We recently connected with Shea Salisbury and have shared our conversation below.

Shea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

When I think about what my parents did right that has impacted my life and creative career, I think of my mom. I’m not sure if she realized this or not but I learned that the hope of creating beauty is the way to persevere through pain. I can think of times in my childhood that were definitely rough behind the scenes that I don’t think I really knew about and on any given day during that time, I would come home from school and my mom would either be playing intricate piano scores or repainting the entire home, or cooking an elaborate meal from scratch. She was always creating something and inviting me into that. We would play hooky from school and I’d ride on her bike handlebars and we would go to museums or eat fun meals or craft. I was never discouraged from my own unique expression nor was I encouraged to make myself small to fit in and that has made me lack limits as and adult in creative spaces and industries where I find can be a parasite to other’s creative process or career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

This question is always tough for me because I always have and currently do wear many hats in my creative pursuits. Sometimes I think of that as a con but I think deep down, it energizes me and creates a larger capacity for my creative expression. If we break it down, I currently work on the creative team at Vital Farms which is a newer job. Historically my normal career title was “Food + Prop Stylist”. Outside of my day job I write music and sing and play piano and guitar. I write about my life and people I meet and take film photos of basically all of it along the way. The only way that I truly feel satisfied in life is the hope of the beauty that will come from being awake to what I see or experience or learn and then make something out of that. Whether it’s a song or photo or words I write, that’s what I look forward to. That’s what truly refreshes me and most of all it’s what makes me feel most myself.

I pursued getting a job at Vital Farms because I was looking for a sustainable job with benefits and an ethical company culture, which for those of us in the creative world know how hard it can be to find something that aligns with those pre-requisites. Needless to say, I found this role and am overwhelmingly happy there even though things look a bit different now. I think as creatives we are encouraged to hustle for under payed roles and over deliver and smile along the way because we get to do a “fun” job. I realized after a bit of time that that just isn’t the way I want to live. I’d rather have a good job that pays the bills with a healthy culture rather than a job I wake up at 3 a.m. from stress dreams about the upcoming projects. The ironic thing is that the years I was overworking and hustling, trying to pursue my creative career, my capacity was tapped. I had nothing to pull from. The moment I got this new job, I started writing music again, and shooting film, and writing, and dreaming about what I want to do but for no other reason than just for me to create something again. There was no longer a pressure to make ends meet with what I created so now, I have so much more freedom to fail and try and test out something new. I just recorded my next record that I’ll release in January and am also working on a film photo project where I tell stories of friends, and strangers, and lovers, and people I meet from everywhere and anywhere along the way. I eventually want to publish it but also if I don’t and it ends up being just for me to connect with people and be gifted new internal wealth in return from writing or clicking a shutter or listening to a new friend, then I’m completely satisfied by that. Since I work remote, I’m spending the next year traveling a bit and working from other cities. I’ll pop back into Austin every so often so i’m not officially gone but i’m immensely grateful for the privilege of having a job (an amazing one at that) that enables me to experience other places while still working. I think I am happier and feeling more sustainable than I have in years which is truly a huge testament to what I do now and the balance it has given me. I now create void of the hustle and the cadence of my output is so much more frequent but it’s really just motivated by how much I feel invigorated and refreshed by it all. Every time I get the email for the film that finally got developed or the track sent back to me from my producer where he added more pedal steel or violin or what have you, I am in a weird way reminded of who I am and why life has meaning and how it all is worth it in some strange way. So yeah, long story short: I work remote and do a million other things on the side but it’s not quite that simple.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For most of my life I grew up pretty religious. As weird and blunt of an intro sentence that is for this question, it really has so much to do with how I feel I now create. I was always taught to disown my humanity. To reject the things that were human, to shy away from being honest about it, hide it from god, and even more so, hide it from yourself. The way to connecting with god was to throw away my humanity, adopt kingdom culture, hopefully land in a place of perfection and ultimately — intimacy with God. Then everything would be better. Life would be fixed. You would be healed and finally free. It’s not until I started to deconstruct some of that and started encountering what true freedom really feels like. I realized that the real place to where we can connect with God (i.e. universe, divine, earth…etc…) is actually smack dab in the center of our humanity. I mean the messy. The unpolished. The ugly. The places you want to judge yourself for. When I began to accept those parts of myself, invite those versions to the table, that’s when I felt more peace than I had in years. I’m still trying to practice this. I say all that because this is the very thing that motivates everything I create. Art is supposed to be something that looks you straight in the eyes and says “I see you. We are the same. You aren’t alone”. It has the power to place a mirror in front of your heart so you can see the beauty where you thought it was all ruins. I think I have a responsibility to make things that are honest. To share it all even if it’s ugly or a lot or unresolved. That’s why I write the song that says “I hate god” rather than writing one ten years from now saying how I went through a little tough moment but now regained everything back and am happy and at peace. People need to hear the mess and they need to see it and feel it and who else is going to show them than the artists of today? When I started to release music out into the world I was so intrigued by the response I got. Two things happened. First, the songs with the least amount of production are the most listened to songs by a long shot. Secondly, the songs I wept to while writing them are the songs that people tell me they wept to while listening. I think that the place we create from is the very thing we impart to others and I think we need that. We need to create from our humanness rather than trying to run away from it. One of my friend’s Ander writes the most beautiful queer love songs that haven’t been released yet. I think of him and his coming out story and how a 13 year old boy who feels alone and afraid, sitting alone in his room, needs to hear that song. Needs to know that he isn’t alone. That his humanity is beautiful and wanted. The very thing that drives everything I create is to showcase all of it. Showcase the mess and showcase the process. I don’t want to follow the rules or polish anything too much or desaturate the story with the fear of being too much. So thats what motivates me. That’s my north start now.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think especially recently I have felt a bit more afraid of being misunderstood. The thoughts of “Oh there Shea goes again. On to the next pursuit or next city, or next project.” But in a negative tone. Little do people know that that is the very way I stay closest to who I am and what I believe I’m meant to do on earth. While some people might judge the unconventionality of the way I live my life, I am better because of it. Lately I have had to remind myself that only I know what’s truly best for me, and my heart, and the places I know I need to go. That the goal isn’t to be understood or validated or given the gold star of life. The goal is to follow what my gut tells me and to stay true to myself first and foremost. I will never have power to bring anything good to the world if I dishonor myself first. I think that is what I am trying to refine in my life currently. It’s what I’m avidly trying to work at. If my relationship with myself is fractured then everything else will have some fractures in it too, I think. I think we have to take the risk and make the jump and do the thing we know we need to do. All my best adventures came from me stepping into the unknown. There’s some sort of magic that happens in life when we say yes without being sure of anything. Some people might go their whole life never being gifted that because they needed to know what the next stepping stone looked like. Or assured with how everything will play out. I’m not saying that risk comes sans wisdom. I think the true wisdom of it all is the balance between the two. I just know that sometimes people’s definition of wisdom is making decisions with full assurance and I don’t think that’s realistic if you want to live a life filled with kisses of magic. I say all this under the precursor that I am very aware that even the simple ability to create anything or pursue one’s dreams is an incredible privileged place to be in. It’s something I never want to forget and something I want to put my energy towards providing ways that creating can be possible for all. I’m still learning and growing and know my whimsy comes from a place of immense privilege. Sure, I have had my fair share of trauma and hardship but nothing so great that has stolen my access to make art and that is something I don’t take lightly. It’s an ongoing thought and journey and I always want to be moldable and listen and learn and provide any resources I may have if it means to help someone else have more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sheasalisbury.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheasalz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3F7qqJKKUCHYwmWFEo52gw
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1XT3f4ndBuXQuA9FTcCXT0?si=vI7-ILyqRlmvLsRZpwA5Sw

Image Credits
Savannah Lovelace – Photo of me in front of my first home to live alone in Brett Pedersen – Photo of me playing guitar at ACL Live (black and white)