Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chrishauna DiShel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chrishauna, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Lockdowns were tough for everyone. My lockdown happened in Paris. Just to give you a bit of a insight as to who I am; at the time i was 34 yr old ambivert with high ambition. I have at one time or another made money doing anything I wanted to do. I have been an actress, painter, model; singer, photographer, film maker, and makeup artist. At the time, after years of back and forth between Los Angeles, Vegas, and Paris I had just received my Visa to live in Paris as an artist October of 2019; So, March 2020, I was still trying to get my footing in a country of which I don’t fluently speak the langage and we went into Lockdown which threw a wrench in my very ambitious plans. I expected to just go to Paris and use my charisma, nerve and talent to dominate as a multimedia artist but this obstacle seemingly delayed my plans. This wasn’t just an unprecidented time for the world but as a really ambitious “nothing can stop me” type of person, this was honestly the first time that there seemed to be a force bigger than myself. A force that was making me stop everything and not allowing me to move the way I had been used to. When I was 19 I wanted to be an actress and within a year I had a commercial agent and going on big auditions. I moved out of Acting because it was a very hard time for a curvy black woman and I wasn’t happy so I decided I wanted to be an Makeup Artist and the universe moved for me in almost mystical ways and allowed that to happen fairly quickly and with great frequency and I worked for some major clients. At some point in my late 20’s I was approached to help produce some fashion films and within a couple years my film was being debuted at a Fashion Film Festival in Paris that also featured a film by Jean Paul Gautier. Full stop had NEVER happened to me before. But a few months into Lockdown I think I really understood how, as an artist, this period of isolation could really develop me. In all this time I had many projects that were just my own of which I had neglected because I was always “on the go”, trying to make my mark in the “straight world” that i don’t really think I understood the power of my own voice as an artist regardless to the recognition of the rest of the world. So I with this time on my hands, I started painting, producing/writing my own songs on my iphone, and I actually released two songs during Lockdown under my band name CARBONBLOC. I received great support from my friends. Infact, one of my good friends Katelan Foisy made a music video to my song “Wake up”, while she was also in Lockdown in Chicago. I was able to further develop my creative voice and find it’s authentic expression as an Artist (of which is less of a profession and more of an Archetype) through this period of forced isolation to the rest of the world.

Chrishauna, 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 37 year old human Artist. I feel that this is more true to me than social constructs of perception. I am proud to be apart of the societal communities of women, black women, queer identifying women, wild witchy women but I am just a human/Artist. My medias of expressing my resonance on this planet are photography, painting, music, crafting etc I am also a “seer” of people and of the world which makes me a very great intuitive helper to many people. Right now, I have evolved into mainly expressing myself through singing and songwriting so I am apparently a Trip Hop Artist under the name CARBONBLOC and doing photography in Paris and until recently, several restaurants near the Eiffel Tower. Im a constantly expanding universe as a creative being. I think that can be said for all archetypal artists on this planet. I can’t live without creating, this is how I speak to the world around me, by allowing them to see my interpretation of the world through artistic mediums. Medium being the link or bridge between one world and another.

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

Success as an artist should be based on your ability to stay the course, not how much money you make from your art.

Being an artist is not easy, and yet there something to be said about being a human on this planet with recognition of your purpose. Make something with all of your being that will transcend you, we are truly the deathless ones. DiVinci is not dead, he speaks to millions of people everyday.

I know an Opera Singer in Paris who told me the most beautiful thing, “An artist is never broke.” We are a bank of ideas, if it wasn’t for us culture would not exist. Our inherent value to this world and our inability to just conform is priceless. You should never want to conform because your “medicine” as an artist is to show the rest of the world that there is an infinity of space for different and for new things that become culture as we know it. You have a far bigger job here because you were given the gift of TRUE SIGHT, even if it is hard.

I have wanted life to be “easier” but then I remember that Im an artist and thus I can paint whichever vision I see or want to see, like a hypersigil for my life. For better or worse, we live fully awake where the rest of the world lives on autopilot but they have their purpose too.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of being an artist is the impact I make on people’s lives just by being myself. I may be the artist but I am also the art piece, I inspire people knowingly and unknowingly; Sometimes it is just by really seeing people, perhaps their pain or their hidden parts and showing them that even that is beautiful (because isn’t that how you make real art, with all parts on displays and uncovered) or specifically I remember 2018 i was taking Pole Dancing class in Vegas. I am a curvy venus type so im ample all over, in contrast to the smaller women in my classes. As i mentioned, I am “Art” and thus I am unaware of others interpretation of me, unless they express it and also I don’t believe it is my business to live under the perception of others. A painting is a painting regardless to if you love it, hate it, or inspired by it. Anyway, I was doing these classes unaware of who was witnessing me and during lockdown I received a beautiful email from a girl I never really spent a lot of time with, and she proceeded to say how as a larger girl she felt really self conscious but when she saw me in class just being myself, unapologetically, she found herself in my expression. That is what being an artist is about.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/carbonbloc
• Facebook: facebook.com/belladonnachrishauna
• Youtube: CarbonBloc
• Other: Spotify and ALL streaming platforms. CARBONBLOC

Image Credits
Dallas Hunter Keiichi Ando Elina Ando Manon Judy Moon