We recently connected with Carley Jennings and have shared our conversation below.

Carley, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Every single day I refer to myself as an artist feels like a risk. You see, when the stay-at-home orders of 2020 came into play, I had a 15 year long career in music and live events under my belt. My role since my very first internship in the music business was in artist support – be it social media, marketing, touring. and even management. I had established myself firmly as one of the many hard working people who help bring the art from the artist to the fans. So when the live event industry shuttered in the face of a global pandemic I was left with a lot of free time and felt precariously estranged from the artists with whom I worked.

I filled that time by pursuing a deeper understanding of astrology (which was already a hobby of mine at the time) and soon thereafter was on the hunt for a painted rendition of my birth chart. At the time I wasn’t able to find anyone making what I was looking for, so I did what I knew to do after all those years in artist support – I figured it out myself. I picked up a paintbrush and thought I’d see what happened if I tried it. When I realized the paintings I was creating were beyond my albeit low expectations, I kept going. Then a friend wanted one. And another. And before I knew it, I had strangers reaching out for paintings of their birth charts.

After hundreds of birth chart paintings and astrological consults, I remember a friend of mine referring to me as an “artist and astrologer” in conversation and it making my heart drop. I was barely feeling qualified to call myself an astrologer after years of study and practice. But being referred to as an artist felt like a bridge too far. I was in artist support. I was not the artist.

In my mind artists went to art school. Artists studied their art. Artists had degrees in art history or had favorite galleries or went to every exhibit at the Broad. Artists had niche interests and an encyclopedic knowledge of the art of their choice. I could claim none of that. So in pursuit of the “right” to call myself an artist, I took art classes at Otis and made it a point to visit more galleries and catch new exhibits, but the rude awakening has been that what makes me an artist is that I create art. Not even that anyone buys it. Just that I create it. So when I painted my first birth chart, just for myself, I was an artist. Everything since has been a cherry on top.

Which is why when my friend Stefano opened his new salon and asked if I would be his first artist in residence, I jumped at the chance, imposter syndrome be damned. So I’m pleased to announce that on May 18, 2024 I will be taking my biggest artistic risk to date – debuting my very first art exhibit at Soothsayer in Highland Park.

Carley, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Los Angeles based Artist and Astrologer with a focus on humanistic astrology and bespoke watercolor paintings.

We’re living during the time of social media astrology – the kind of astrology that generalizes people based on when they were born. And while I utilize social media to reach people, I like to think that the astrology I practice and share is far less narrow. I offer birth chart analysis readings during which time we discuss the client’s birth chart and the transits (planetary effects) they are operating under.

I like to employ astrology as a tool for better self-acceptance and self-compassion. Astrology isn’t a tool for excusing bad behavior by blaming a planet in retrograde and it’s not a tool for dismissing someone based on their sun sign. We are nuanced people living during very complicated times, if we don’t lead with compassion and understanding we’re likely going to make it worse for ourselves and others. With the information my clients glean from a reading they are better equipped to understand the situations they find themselves in, and often times they are able to appreciate that they are indeed heading in the right direction.

And it is from this place of compassion and understanding that I enjoy creating the one-of-a-kind birth chart paintings. No two paintings are the same, because no two people are the same – even if they share the same birthday. My birth chart paintings are made using ethically sourced watercolor paints and the design is intuited based on the birth chart.

The longer I practice making art, the more I find myself creating original paintings influenced by astrological phenomena – Things like the cycles of retrogrades, eclipses, and conjunctions influence the paintings I create. So while my art is influenced by my understanding of planetary energies and the natural cycle of the planets, there is no astrological inclination needed by the beholder.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The list is long. May we unfollow trends and embrace original thoughts and tastes. May we slow down and ask questions. May we fill our homes with pieces that tell the story of our lives and loves. May we listen to one another and make room for differing opinions. And may we allow for changing our minds. May we put our phones down when we’re interacting with people in real life (that includes live shows, the dinner table, dates, farmers markets, etc.)

In general I think we’d all benefit from slowing down and looking one another in the eye again. There is a beauty in connection and humanity and I think the more we remember the beauty in ourselves and one another, the more likely we are to embrace the beauty of the art generated by creatives.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

When I was in college many years ago (UCSB Class of 2005!) I remember writing a paper disproving astrology. I made it my mission to use the theories I was learning in my Philosophy class to poke holes in the horoscopes I was reading. It felt like low-hanging fruit. The more I read and uncovered the more I began to doubt my own argument. I discovered that astrology is far more complicated than the commercial horoscopes in the back pages of a magazine.

Over the years I stayed close to astrology as a hobby but when the pandemic hit in 2020, I turned to astrology to better understand what we as a society were experiencing. I wasn’t the only one. Astrology memes seemed to be hitting an all time high with almost every person I know adding me on the popular astrology apps. But the generalizations were still going strong. People were still assuming Scorpios are moody. Geminis are liars. Cancers are cry babies, Virgos are uptight, etc. And I made it my mission to share the nuance with anyone who would listen. Sure, Scorpios are deep, but a Scorpio with a Sagittarius rising will behave vastly different than a Scorpio with a Cancer rising. But I digress.

I’m not here to lecture anyone into using Astrology, rather I am here offering a service to help people use it in a way that offers them support and validation. I am also here to scream from the rooftops that Astrology is not a belief system. It’s simply a study of planetary cycles and their effects on the human experience. Astrology doesn’t ask that you believe in it. Astrology offers tools to help you better understand your experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lafifthhouse.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/lafifthhouse
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lafifthhouse/