We were lucky to catch up with Claudia Chappel recently and have shared our conversation below.

Claudia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I was very lucky to be introduced to a home design “fad” back when I needed to find full time work, but I was also a full time single mother. I had to find work that I could do from my home. Back then only the very wealthy could afford “hand painted tiles” because they either came from Europe or a company out of New York who supplied them. I was able to offer totally custom hand painted tiles on regular standard tile. My work was equal to the very expensive tiles coming out of Europe. My first job, back in the 80’s brought in $1,000. I immediately purchased a kiln and started knocking on the doors of every interior designer, kitchen, and tile store and left behind pictures and contact info. I was busy with this almost from the start and it lasted into the 2000’s. After that, metal tile became all the rage and just like that, I was out of business but It served to support us until the end.

Claudia, 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 believe all people are born with a unique gift. For me it’s creativity. I can’t remember a time, even before kindergarten, that I wasn’t drawing, painting and making collages out of little things I could find around my home.

As I got older, art was always my best and favorite subject in school. However, I am a self taught artist, I haven’t been formally trained in different mediums, techniques or styles. In my home, art was considered a hobby. In fact, I was encouraged to get a more traditional education that would lead to a real job, nursing. After one year of nursing school I dropped out of the program and completed a BS degree in Public Health.

Now, to make a very long story very short; I got married, moved to the west coast and had two children. After 8 years, I took my kids and drove back to Baltimore. I was a full time single mother who desperately needed a job to pay my bills! It seemed like an impossible situation! That’s when I was introduced to a new home decorating “fad”, Hand Painted tiles. People hired me to paint scenes and designs on tile for kitchen backsplashes. I found that I could to paint anything they wanted. People seemed to love my free style of painting. It was great! I loved it! I was so blessed that I could do my art and take care children emotionally and financially. I was busy with this for almost twenty years. Painting was a life saver.

Fast forward to the present; I was fortunate to find a wonderful partner, an art lover as well. He encouraged me to paint for myself. To paint what I love. Paint what I see, what turns me on. So I tried my hand at something different painting colorful, happy scenes of the Caribbean, Mexico and beaches. Art is an important part of expressing myself and I didn’t treat it as a hobby in my home.

Art saved my life many times. After the death of my son I stopped painting. It took years before I could express myself through art again. Slowly I found my paint, brushes, canvases and easel. I started painting portraits of wild animals. When I could see life in their eyes, I knew the painting was complete. They cover the walls of our home. In the past two years I have been painting almost every day. It’s how I dealt with the isolation from the Pandemic.

I have decided it’s time to share and let go. I love every one of my paintings because I truly paint from my heart. At first it was hard to let them go. However, I’ve found great pleasure in the joy my art brings to others. Currently I sell my paintings both through my website (claudiachappelart.com) and also through a local decorator.

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

As I have already eluded to, my son passed away at the age of 26. I was and still am devastated. When I finally did get back to my art I only wanted to paint life. Mostly wild animals. I would paint their portraits and they would come alive before my eyes through their eyes. Around this time, other parents were seeking me out to help them deal with their own tragedy. I appeared to have figured out how to live with this horrendous reality. After repeating myself over and over I decided to write it down for them to have something to hold in their hands as needed. I found that the pictures I had painted served to be perfect illustrations. When dealing with a loss such as this, nobody has to patience to sit and read a book filled with black and white pages of words. My book is palatable because it’s filled with pages of one simple paragraph of help and a place to rest your eyes with a picture. I found that knowing that my words of advice and hope and my art were so helpful to others in itself gave me strength with my own grief. Basically, the knowledge of knowing that I am lifting other people proves that I must not be broken. The knowing that I am helping others gives me strength. The book is titled “The art of living with grief”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, art in all forms is a life force. I feel alive when I am creating. I especially love working with color. Through the interior designer I am currently working with, I’m beginning to work much larger and I’m loving that. I know that when I go into my studio, time stands still for me. It’s like what I hear about meditation. I’m at total peace and oblivious to any negativity that is going on in our world. It’s like a beautiful escape.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.claudiachappelart.com
• Instagram: claudiachappelart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claudiachappel
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWIymwyz464&t=3s
• Other: My website for my books; www.claudiachappel.com Facebook page for my books; https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100031805936778 Instagram page for my book artoflivingwithgrief