When the world turned upside down, Andrea Chebeleu didn't just adapt; she transformed her artistic journey into a digital wonderland. This episode of Mind Over Medium is a heartfelt conversation with Andrea, where she opens up about her entrepreneurial voyage, sparked by the global shift to remote life. As she moved to Oregon, a new chapter began, not just for her but for a flourishing community of creatives who've come together in her Watch, Learn, Play group. We traverse the landscape of launching a creative business, the pure joy of enabling artists to engage with their craft, and how, despite the juggle of family life, Andrea has cultivated a digital sanctuary where art is both learned and experienced.
It's not all about the paint and canvas; ritualistic morning practices, embracing our neurodiversity, and a daily dose of gratitude are the quiet undercurrents of our creative processes. Andrea and I share intimate details of our life-affirming routines and how, sometimes, they're the lifeboat in a sea of chaos. We talk about the delicate dance between nurturing one's own creative spirit and pouring into the community, tackling the hurdle of creative blocks with a touch of whimsy, and the art of restructuring our internal narratives to foster growth and healing. All this as we peel back the curtain to reveal the often unseen administrative load that comes hand-in-hand with creative success.
The vibrant tapestry of an artist's life wouldn't be complete without the threads of social media and public engagement. We close with musings on our favored platforms, like Instagram, where the soul of our work is laid bare for the world to see. This conversation is a beacon for creatives seeking inspiration and connection, and my gratitude extends to every listener who's joined us on this journey. Through episodes like this, we aspire to not just inspire but also to shape a community where each artist's voice is amplified and where every stroke, sketch, and splatter is a testament to the shared heartbeat of our collective endeavor.
Connect with Andrea Here and on Instagram
Connect with Lea Ann Here
When the world turned upside down, Andrea Chebeleu didn't just adapt; she transformed her artistic journey into a digital wonderland. This episode of Mind Over Medium is a heartfelt conversation with Andrea, where she opens up about her entrepreneurial voyage, sparked by the global shift to remote life. As she moved to Oregon, a new chapter began, not just for her but for a flourishing community of creatives who've come together in her Watch, Learn, Play group. We traverse the landscape of launching a creative business, the pure joy of enabling artists to engage with their craft, and how, despite the juggle of family life, Andrea has cultivated a digital sanctuary where art is both learned and experienced.
It's not all about the paint and canvas; ritualistic morning practices, embracing our neurodiversity, and a daily dose of gratitude are the quiet undercurrents of our creative processes. Andrea and I share intimate details of our life-affirming routines and how, sometimes, they're the lifeboat in a sea of chaos. We talk about the delicate dance between nurturing one's own creative spirit and pouring into the community, tackling the hurdle of creative blocks with a touch of whimsy, and the art of restructuring our internal narratives to foster growth and healing. All this as we peel back the curtain to reveal the often unseen administrative load that comes hand-in-hand with creative success.
The vibrant tapestry of an artist's life wouldn't be complete without the threads of social media and public engagement. We close with musings on our favored platforms, like Instagram, where the soul of our work is laid bare for the world to see. This conversation is a beacon for creatives seeking inspiration and connection, and my gratitude extends to every listener who's joined us on this journey. Through episodes like this, we aspire to not just inspire but also to shape a community where each artist's voice is amplified and where every stroke, sketch, and splatter is a testament to the shared heartbeat of our collective endeavor.
Connect with Andrea Here and on Instagram
Connect with Lea Ann Here
Welcome to Mind Over Medium, a podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. When you tune in a twink, you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work, and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will have the opportunity to hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can gather to learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their toolbox their mindset. Thanks so much for tuning in to Mind Over Medium podcast. Let's get started.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Hello, I hope everyone is doing well today. I'm excited to spend some time with Andrea Chebelou. She is an entrepreneur who wears many creative hats, such as artist, teacher and an owner of an art supply store, which sounds amazing. So thank you for being here, and I always ask everyone two things introduce yourself, just give us an idea who you are, where you live, give us a bit more detail and then describe the time in your life when you felt the most creative.
Andrea Chebeleu:Thank you so much for having me Leanne. Oh, my goodness, I feel like I will. First of all, first and foremost, your first question. I'm Andrea Chebelou, you got that. I am an artist and an entrepreneur. I feel like a serial entrepreneur and I am currently living in Oregon, just south of Portland. We're actually 23 miles south of Portland International Airport, but I spend my time between here and my studio and other home in San Jose, california. Oh, nice, yeah. And the time in my life, I think that I feel the most, that I have felt the most creative, has had to have been around some big moves or changes. I will say one get some emotion coming up right off the bat.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Let's do it.
Andrea Chebeleu:Right March 17, 2020. Yeah, that was the beginning of a huge creative explosion for me. As far as just taking like what I was doing and facing this like absolute unknown and being like, well, now's the time we're going to go into online classes because I had been saying it forever and so it would. That felt like a huge creative moment for me, which I can just you know, like we can pinpoint it to the day, I know, when I knew that I was going to have to do something different. Yeah, that's just one of many man, I have had some great, super creative times. I think the most recent one has been buying and moving up here to this property in Oregon. That just you know, blew me out of the water. That how quickly it happened, but also what a creative mindset put me in for just starting something new. I love starting new stuff. I love Mondays. I love the first thing, you know, the first day of the month. I love, you know the new, like just starting new stuff.
Lea Ann Slotkin :That's great. Yeah, that's amazing, and those are great examples. It sounds like you took it more seriously than I did. I was in denial at that time. I was in denial and I'm like this is going to be a month. Oh yeah, a month, I'm good.
Andrea Chebeleu:I'm like two weeks it's fine, but you know what, like there's something in me and maybe it's the fight flight freeze fought. Like it was just something in me that was like you got to keep moving. You just got to keep doing the next right thing, like just what's the next right thing? And all indications said you've got all the equipment, just keep doing what you're doing and we're just switching things. So I didn't give myself much time to think about it, leanne, but I'll tell you what leader kind of the flip side of that is go and not processing in the moment had its fallout. Yeah, as it does.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yes, yes. Well, thank you for sharing that. Well, I got to spend some time with you and your community recently and you've created something really special. It's a great group, delightful human beings. The group is called Watch Play Learn, right, is that the Watch Learn Play?
Andrea Chebeleu:Watch, learn, play.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Sorry, sorry.
Andrea Chebeleu:It's alright. I know I'm a big thing at like three words, always kind of follow me around. I wrote it. Watch, learn, play.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Watch, learn, play. Tell me about this community that you've created, and then I have some other questions about it, once you kind of describe what it is and who it's for.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, absolutely so. Watch, learn, Play is a collection of what I started during COVID. I was the lockdown period that we were in where, you know, everybody was just kind of figuring out new things. I love watching fast forward videos of people in process, like just making something from nothing, right, starting the blank page and then finishing. That just delights me to no end. So I started doing that.
Andrea Chebeleu:I'm like, well, why am I not doing it if I love watching it? So I started just turning my camera on and recording whatever was on my desk that day. I'm a big believer in I need to have it stack, and so I was always going to the 730 meeting on Zoom and so I just like whatever was on my desk, I turned my camera on. I'm listening and you know, listening to the meeting, but doing whatever was there, and I started to accumulate this sort of library or collection of these videos that I was posting.
Andrea Chebeleu:So Watch, learn, play started out as that in August of 2021. I opened the doors and just invited people to come in who were interested in short form video Like I just want like there's not a lot of editing except maybe just slapping some music on and me voice overing telling why I'm making the choices that I'm making and just walking people through a little sort of drive by creative session. In a nutshell, I don't know if that really kind of described it, but that's what it started out as, and now it's become so much more than that.
Andrea Chebeleu:It's just a gathering of creatives Like we, just we connect on a weekly basis. I have some online, some live sessions, like the one that I invited you to participate in. That happens weekly, where we get together and I call it under the influence, which I thought was a very provocative makes people kind of stop in their tracks Like what are they doing over there? Definitely Right Under the influence. Art journaling is just a practice of noticing. We're just practicing the skill of noticing when we're scrolling through, which is my number one form of checkout. Many days, right, but how many times do we scroll and we're filled with this like, oh, I'd like to try that or oh, I could never do. I don't know what your inner dialogue is, right.
Lea Ann Slotkin :But I'm a artist.
Andrea Chebeleu:I notice what mine is right and so, under the influence, is just taking that time to deep dive into an artist's feed and noticing what lights us up. What is it about this artist's work that I'm like, oh, I'm so intrigued. I'm leaning forward, right, I always say like, catch yourself leaning forward and wanting to look at something more closely. That's a clue of what lights you up. So I feel like I'm just training everybody to be little light workers, like finding what lights them up and capturing it. And then, when we're able to translate that onto a page, we have, like these books filled with things that light us up, I mean it's pretty magical. To be honest, it really is.
Lea Ann Slotkin :I mean I was delighted Like I had a smile on my face the rest of the day after spending time with y'all.
Andrea Chebeleu:Well, we loved having you and it's such, it's so much fun. I always invite, I always make sure that I have permission, number one to feature an artist, because this is not a copying thing. I know that gets kind of touchy sometimes. Totally understand, I've been copied before and not given credit and that just feels icky. So we're always wanting to like, make it a mutually beneficial relationship with the artist who's inspiring us. I always ask permission and delighted when they come on, like you did, and sometimes they actually keep coming back because I always extend that invitation that our featured artists are always invited to come back and continue to. You know, hang out with us and we have just a lovely community of you know, create a people who get together each week and yeah, it's great.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Well, you know, like being the person that was invited in it was such. It made me think about my own work in a different way, because a lot of times it's like you finish a piece, it goes out into the world and you don't really think about it again. You know, I don't spend a lot of time revisiting older work. Hmm, even if it's like a month old, not even that old and I really, after spending time there, I'm like this has value for me to go back through, think about the decisions I was making, I mean all the things like it was super helpful for me too.
Andrea Chebeleu:Excellent. I love hearing from the artists, too, how they take it, because every everyone is different. Right Common denominator among all the artists is like wow, this is so cool. I've never looked at my art through someone else's eyes. Well, they're kind of, you know, guiding the conversation, it's just yes, yeah, it's unique, it is very unique.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, well, it seems to, and tell me if this impression is not true. It seems to attract maybe newer artists, people just kind of getting their creative feet wet. Does that, is that true?
Andrea Chebeleu:I think we have a variety of skill levels and experiences in there, but I love the beginner so I'm always, you know, making sure that I let people know you don't need to have any knowledge or skill. I've got quite a library of you know sort of encyclopedic mixed media knowledge in there that they can Tap into or find, you know, what interests them. Maybe not everything interests them, but they're just interested in you know how can I use my pastels that I collected? I have a lot of art supply collectors in my membership, yeah, and I love Taking them from being just a collector of the art supplies into being a user of the art supplies and so oh, go ahead.
Andrea Chebeleu:I'm sorry, I was just gonna say the whole Accord that watch, learn and play is a process too right. So I like watching. I like watching it starts how it started. I like watching other people's process, so I invite people to watch, learn what lights them up and then give themselves permission to play. That's huge. That's been my biggest struggle, I think, in coming into this chapter of my life. If you will, is just Permission to play.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Mm-hmm. Yeah, and isn't it interesting how Sometimes it's just like we need someone to be like it's okay, yep, go ahead, use those. Break, break the seal open, take that plastic cellophane off, dumb in a bowl, cover off of the crayon and break it.
Andrea Chebeleu:It's yeah, yeah, it gets so stuck.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. So I'm curious to know what came first the your store Teaching your own personal work like. Tell me how all that came about.
Andrea Chebeleu:Well, it's been an interesting path for sure. I started my business in 1998 with my now almost 20. Well, how many years ago is that? They're turning 26? February 12th, right? So that one was that my middle kid was a nine-month-old on my knee when I would To hatch this business, way back when, and it started in the scrapbook industry, and so we just kind of, you know, I followed what lit me up. The entire path of my career has been just like okay now what? Okay now, what, what's exciting now? And so, yeah, it was more paper arts in the beginning.
Andrea Chebeleu:Mixed media Came in. You know, shortly thereafter somebody walked into my studio so with a cloth, paper, scissors, magazine, and my brain literally just felt like it wanted to explode. I'm like all of the things that I have and look what people are doing with them. So that was my introduction to mixed media and I just really not looked back. I did for a long period of time that's how I paid my rent was making scrapbooks for clients, which feels right now like soul sucking work I could. I don't ever want to go back there, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity that it brought me. That industry introduced me to what I truly love and you know it's very good at it. I ended up, you know, subcontracting out a lot of work and it paid the bills for a long time.
Lea Ann Slotkin :And then when did your like brick and mortar?
Andrea Chebeleu:store come in. Yeah, that came in 2000, 2001, right in that area.
Lea Ann Slotkin :So, I.
Andrea Chebeleu:I probably should have this all written out like what year, what year. But I, the older I get, I'm like I don't know, was that 10 years ago, was that 20?
Lea Ann Slotkin :years ago.
Andrea Chebeleu:Exactly. Just time Changes over time, you know. So the brick and mortar came along because the projects that I was doing in my scrapbooking for others Became too large to fit into the studio that my husband had built me in my house so I had a little room that he built me in the garage. I think he finished in July and December I moved into my first studio. So that was my frame like and my kids were still very little. The first studio public commercial studio that I moved into was zoned as a live workspace. It was an adorable little 1920s Spanish art deco apartment that I would take the kids to and they the bedroom was their playroom. I did all my production work out in the living room with, you know, four tables set up out there. The dining room was my office.
Andrea Chebeleu:You know the kitchen was the kitchen and that's where the kids made snacks and the bathroom had a big old tub in it that you know my girls would take a Bubble bath in the middle of the day and there I am, you know, working on scrapbooks for people. So that's amazing started. It's how it started. My kids would be there, as much as you know, when they were out of school they were with me, mm-hmm, it just kind of followed me through. My business grew as my family Demands on my time were able to be balanced to. You know, allow my business to grow, but it never felt like it was growing too fast or that I couldn't. Well, I don't know. There have been times where I definitely am overwhelmed. I struggle with that all the time. We're just balancing that. But yeah, it's just kind of grown as it as I've been able to.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, that's amazing. I love hearing people's Story and you know the paths they take, especially creative people, because it's rarely just a straight line.
Andrea Chebeleu:Oh my goodness, no so.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, that's really great. Now, going back to the new artists that you like to work with, in that you do sometimes work with, like it's got to be so satisfying to see their confidence grow as they become more skilled. But with that, do you see a common theme or thought that they have in the beginning like, oh you know, like maybe limiting beliefs, like is there a common thread there with that group?
Andrea Chebeleu:big one. I find that shows up a lot is I don't have enough skill to use the good supplies that I've like, that I've Accumulated, and so there's this put this struggle right, this struggle of like I've invested money in this and now you're asking me to invest my Time into learning how to it. Just the whole thing can be overwhelming and they want to save the good stuff for later, and so I guess my, my Mantra that I repeat to them. There's one that's my main like kind of life mantra, and that is first, not only approach, whatever it is that I'm gonna do creatively. This is the first time I'm doing it, not the only time I'm doing it. Let's off some of the stress, right the pressure.
Andrea Chebeleu:And then the other one because a lot of the mediums that I work with it's just paint and paper. It's just paint and paper. That's what I keep repeating that it's just paint and paper.
Lea Ann Slotkin :I remember when I was first starting out, this made me think of something. It was like it's been a long time and I was doing an art festival and I remember a fellow artist next to me coming up. He's like you use so much paint on your canvas and I was like I do. He's like, oh yeah, I would never feel comfortable using that much paint. It just seems a waste. And it's so like, of course, like I had no thought about it. I didn't know, you know it's.
Andrea Chebeleu:I think oh, that's so interesting. That's so interesting Cause I noticed that comes up in me when I watch some artists paint. I'm a student of Nicholas Wilton of the creative visionary program and sometimes I have to like check myself when I'm watching and paint. I'm like that's so much paint, it feels so weight and I'm like, oh, that must be what my students feel like. The other one that I just realized is covering things up. Painting and then covering things up is always a sticking point for new mixed media artists. I have not found anyone who's just like yeah sure, I did that. Now I'm gonna cover it up and not have some sort of angst that comes up.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah, that must I mean. I'm sure I had it in the beginning, but I will cover stuff up in a second.
Andrea Chebeleu:But remembering that moment when you discovered that you could in it oftentimes made it better. Right, there's that coming up to the edge of like. Oh, I really like it. Am I gonna like it when I do the next thing? Mm-hmm, those little bits of fear, right, that we just get to banish, it's just paint, and paper?
Lea Ann Slotkin :It's yeah. And what did you say First? Not only First, not only yeah. I love that. That's a great one Getting to know you a little bit. It sounds like you've done a lot of work on your mindset, limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome, things like that. Do you mind talking about that a little bit, what that looks like for you? Oh my goodness.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yes, I have spent, I would say, probably the last four, five years just really diving deep into that, and it's an ongoing process, right, it's just as the layers of the onion, as they say.
Andrea Chebeleu:Right, more will be revealed it. I've had some really good friends along the way. I have one specific friend who were kind of on the same path and we just work really well together to kind of just check each other. Like I'll call her and like, hey, I need to process something, and like she drops everything. It just lets me blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then we're good, right, mm-hmm, and I do the same thing for her, and so I think it's all of the work has brought me to the point where I know that I'm a verbal processor, I'm also neurodivergent, and that plays hugely into makes so much sense, right. So when I got that diagnosis, I'm like, oh well, that makes a lot of sense. So then we get to do the next step of the work, which is banishing the shame for having all of these things that follow around, these traits that are absolutely natural with the way my brain is wired. So, yeah, it's been a process, it's ongoing, I work on it every day and I love it.
Lea Ann Slotkin :That's great. And when you say you work on it every day, do you have like a routine? Or I know your morning is real important to you.
Andrea Chebeleu:I have a pretty solid morning routine. I would even call it a ritual, mm-hmm, you know, I would go as far as to say that it's a ritual. It's very flexible, because I need things to be flexible, but it is. It's pretty solid. You know, like I'm an early riser, which means that I protect my evening hour so that I can be an early riser, I get up and I kind of go through the same routine. Like I love my coffee, right, I get my coffee or my tea. Sometimes my stomach can't take the coffee in the morning, so you know, peppermint tea is great. Go through this routine. Like I like my candles. Right now I'm loving having an open fire, like in my wood stove or in my fireplace right, so it's just this like water fire.
Andrea Chebeleu:Right, I take note of what I can smell, I take note of the temperature. So I'm sort of just checking in with my body as I'm easing into my morning routine. It's usually in the studio right now, because I'm here in Oregon alone. I've been, you know, practicing a little bit of this routine in the house, so it moves with me. It moves with me no matter where I am. I'm able to go through this process of having a little bit of a ritual for my morning and then right now I am on fire with my morning pages. That is not always the case. I go through extremely dry periods where it feels like I cannot get pen to paper. Right now I am like hallelujah, whatever I'm doing, let's not change it, because it's working right and I can trace back anything magical, super creative, big changes, success. All of that tying back to my practice of putting pen to paper, I love that and do you stop yourself at three pages or do you keep going?
Andrea Chebeleu:if you, no, you keep going If I have more to say, I have more to say. Right, a lot of times I'll stop, but this book stays with me everywhere I do I also, because, neurodivergent, I finally figured out what works for me and I need everything to be in one place the place that I take meeting notes, the place that I jot down the things that I need to do, the things that when I get overwhelmed I just need a brain dump my morning pages, what I've been here, art, a sample, I, oh you, put it all in one journal. Put it all in one journal. Yeah, yeah, it's all in one place. And then I just create a new volume of it. When it's you know, when I'm getting to the end of that one, I just make another one.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, that's really good, that's really good. I oftentimes will feel on fire with morning pages and then sometimes I'm like I got nothing. Yeah, it's funny how that ebbs and flows sometimes.
Andrea Chebeleu:What do you do when you've got nothing? Where do you?
Lea Ann Slotkin :go in, I usually don't make it a problem. I think before, like early days, I'd have been like, well, I'm not doing it right, like there's a right way or wrong way, and I think I just let it be now and don't make it an issue. Know that there's always tomorrow. It's not like all the ideas have gone away. I think that and then that helps me get back into the groove, just knowing that there's always tomorrow. And I'm very, like, committed to my gratitude in the morning, like, even if I don't have a lot to put in my morning pages every day, I will list gratitude things I'm grateful for and kind of expand on that a little bit.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, absolutely. Gratitude, I think, for me, is that big reset button or almost, you know, like the. I think Staples has it in easy button. It's not easy, right. Gratitude for me feels like pushing that button and just sort of oof, everything kind of settles back down. Yeah, there are things that are always going to be unpleasant, but every single one of them I can find something that I'm grateful for in.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, that's really good stuff. You introduced me to a beautiful chorus, oh, and I've been digging it. Thank you.
Andrea Chebeleu:Oh, you're welcome. You're welcome, I've been on in the morning.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, it's really good. So you're an amazing encourager. Is that something that? Did you have that as, like a young person, did someone encourage you? Did you learn it Like does it come naturally?
Andrea Chebeleu:That's really an interesting question. I don't. I can think of a couple of people in my life. My dad's mom, my grandmother, was a creative encourager. She was always. You know, she taught me how to sew, she helped me, you know, decorate my room. So I felt like I had that. I don't know. That's a really kind of stumps me.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, maybe it's just yeah, there's not, there is there. I just think of like how I would want to be treated. Yeah Right, I think that everybody, I feel like my membership is filled with a bunch of me, like we just wanna like make a difference, we just wanna be seen, we just wanna be. You know part of so I'm constantly aware of and making sure that I try and let people know that they belong.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah well, you're very good at it. Thank you. When you feel overwhelmed, what do you think or do to move through it? I write.
Andrea Chebeleu:I write all of the things and I'm a love, I'm a listy girl, I love lists, right, and so I just write all the things. As a matter of fact, I have a spread in my journal right now that comes like these are the things that are hanging over my head. I just felt like so many things were hanging over my head and I just drew like these pods hanging from the top of the page and I'm like just putting you know, I've got this project, or I've got this project. It felt so much better. It felt so much better just to get it on paper. Now those things are still there, they are still hanging over my head, but somehow, writing it down pen to paper, they don't feel so overwhelming and I can tackle it one thing at a time, absolutely like trying to keep all those thoughts and to-dos and lists in your brain.
Lea Ann Slotkin :It overwhelms your brain. I mean it just can't hold that much. So just the act of getting it on paper just frees up that space.
Andrea Chebeleu:I also noticed I tend to feel more overwhelmed when I'm not super conscious of how much input I'm taking Right and so more scrolling. While it may feel like, oh, this is, it's fine, it's a checkout, and I'll tell you what having under the influence as part of my work, right, Scrolling is actually my job. I'm looking for new artists to feature right, so I can justify anything. I have built a life where I can justify doing all the things that I love because it's my job, yeah, but I will get overwhelmed by just too much input, not enough output, not enough processing what's coming in, and so then I just that's the writing part, is the processing part.
Andrea Chebeleu:Sometimes it's just talking it out with again my girlfriend. I'm like, all right, something's coming up, yeah. And then she's like, well, what's on your mind? And then I start listing it off, and then when I hear myself say it out loud, I'm like, oh, no wonder, I wonder. I'm overwhelmed Any human would be overwhelmed with trying to juggle all of this right. And so getting back to my strong practice of writing and getting it down definitely soothes that I also pay attention to. I think I wrote earlier this week like there are some non-negotiables for me as far as taking care of my physical body so that I can be creative, and the overwhelm will usually come in when I'm out of balance. With that, Like I'm not, you know, down to the point of like am I hydrating? Am I really with water?
Lea Ann Slotkin :Not coffee, not coffee, yeah, with water?
Andrea Chebeleu:Am I hydrating?
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, kombucha doesn't count. Yeah, Well, it's interesting you say that, because when I was in your community, it was, you know, after the holidays and just that there was a conversation happening about how much output there is. I think, especially if you're a mom, a wife, all those things, even if you're not just the holidays, are a lot. And there was that conversation about, I think, was it you? Someone said that you'd given yourself permission just to not do it this year. Oh, yeah, that was my holidays.
Andrea Chebeleu:I had the most relaxing and peaceful holiday season I remember in my entire 54 years of living and it was because I had well, and it was also very odd because it was the first time that none of my kids were in our house for and I'm like, oh, that's interesting, first time in 28 years I have not had any of my three kids with me for the holiday. But, for a variety of reasons, I just let myself completely off the hook and it was different and I was checking in with myself like, how are you doing with this? This is different, this is not your normal, you know. And I came to January 1st feeling so ready for the new year, not in closing the books on 2023, because 2023 was an amazing year for me but just ready for the next thing. Right, recognizing that I'm in winter too.
Andrea Chebeleu:That's been a theme Like first of the year. I'm sorry, I'm not ready to start jump on like resolutions we're gonna change everything. No, just giving myself permission to be in the season that I'm in right now and also recognizing how out of alignment it is that all of those really heavy duty, like obligation-rich holidays in our society are in this season where we're really just wanting to kind of nest and settle down and quiet down and like hibernate a little bit.
Andrea Chebeleu:So I let myself just hibernate this year.
Lea Ann Slotkin :That is amazing, and nothing bad happened, I bet.
Andrea Chebeleu:No, nothing bad happened. I got no hate mail about how they didn't get my Christmas card and where was it? And I got no. You know None of that none of that. I didn't gain a ton of weight, which I could do it the holidays too, just like not being mindful of what I'm eating. Yeah, yeah, because you're so stressed, Right, I'm trying to do all the things.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Stress, eating all the things. No it's terrible, it's fascinating how that whole new year new you kind of vibe really does not vibe, to use the word again with the season Right.
Andrea Chebeleu:So so true. So I just take it as what I do every year is I pick a word of focus for the year. I've been doing that for a long time since. Who is it? Allie Edwards, I think started that one little word decades ago, or maybe it was OK, I'm not going to get sidetracked with who it was.
Andrea Chebeleu:Somebody will correct me, or somebody will say no, it wasn't her, it was me. Yeah, I pick a word of focus and sometimes they stick, like my word last year was notice. I don't think I'm ever going to not notice or be really tuned into that word, notice. This year I chose the word and, yeah, same part of that. I chose the word and because I noticed that I get in conflict and sometimes I have black and white thinking. I think it has to do with my neurodivergence and so I'm like huh, let me just explore where I can feel or think this and this can also be true, right, yeah, and so it's just. It's funny how often it comes up, how often I actually say the word but instead of and my members are, so they're like you catch yourself all the time because I'll say I like this, but I'm like I like this and yeah. So just catching myself in and being impeccable with my word and noticing where because you know, I can tend to unconsciously limit myself, yeah, I love that.
Lea Ann Slotkin :That's great. When I was going through my coach training, one of the concepts that we learned and spent quite a bit of time is on is that two things can be true at one time, and it's like you kind of know that kind of, but then when you think about it, it's like something amazing can be happening at the same time, something really unfortunate can be happening. Those are like two extremes. Yeah, yeah, but I don't think we, I and that doesn't mean anything has quote unquote gone wrong. It's just part of being a human, living a human existence and having all the feelings, all the thoughts, all the things. So that what made came up for me when you were talking about the and I like that.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, absolutely. I'm also on a quest to neutralize a lot of my inner talk, so I want to be like that's bad, that's good, and it's not necessarily serving me to be so polarizing, so it's interesting, like my, and is playing with that as well.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, so just trying to neutralize, like that was not a bad habit, it was just simply a habit that I had that no longer serves me yeah Right, that's where your 2023 word, I think, comes in really handy, because I think just the act of noticing that, yeah, that's really really cool, it goes down. So, yeah, that noise for sure.
Andrea Chebeleu:That's really great. Some oh God, no, I would. It was probably a tangent, I was going to say that shame, shame.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, I. I've been in and around the rooms of recovery since 20 2009 and it's funny. The things that I finally came to realize is that I'm addicted to changing the way that I feel Bottom line, bottom line. It doesn't matter what the substance or behavior is like feelings Change them. Yeah, and yes, I also saw something recently that somebody identified that they were, that they could identify one of their core addictions was to shame, and I'm like, oh, isn't that interesting? So I'm noticing right when, the when my behavior turns into something that I want, that's maybe adjacent to bringing up some sort of shame in me. I'm just noticing that. I'm noticing that right now and just trying to catch it.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Rewriting it.
Andrea Chebeleu:You know, rewriting the narrative that's going on subconsciously. I don't even think I realized that I'm doing it. Yeah, but that's one of the things that I'm trying not to bring into 2024. Yeah, and it has no place here, right? So that's neutralizing the, neutralizing my inner dialogue, my language, and then just recognizing where shame wants to come up.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, that's really good. And then I would encourage you to be really kind and gentle with yourself when it's happening, absolutely.
Andrea Chebeleu:Right, yeah, yeah, compassion starts with me, absolutely.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yes, and then you can just so much more freely give it to other people, absolutely. My guess is if you're like me, you have a lot of ideas, and if this is true, how do you decide which one to?
Andrea Chebeleu:follow. That is an ongoing struggle.
Lea Ann Slotkin :This is why I ask people this question.
Andrea Chebeleu:Well, I capture them. I capture them in my journal, which I call her Claire. She's got a name Claire, claire, claire, as in clairvoyant, like Claire, means knowledge, right. So just everything's in that journal. I capture them.
Andrea Chebeleu:How do I decide what to follow? You know, just, it's a constant what's lighting me up. Now, balanced with, I'm trying to put a little more structure into my what's lighting. You know, like, what I'm looking at each month. So with my membership this year, for the first time ever, I've given us things to look at each month a triad of colors, a technique, a supply, right, just to sort of, ooh, own it down, I have to do everything all at once. Yes, and I think that's the way that I, that I focus to like, what do I do next? Does it fall into one of those things? Am I exploring something for my membership? I want to tell you what the hardest thing is doing art for myself, because I love serving my community and some part of me feels like, ooh, what I'm doing is for you know, both of us. But yeah, I think that's definitely a deficit in my own practice is just not having the camera running right.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, yeah, yeah, that could be a hard balance, difficult thing to balance. Yeah, how do you deal with creative blocks?
Andrea Chebeleu:I tidy, I tidy, I put things away. I just straighten things up. You know, maybe pull out a box. I have a collection of what we call doom boxes, Doom boxes Say more.
Andrea Chebeleu:Doom stands for didn't organize, only moved. So when I need to clear space, to clear my mind, my practice is grab a bucket, grab a tub, grab some sort of thing that you know you can just sweep everything off into. And a lot of times as I'm sweeping it off, I'm like, oh no, andrew, come on, just put that away, it's not going to take that long, yeah. But sometimes it's just like no, I need a clear surface, clear space. So my doom bucket process. So sometimes, just to get reinspired, I'll sort through an old bucket and I'll remember oh, remember, when I was working on that project, that was fun, you know, just kind of have to trick myself to get back into it.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, I set my part of my slow start morning routine that I've set for myself. I'll set up little stations around my studio of things that I kind of want to maybe explore today, like little workstations that you would have when you were a kid and you'd go into Art Center and you could do this or you could do that or you could do this. I do that for myself. So I set up little stations of things that are interesting and then I don't stay there long. Change of scenery always works for me.
Andrea Chebeleu:So, I'm fortunate to live in this amazing place where I can just step outside and completely immerse myself in nature. But that's a huge, easy, quick reset, re-inspire, yeah.
Lea Ann Slotkin :That's great. The doom box is amazing. I love it.
Andrea Chebeleu:I'm curious how many other people have a collection of the boxes, because I wish it was just one, but it's not.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Practically speaking, how do you manage the business versus the creative parts of your like, the admin, the business part and then the creating?
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah the part. It's so funny when people find out that you're an artist or that you call yourself and I oh, I wish I could do that, just painting or doing art all day. How fun would that be? You have such a great life and I'm like internally going are you crazy? There's so much more work to it than that. This is so hard. And yet I have moments every day where I'm like, oh my God, pinch me, this is my life.
Andrea Chebeleu:Oh, get to wonder, from project to project, I'm getting paid to do what I love. So yeah, poor me.
Lea Ann Slotkin :What was the question again? Oh, how do you navigate the balance?
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, balancing the, I have finally figured out the time of day that works best for me to be creative and I think that's pretty solidly the same Morning time before noon, anything before noon. I feel like I can get in the zone, I can start things, and it just doesn't feel like I don't have enough time to finish and so I protect, really protect, my time, specifically before 10 am. I tell myself, no work before 10. No work before 10. And then my inner rabble is like, hmm, but just this one thing. And so like getting away with like little things. But I don't go overboard. And do you know, sit down and answer all my emails before 10 o'clock. So if you, who are listening, get a response from an email that's before 10 am, You'll know that I'm breaking my own rules. But you know what time?
Lea Ann Slotkin :zone though, because that California all right.
Andrea Chebeleu:So yeah, california, oregon. I'm in the. I'm in the Pacific time zone.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah that's great. How do you continue to work when you're not feeling confident or motivated?
Andrea Chebeleu:When I'm not feeling confident or motivated, I'll go back to what I've written. I'll go back to when because I document that kind of stuff right I'll try and find a time in my journal where I have also maybe not felt confident or motivated and sort of tracked like what was going on there, what's you know? Again, going back to that six non negotiables, my, you know, am I breathing outside air, not just inside my, hydrating myself and all of that? So just kind of checking in with my body and then, just again, being gentle with myself. I'm not always at the top of my game right now.
Andrea Chebeleu:This particular week, this last week, I was doing a project that was very repetitive and very enjoyable. I loved it and I wasn't as motivated to be creative in a different way. And sometimes my interdollars like come on, andrea, you got to get it together. Like the people are counting on you to put out this content and, specifically, my members are so delightful and grace gracious like I never, ever, have I ever gotten back from them. You know, you only gave us one video last week. You say that you're going to give us two. Right, like they. Never, nobody ever is as hard on me as I am on myself, gosh, yeah. So last week, you know, it wasn't as earth shatteringly new and creative, it was just playing with the things that I was working on in my project. I was filling watercolor tins and so I was just, you know, swatching out colors.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Sometimes that's what we need to do Absolutely, and that counts as creativity to absolutely does. Yeah, definitely, describe your ideal day.
Andrea Chebeleu:My ideal day would include no demands on my time from external courses Period. Sign me up. End of statement.
Lea Ann Slotkin :I get to decide what I'm going to do.
Andrea Chebeleu:Nobody's demanding my time. I, luckily, I mean I'm just I'm in such a fortunate position that I get a lot of that up here in Oregon. That's great and just like you know, if we all like dessert, if we have a constant diet of desert, like it's not sustainable to just always be in that, yeah, nobody needs me zone, right. So learning how to balance that, learning how to transition between the time you know where I am going to be, more social and showing up and you know, being out there, yeah, but my ideal day always includes some form of nobody needs me, nobody's. You know like it's the time is mine, yeah, and it's usually here in my studio with my supplies around me and, yeah, music going and candles burning and incense and all of it. It's just that's amazing.
Lea Ann Slotkin :So since you've moved to Oregon, have you kind of, if you had to reestablish like a network of people to be around you, or has that I?
Andrea Chebeleu:am currently working on that. I recognize my need for community. I have a really strong community and connection to lots of different groups and things like that in in California. So, yeah, I'm in that process of rebuilding that and what that's going to look like and what it's going to be filled up with. I was really fortunate to have a local. One of my members lives like 20 minutes from here, maybe, like where we live, like just 20 minutes to get anywhere, so that's like going to the grocery store, right. And we connected just recently and it was just like you know, when you meet somebody, you're like oh, you're my people. You don't even, you don't even really need to say very much more. Like you're my people, and so I'm really fortunate to have found at least one.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, I know there are more, but it's, you know, sometimes slowly. I'm also an extreme introvert and my connection still to my people in San Jose, like I'm on the phone with them all the time.
Lea Ann Slotkin :So yeah, I often say that I enjoy the pleasure of my own company, maybe a little too much. Yeah, I'm pretty good company. I can completely relate to that.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yes, yeah, yeah.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Well, it's been a delight chatting with you and I thank you that. You're just an awesome human, so I'm so happy to know you.
Andrea Chebeleu:Yeah, I'm so happy to know you, I honestly, when I found your podcast, I was instantly super curious because it's mindset and I love that stuff right, and so I binge listened through that project I was talking about last week. So I have just been delighted in everything that I've heard and I'm completely honored to be asked to be a guest as well, joining the ranks of all these other people that I find so fascinating.
Lea Ann Slotkin :So wow, it's just a pleasure. And where can people find you? What would you like to share?
Andrea Chebeleu:And I'll link all of your delightful things in the show notes, but yeah, yeah, my store center is a work of heartcom, and then all of my education or creative content is at watch learn playcom. Nice yeah, and those two you could find what I'm doing Okay, very good, very good and I do hang out. I would say I hang out on Instagram the most. That's the social media platform that I use the most and it's a work of heart studio on Instagram.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Very good. Well, this has just been a pleasure and I appreciate you so much.
Andrea Chebeleu:Oh, I catch it. Thank you so much.
Lea Ann Slotkin :Yeah, talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening to Mind Over Medium podcast today. If you found the episode inspiring, please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me on Instagram at lianslotkin, or head to my website, wwwlianslotkincom, to book a discovery call to find out more about working with me one on one. You can also head to my website to get a great tool I've created for you to use when planning your own online launch of your artwork. It's an exercise I've taken many of my coaching clients through and it's been very helpful. It's my way of saying thank you and keep creating.