We were lucky to catch up with “CJ” Celesa Jane Lucien recently and have shared our conversation below.
“CJ” Celesa Jane, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
At an early age I learned that life for me was about survival. My mother was young when she married my much older father. He was not what he seemed on the outside and had a hidden dark character lying beneath his successful persona. I lived in a daily deluge on how to stay safe and maneuvered my behavior based on my mother being close. Without getting into details, I lived under fear and personal threat of being molested. She was oblivious to my harm and all I prayed for was to escape the confines of living at home. I prayed to not kill the perpetrator and to come out with my sanity. I lived with personal shame but felt like I was carrying the weight of my family on my shoulders at a tender age.
All my strength came from a personal conviction that a divine power was keeping me alive. I attended Sunday school and church every week, participating in the church choir alongside my grandmother, mother, Godmother and grandfather. It was necessary for me to go to choir rehearsal every Wednesday night with my mother to not be trapped at home with my father. My first original mantra was, “You can touch my body, but you can’t touch me.” I knew from an early age that I was not my body and that I had a purpose. I did not know what that purpose for living was but I knew I was on a mission.
On one family excursion we took our 36 ft yacht fish to a lake outside Dallas. My brother had a friend accompany him. My mother and father were on the flying bridge, the three of us were under the bow pulpit. While traveling full speed across the water a rogue wave hit us unexpectedly. The boat pitch-poled into the wave. The bow of the boat went careening into the water. In slow motion I watched my mother and father flung into the sky like leaping frogs along with the contents of my mothers purse. My brother and his friend were flung loose from their side rail but I was caught under the bow as it dug deeper into the water.
I struggled to loosen my one piece swimsuit from the cleat, but my body was being pushed against the rail of the pulpit. The more I struggled the less air I had and I felt myself melting into the water. My last thought was, “Oh, this is what it feels like to drown.” A calm peace swept through my body as I relaxed into a blissful resolve. The next thing I knew, I popped to the surface with the huge bow of our boat headed toward me, full throttle. We all escaped that scene when my father somehow catapults himself aboard and regains control of the vessel.
Those first episodes of life challenges prepared me in a way that many people do not encounter. I was keenly aware of the light and dark sides of life and how to navigate between the veils of illusion. Somehow a resilient courage penetrated my being to release me from the bondage of what other people thought of me or society’s normal paths to living a life.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
My focus was always on the act of creating. It has been an urge since childhood when I’d get up in the middle of the night to just sit quietly on the bathroom tiles with a small wall heater lighting and warming the room. I felt courageous, strong, defiant, just going in there when my family was asleep to color on manila paper with crayons. I’d draw until I got sleepy then sneak back into bed.
My natural father was an Interior Designer for private aircraft so I absorbed much about the elements of design from watching his process selecting materials for chairs, carpets, headliners, and designing lightweight service bars. I learned to do pencil renderings to illustrate the design layouts.
In High School I was selected by my art teachers to attend a new type of vocational school that focused on an individual’s talents, mine was in the arts. I took every creative class I could get into; lapidary, pottery, batik, painting, weaving, life drawing, architecture. I graduated half a year before the rest of my class, I had so many credits. I decided to attend a junior college by day, working nights in the Banking industry.
I was obsessed with weaving. Once I warped the loom I was determined to use the full amount of thread I’d loaded. Planning wall hanging after wall hanging I wove anytime I could get to class. The weavings stretched from one end of the art department hall to the other. I asked my teacher if I could have a show in the school gallery and yes, I was given one! I had so many art pieces it even surprised me. Not only did I sell my weavings but batik hangings and pencil drawings as well. This is when I learned that my focused energy could pay off.
It is hard to BRAND myself in any one genre. With years of meditation and being on a spiritual quest one’s “identity” eludes me. I cannot say I am this or that. It seems each new phase of life has its own challenges. It’s just important to be able to step into the next adventure not trying to drag old parts of myself into the future. Being in the flow of life’s opportunities seems to be lived in the moment of the next challenge. Each experience builds skills for the next opening and it’s all cumulative until the end of your life.
At the present time I am most interested in working with clients that are ready to shift their lives from a mundane existence to find joy in their environment. This means letting go of clutter, meaningless stuff shoved into closets or under the bed. Clients that are ready to open a new chapter in their life to experience freedom by pairing down their homes to live in a nurturing space.
To me the inside of your home reflects the inside of your body and mind. If you are presently restless, nervous, anxious, moody, agitated, depressed the weight of all those material possessions are the equivalent to dead energy in your body. You may be absorbing too much outside stimulus from work, traffic, family crisis, etc, carrying that home too. All this “stuff”adds up to a heavy energetic strain that takes up breathing space. Culling out everything except what gives one joy is truly important. This is the first step to lightening your load.
The second step is to help a potential client create flow in their lives by creating a sacred space at home. This opens up new opportunities for them as well as health benefits. Stagnate homes create a stagnant life. For new energy to come in I check the Feng Shui or Flow of energy by adjusting the home accordingly. I help by removing outdated window treatments, worn upholstered furniture, adjusting furniture placement, curating art that is meaningful, identifying and correcting architecture faux pas as well as selecting wall color that will enliven the space. Every step builds on the next shifting the energy the client can actually feel when they enter the front door.
I have clients that repeatedly tell me how they are so thrilled to come home. Their new space really expresses the happiness they were searching for and always wanted to feel.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Throughout my life curiosity for how things are made or done was my focus. Different cultures have always fascinated me. The spiritual connection to some divine source that comes through me when creating, experimenting, cooking, traveling and through discovery seem to be what gives inspiration for living. The interconnectedness of all life. I’m a firm believer in Joseph Campbell’s work “The Hero’s Journey, to follow your bliss.”
If I decide I want to participate in a shovel race going thirty miles an hour down a steep snow covered slope sitting on the blade of a production snow shovel, I get into the whole anticipation and excitement of the moment. Once I make a commitment to do something I throw my whole consciousness into it. It is my belief if you feel the sensation of completing any given project successfully, you can do it. I evaluate the cost of my life energy first to the reward of whatever I do.
Whenever I need work, I create it by pitching in the direction I want to see it evolve. I reach out to unexpected sources. If I see a need for something I know I can do, I propose it. Be it redesigning a reception area in a Doctor’s office or commercial building that’s tired and outdated to working as a trained senior move manager helping relocate seniors into assisted living, I step in for the job. If I want to sail in the Caribbean I audition as a chef on a charter yacht presenting a week’s menu. If a newspaper needs a writer for the arts and entertainment section and I want to further my writing skills, I apply. If I want to write for travel publications I take a workshop to find out how to best go about it. If a Gallery needs a coordinator, curator for a show or new artworks I speak to the owners, art director or art council to find a way to present my services. I have curated several art exhibitions, coordinated multiple art fairs and been a judge in them as well. If I see an opportunity to paint a mural in an inviting spot, I envision it, do a rendering then pitch it to a client. Creating opportunities for myself is the only way I have come upon exciting ways to use my talents and because no one is going to come knocking on my door handing me money.
Success to me is multi facetted. I cannot see standing behind a desk or counter or sitting at a computer day in and day out and not having tried something that is of interest. I refuse to martyr my life energy to something that gives no personal satisfaction, that would be living hell. Thinking outside of the box has more than one meaning to me. We put ourselves in a box when fearing failure, embarrassment, and limit our experience to life. But we put ourselves in a box when we stop envisioning and going for our passions and interests just to have a steady dollar. Yes, it is scary being an entrepreneur, but isn’t it scarier to realize you were too afraid to live your life to the fullest?
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I grew up in a time when playing outside was the most important tool to learning about the nature of life. Freedom to explore my neighborhood, personal strengths and the sensation of unboundless potential was so important to my development. Despite my intolerable circumstances I didn’t let that foreshadow my future. To move forward in my life, I realized I must grant forgiveness to both my parents, each in different ways, because holding onto that resentment and condemnation I was only poisoning myself more. But as a child I was free to roam to the park, play in ditches, walk to school, ride go carts, motorcycles and play basketball with the boys.
Playing outside in a pile of sand under our treehouse, it became a ghost house by hanging sheets off the sides to make it dark inside. My brother and I dug trenches to crawl through the sand where our friends encountered creepy things to discover, like bowls of jello, or wet spaghetti.
My parents would let me drag home large boxes from an appliance store dumpster to create a makeshift store that looked like a box kite. I would use my allowance to spend $5.00 for penny candy which I sold for two pennies each and a couple nickel candies to sell for ten cents. I made a counter top and door to open and close to set up shop selling to neighborhood kids. One day a kid asked how come he could buy candy at the store for one penny and I was charging two cents? I recall replying, “I’m a convenience store, do you want to walk all the way down there, or do you want it now?”
I never missed an opportunity to make something to sell. My parents never said no to my wild schemes, be it painted rocks to pot holders made on little looms with hoops, I could make dozens during the week and on weekends I’d go door to door selling them. Each week our neighbors would open the door and exclaim, “What are you selling this week?” I had no fear of rejection. For some reason I couldn’t be discouraged. I would invest in more hoops or paints from my allowance or sales. I also volunteered at school to collect funds for the Red Cross or Salvation Army drives when everyone else seemed timid to raise their hand.
If I had to be inside I would paint, sew Barbie clothes or make crepe paper flowers. Then, I’d sell those. No creative endeavor was ever discouraged. I was always busy entertaining myself. This creative leeway was all I needed to let my imagination free. I knew no bounds to ideas and was free to express them.
If there is one thing I would encourage young families to do is to allow children space to create and keep the television off! Don’t use electronic devices to entertain your children, turning them into passive zombies. Don’t put iPads or phones in their hands, give them a place to finger paint, make play-dough from scratch and give them a place that is safe from all the NO’s. Give them a chance to experiment and use their brains to learn how things work.
Let them; climb trees, encourage playing kickball, basketball or sports, take swimming lessons, rollerskate, or plant seeds in a garden to watch them grow into carrots or flowers. Give them a station to cook in the kitchen with you. Take a family excursion to the mountains or lake to hike or camp out. Give opportunities (with supervision) to shoot bow and arrows and BB guns. Let your children have the freedom to run barefoot in the yard to chase fireflies at dusk and put them in a mason jar.
To some these activities may sound extreme but how will they learn what the power of a real arrow or bullet can do to a target or a piece of wood? Instead of a fantasy game on a flat screen, when a character is killed they will realize the potential of life and death in a world they must adapt to. Life will mean so much more when they see the real consequences of rash actions.
Fear is all about the unknown but when a child learns by doing he is better equipped to not live in fear because he learns the mechanics behind the challenges. Life is all about facing our fears and imaginary dragons. It is about our connections to others in the flesh, having courage to step into our challenges with skills to get us through safely. The answers aren’t always on Google but by learning “how to” on our own through trial and error. If you don’t learn how to fail, you can become intimidated by life and never try.
When I was learning to sail on a 26ft sailboat with a boyfriend before sailing to the Bahamas we chose to go through the intercoastal canal out of Biscayne Bay, Fl. We went aground at one point and had to call the Coast Guard to help us off a sandbar. When they arrived to pull us off I was embarrassed and apologetic. But one of the men said jokingly to me, “If you haven’t gone aground, you’ve never been sailing!” Maybe that is what life is all about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.luciendesigns.com
https://www.celesalucienfineart.com
http://www.jonlucien.com - Instagram: cjdesign0
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jonlucien - Facebook: CJ Celesa Lucien
Celesa Lucien Fine Art
Jon Lucien - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQfvywEpowQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqfirOwvwo - Other: https://canvasrebel.com/meet-celesa-lucien/
