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

Hi Crystal, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

All my life I have been a creator of THINGS. Drawing, sewing, writing, crafting…you name it, I had probably tried it. There was one thing, though, that had eluded me – and that was working in metal. Metal was so mysterious in how it melted and bent, forming these solid and sometimes intricate structures in our world. I was always fascinated when I was younger seeing bronze sculptures and wondering how on earth someone made them. Being a solution-oriented person, if there was something I wanted to try, there was going to be a way to make it happen. But working in metal felt inaccessible in the way that I understood it at the time. As I grew older, technology sucked me in – I was 14 when the internet came out – and soon after, I got my hands on Photoshop and that propelled me in a very different direction creatively, so working in metal took a back seat.

It wasn’t until long after my design career trajectory abruptly stopped decades later with a pretty rough injury and a series of major surgeries that I began to revisit those tiny inner flames again. At that time, I had been a few years into my career pivot (Marketing) and in a synchronistic turn of events, had the opportunity to interview a renowned sculptor for the in-room magazine of my hotel. During the interview I burned through the list of questions provided and began asking my own. “This is a lot of questions” he said, jokingly. I replied sheepishly that I was an artist, suddenly realizing that this was the first time since the event that I had said that out loud and acknowledged it to myself. I hadn’t fully recognized it then, but I had essentially buried my inner artist after my injury, not fully expressing that side of myself for quite some time.

Part of it was fear of pain; it was my right arm and hand that were affected, and I was scared I would hurt again even though I had made a full recovery. The other part was perhaps needing space and time to heal from the emotional side of that journey. It was like being shaken awake by the conversation I had with him. He spoke to me like a peer, which was something I hadn’t had in a long time with another creative. He asked to see my work. I didn’t have much, but he humored me and was kind and looked through it. His daughter watched on in the background, and after the interview was over she said “he gets a lot of people saying “I am artist, look at my work” and usually it isn’t anything to write home about, but he seemed genuinely interested in yours, so take that to heart!” She suggested I look into jewelry making; it was something her Dad had done, and it was small and manageable, and it was something I could learn at home.

In the two weeks following, he had a lifetime retrospective show open in Waikiki, and I went to visit him every day (haunt is more accurate) and asked him lists of questions that he graciously answered each time. He had brought his workbench to the show, and at this bench he let me cut my first piece of metal using a jeweler’s saw. He said “This is a taste, but I will not teach you how to do it from here”. Being in his 90’s, I could understand why that would be the case! This lit a fire in me that I couldn’t satisfy. Every moment from there I was home online, watching any video I could find on jewelry making and metalsmithing. Gradually, I began to purchase tools and setup a workbench at home, and within a year I had launched my first bespoke artisan jewelry collection, using traditional metalsmithing techniques.

My journey wasn’t over, however. The pandemic began just a few months after our initial meeting, making certain supplies unavailable and with long wait times for delivery. I also encountered another severe medical issue which prevented me from sitting, so the jewelry took a pause almost as soon as it began. In my angst to find another outlet, I came across The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. While the jewelry kicked off a new beginning, this book helped propel me across the finish line into a much wider path of what I wanted to pursue. It made me realize (among a lot of very, very valuable insights about myself) that I also yearned to paint; something I loved in college but put on hold in favor of the design route. Eventually restrictions relaxed with social distancing, so I was able to find a private instructor and once or twice a month for about half a year I dove into the world of oil painting. At university, my painting classes were primarily acrylic so there was a gap I really wanted to fill in my artistic experience, and this really paid off. My teacher ended up moving away, so I continued my education through online tutorials and resumed a drop-in life drawing class every Monday now that life was coming back to some semblance of normality. I started painting more and more, and began participating in group shows in Honolulu with the arts community.

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

My first creative memory was with my Grandmother when I was three. She was painting in oil, and I was set up next to her with my coloring book. I recall asking her for some paint so I could do what she was doing, and I also recall her telling me repeatedly “no” because giving a toddler paint was not a good idea in her opinion. At some point, however, she acquiesced, and I vividly remember the delight I felt when she squeezed out a small bit of white paint on my book so I could color in Snoopy.

That feeling would come again in many forms, I would find; my babysitter teaching me to sew and embroider when I was five, a calligraphy book given as a gift when I was seven, sitting in front of the tv making clothes for my Barbie when I was eight. By the time I got to high school, I was heavy into web design and music, and planting the seeds for the animation club myself and a group of friends founded. Creating was in everything I was doing, but upon going to University I was unsure how to narrow it down to just one discipline. I fell in love with Mixed Media, I delighted in 3D design, and excelled in drawing. Glassblowing, ceramics, typography, photography; all wonderful to me. I ultimately settled on Illustration since it seemed to combine many of the qualities I enjoyed, but shortly after completing my degree my Photoshop experience triumphed over all of these at a freelance day project, leading to nearly a decade of production design at a well-known movie studio in Burbank.

Now coming full circle after a show stopping injury (or two), a divorce and subsequent relocation to Hawaii, I am reaching back to those past loves and rekindling my relationship with myself in these forums of brush, paint, clay, wood and metal. I photograph all of the treasures I find while hiking, and my nights and weekends are for exploring the inner depths and expressing them in all the ways I can fit into my 230 square foot studio apartment. I do this from drawing to painting, as well as creating small jewelry collections and running all aspects of that business from my home. It is a balancing act, the carving out of this sacred space where I can have the freedom to express my soul requires. I believe this is where I contribute at present, making art despite the limits my health and my daily life require of me. Sharing that journey and struggle because I believe most people in this world have dreams they want to pursue, and for whatever reasons they have, they sometimes stop filling the cup that matters most (because you can’t pour from an empty one).

I’ve come to realize that I make art because it is like breathing to me, I can’t live a fulfilling life without expressing myself creatively in some way. I make art because it is life. I make art because it is survival.

There is a place on Maui called the Merwin Conservancy, created by W.S. Merwin, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning poet. He and his wife spent 40 years transforming a damaged landscape into a lush and rare palm garden, now one of the largest and most biodiverse collections of palms in the world. And the focus of the conservancy is actually not the palms: it is about preserving and perpetuating the example that they set in that 40 years as a way of being. To take something raw and blank, and nurture it into something living and breathing, increasing the quality of life for all who come in contact with it. I may not have land to work with, but I have a canvas, and this is the kind of legacy I want to leave behind and inspire in others in my own way.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I underwent my surgeries to correct what was diagnosed as Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Cubital Tunnel syndrome (also known as “double crush”) I thought having ribs and muscles removed, nerves transposed and lengthy physical therapy was the end of my medical saga. Boy was I wrong! A few years into healing, I started having pain in my side that got worse with sitting. This was affecting my new found joy in metalsmithing as I couldn’t sit at the bench long enough to finish the stages to complete each piece. It became so incredibly painful I had to look into it. Several doctors later we discovered I had severe hip dysplasia on one side, and my hip was continually dislocating which was causing me pain. Ultimately, I underwent a periacetabular osteotomy, where my pelvis was broken in three places and the hip socket repositioned to create coverage and prevent dislocating. This was an extremely painful healing process, during which, as a side effect, I developed complications in my autonomic nervous system. Many more doctors later and a visit with a geneticist, and I finally came to find out I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos, and these other issues were comorbidities (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) that can crop up with significant stressors like major injuries (or surgeries). This diagnosis actually explained so many other issues growing up that I took for granted (like being hurt all the time) and other symptoms I had that I didn’t think were related.

Throughout all of this very stressful time, I was seeking new ways to create and express myself since I wasn’t able to sit. I had started taking up painting, and although I couldn’t sit for long I could stand periodically and also fashioned a way to paint in bed. I felt like Frida, and thoroughly appreciate her example in what can be possible despite the limits.

I’ve since found a way to manage the heath stuff to the point that I can lead a life that where I can create whether I am feeling great or having a flare up, and enjoy life again. Above all, I refuse to let anything ever stop me from being who I was meant to be.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Building community is one of the very best things we can do as artists. The society in which we find ourselves may not be relied upon to provide this to us, so it might be something we have to do where we stand in order to have the experience. When I lived in Los Angeles, I felt like a silo (at least where I was located) and coming together with others wasn’t as accessible to me because of my schedule in the industry (aka zero time off) which was common because of the lifestyle there; everyone else was like that too. In Hawaii, the culture here is community-centered, and people naturally are more inclined to pull together on ideas and meetups. Especially after the pandemic, I see more and more classes and gatherings creating opportunities for creative people to build collaborations and align in shared community.

One great example of this is the drop-in figure drawing class I go to on Monday nights. I started going when moved here, but it shut down for awhile during the pandemic. When it resumed, it took on a new location and a new life, and I’ve met so many friends from this one class. From there, other groups have formed for different disciplines, and they all overlap and coalesce with members that support each other at fairs, shows, and engaging on social to help each other out. Another art class that was offered led to me finding my private painting teacher, as well as a great friend who invited me to collaborate with her on a jewelry collection in celebration of her solo show at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Galleries run by other artists as well as local businesses have provided me several opportunities to share and show my work and for all of that I have been so grateful.

Most recently, I was accepted to an international artist residency at the acclaimed Chateau Orquevaux in Champagne-Ardenne France. This experience took community to another level. Living for weeks with artists from all over the globe, tucked away in a cocoon in the French Countryside, we bonded and formed a unique family unit through sharing tips, our individual techniques and approaches, bouncing ideas off of one another, or simply just being together. Since coming home, months later we regularly stay in touch with a group chat linking everyone and hold zooms once a month to catch up about where we are in our creative processes. The range of experience is vast among the members, as well as their individual networks, so if if there is a question someone can’t answer, they probably know someone who can. Not to mention the added insight from the founders of the residency, and all of the incredible programming and guidance they provided.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.crystalderosier.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystalrosedesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystal.derosier.1
• Other: https://crystalrosedesign.shop/

Image Credits

all images by Crystal DeRosier