposedly make a business successful, and one of them was Persistence. I was told that all of the items on the list could be taken away, and if Persistence was still there it would be successful, and if all the items were there, but Persistence was not, a business could still fail. This has been another key element for the Moon Sluice journey. If you endeavor to something greater than yourself, failure at some point is inevitable. I have gone through long periods on my path where it was just one failure after another, and remembering to continue to persist in spite of those failures has been the main thing to get me to the other side to seeing a possible success. I am forever grateful for the professor who shared that for giving me such a powerful tool to navigate the roller coaster of the business world.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking to grow and collaborate. I believe working together only makes a vision stronger, and trying to do it all by yourself can be exhausting. The journey is to be enjoyed, and joy is to be shared.

To anyone reading this that wants to reach out, I love to collaborate with other artists and creatives!

Community murals and art installments are always on my radar.

I am also currently looking for a new venue/space that is in alignment with my vision to hold my Art Classes. A calming environment where anywhere from 2 to 25 people (or more) can come to relax and unleash their inner child is what I’m really looking for. I would also love to collab with anyone already building this type of space/environment.

Illustration and Animation are my next frontiers. I am a novice to these worlds, so I am definitely looking for any and all opportunities to learn and grow in these areas. Being a visual artist for story/film writers and authors is a great dream of mine.

In my free time, I have been teaching myself digital art, and have been testing out different animation apps. I am really inspired to illustrate fantasy novels and children’s books, and have a few of my own written as well. Short animated cartoons, films, or social media clips would be really fun and I have a million of them in my head dying to find an outlet.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

All images belong to me.

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