We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christiane Palpant a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christiane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

During a twenty-five-year period, I traveled to all fifty states in the US many times over due to my career in financial services. The frenetic pace was mesmerizing, and I never tired of the planes, trains, and automobiles. One fateful evening during a business trip to Portland, Maine, I started having serious chest pains while at a client dinner. This shocked me because I was proud of natural lifestyle and had been preparing to ski a cross-country marathon. How could I be having chest pains?

Many dramatic events ensued before I fainted at the emergency room doors. The multiple doctors surrounded my bedside and said sternly that I would undergo an urgent procedure. An unknown virus had attacked my heart and ultimately resulted in open heart surgery. As a result of this experience, I spent more than a year on bedrest. For my active personality this could have been akin to torture!

While lying in bed, I asked myself, what CAN I do that will help me stay mentally strong while remaining so still. I turned to painting. Over the previous ten years I had dabbled in painting but had never taken it seriously. Now I had the time and intension and that first year I painted sixty paintings! It was shortly after that that I signed with a gallery in New York City.
Slowly, I segued back to my fast-paced job, but I found it was difficult to stay well. It was during one pain crisis that I realized I had a very important decision to make about the next chapter of my life. I took a week to plan and draw out options on spreadsheets.

Laid out before me was a decision tree I created with five plausible possibilities from most conservative to most risky. I shared them with my sister, and I had a look of boredom on my face when I read the first four options. When I started to read the fifth, I leaned closer and my voice sang as I said, “Or, I could buy a van and go paint in all fifty states of the US!” My sister’s eyes narrowed, and she said, “I think you have your answer.” I questioned many times whether I could really make that leap of faith. The following week, I quit my multi-decade career and purchased a van.

It wasn’t that easy. There were tears and sleepless nights and many, many setbacks, but I kept plugging forward. At this point I have painted in 33 states while solo journeying in Millicent the van. I have 17 states to go and am already dreaming of what a second time around would look like!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Artistic creatives run in the roots of my family tree. My mother was a professional portrait artist. When I was a kid I thought it was normal to have oil paints in the freezer and take family vacations to art museums. My art lessons also began at a tender age, but I didn’t know they were lessons at the time. Everything my mother saw or touched was as an artistic outlier.

As a family, we also treasured the stories of my great-great grandfather Horatio Shaw, who during the 1880’s studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under the storied Thomas Eakins. When I was a child, Shaw’s work was exhibited at the Smithsonian and there are pieces still in the permanent collection.

My focus and intension on painting had a metamorphosis during a year on bedrest, but I have always been mesmerized by sunrises and sunsets. I find them to be a powerful reminder that the sun will always rise, and the beauty of the moment gives hope and leads to resilience. My work uniquely combines abstract horizons with thought provoking emotions and compelling titles.

I’m proud of taking the risk to leave my multi-decade, Fortune 200 corporate job to explore creativity, drive across the country to paint horizons from each state and give back through teaching at Georgia State University. In addition to paintings, this journey will birth a book and interviews with other courageous women.

Join for the Millicent van tour of the last 17 states at:

Instagram: Christiane.Palpant
Facebook: Christiane Palpant
Website: https://palpantart.com/christiane-palpant
Paintings for sale: https://palpantart.com/new-products-1

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My transition from a corporate structure to a VanLife creative persona has been fraught with lessons. Despite all my planning, I have fallen through every safety net I constructed. Many times, I felt like I was in a free fall complete with stomach nausea. Everything took longer and was far more expensive than I envisioned. It was a surprise, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise. A few times I have second guessed my decisions and wondered if I should backtrack to safer shores. At one vulnerable moment a friend shared a compelling quote, “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” In light of that motivator, I press the gas pedal in Millicent the van and keep driving forward to paint new horizons and share the compelling stories.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience is a key human attribute I find so captivating. When I face setbacks I challenge myself to aim toward resilience. I have already shared about my heart healing journey and my year on bedrest. One other life experience that helped prepare me for that was when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. There were incredibly difficult moments during that ascent, but I would cheer myself and others to take one more step and then another step and then another step. If you break a giant journey into baby steps, you can reach the summit!

During my Millicent van tour to the first 33 states, I had difficult and some embarrassing setbacks. For example, I had a major black water (sewage) leak in a valet area of a five-star hotel in Kansas City. I couldn’t easily hide the fact that I was the perpetrator of the smell. Even now, I was supposed to drive the van to Dallas for Thanksgiving, but there is yet another set-back and I am working on plan b. Even as I write this, I must coach myself to just take the next step…and the next….and the next toward resilience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://palpantart.com/christiane-palpant
• Instagram: Christiane.Palpant
• Facebook: Christiane Palpant
• Linkedin: Christiane Palpant
• Youtube: Christiane Palpant
• Other: To purchase art: https://palpantart.com/new-products-1 #PalpantArt #MillieVanMasterpiece

Image Credits
Christiane Palpant, Shoccara Marcus