We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Victoria White a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Victoria , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I was a very successful lawyer in Silicon Valley and New Orleans. But over a period of a few years, I got very sick and went through a lot of pain, fear and suffering. I think that the illness arose because my life was not in alignment in many areas.
I eventually got so sick I couldn’t walk the two blocks to my office. I knew that if I couldn’t even walk to my office, I couldn’t do my job. Letting go of my legal career was very much a process of having a lot of faith. It was very scary. I resigned from my law practice because I knew I had to focus on healing myself. I asked myself, “what does healing look like?” I decided to move to the beach in Los Angeles, do a lot of mediation, relaxation, being in nature, walking my dog, and a lot of other self-care. Part of that self-care was painting.
I had always been an artist and decided to lean into that. In 2018, I set an intention in my journal: to create something every day. My intention was to do some creative act every day. It wasn’t always painting, but I would create daily.
That habit of creating everyday eventually became my whole life. The more specific journey of the subjects of my paintings starts with my love of Philosophy. I was a Philosophy major in college. Someone recommended to me a detailed biography of Muhammad Ali. I was really interested in Ali and became more interested in learning about historical figures that changed the world and how they lived their lives. I started reading more biographies. I attempted to paint some portraits of these people that inspired me. The issue I encountered was that portraits are really difficult for a number of reasons, but i kept at it.
One day, I went to the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, and I saw this huge landscape painting by Mark Tansey, He only used ultramarine blue and white. I decided to paint a portrait in his style, using only ultramarine blue and white, hoping that would simplify the process just a little by taking the color spectrum out of it. I painted a portrait of an old Malibu singer songwriter that i had photographed a few weeks before. He had a very interesting face with wrinkles and glasses. I showed the portrait to my friend, and she loved it. She asked me to paint portraits of her three children. The task of painting those three children for her was essentially my graduate school program in fine art portraiture. I worked really hard to get the portraits looking good because it was really important to her and to me.
I started getting in the swing of the whole portrait painting process. I painted a few more musicians and a few more kids, and they all were pretty good. In early 2020, at my friend’s request, I painted John Prine as a gift for my friend’s brother-in-law, who was a huge John Prince fan. He came over to my house and she surprised him with the painting. The painting took his breath away and brought him to tears. At that moment, I thought, this is what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. I have this power to move people with my gift, and it brings me joy and heals me. People are willing to pay me for it and it’s contributing to the beauty of the world. And so it began.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a painter, sculptor, philosopher, mentor, and teacher born in new orleans and living in venice beach, california. I am most recognized for my larger-than-life monochromatic and duochromatic portraits of the iconic figures who inspire me, including artists, musicians, thinkers, actors, and athletes. My artwork combines philosophy and painting to make unique artworks that reflect not only the likeness, but also the soul of my subjects.
I find working with children as a great source of inspiration for my artwork. I volunteer as a teacher and director at Indivisible Arts, a nonprofit educational organization where i teach creativity, consciousness, and connection to children and young adults.
In 2023, I was the featured artist of the U.S. Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach and the Beach Life Music festivals in Los Angeles. My artwork was recently featured at Aqua Art Miami at Miami Art Week and will next be on exhibition at the 2024 Guitar Center Foundation/Centerstaging Music Studios Grammy Gala and Art Wynwood at the Miami Boat Show.
My artwork can be viewed on my website at www.victoriawhitecreates.com and my socials, @victoriawhitecreates on Instagram and TikTok.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities or skills that were most important in my journey were (1) faith that everything was going to work out, (2) the ability to listen to my intuition over the advice of others, (3) a clear vision, and (4) the discipline to work very hard to make my dreams come true.
It is our duty as humans on this planet to take care of our mental and spiritual health, as well as our physical health. That looks different for everyone, but it is imperative that we do it. For me, it has been journaling daily, yoga, mediation, studying the lives and philosophies of great leaders, and taking care of my mind and body. Developing faith requires that we develop trust in the universe and don’t lose hope; following your intuition often takes the courage to go against the grain and trust in yourself and your inner knowing; creating a vision requires that we be decisive, focused, and persistent; and hard work take discipline, focus, and tenacity.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
I think one of the most important books I have read is “The Book of Joy” in which Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama explain how, despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet. The book explores what true Joy is and explains how to overcome the main obstacles of Joy—fear, stress, anger, grief, illness, and death. They then explain the very simple “Eight Pillars of Joy,” which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. From humor to having perspective, to incorporating acceptance and utilizing compassion, they set forth a simple formula for cultivating a joyful life, a formula that I meditate on daily and incorporate into my daily life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.victoriawhitecreates.com
- Instagram: @victoriawhitecreates
- Facebook: Victoria White Creates
- Other: TikTok: @victoriawhitecreates
Image Credits
all images were taken by or are owned by me.
