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

Alright, Crystal thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Risk-taking is trusting the process. Trusting that the Most High has the best plan for me. I’ve taken a few risks when it comes to my business, spending my own money buying merch for pop-up shops, hoping to get that money back. Some art shows are expensive, so I’m taking a risk by hoping I can sell a few items. I also feel like when you start new paintings you are taking a risk because sometimes you do not know how the results will turn out.

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

Greetings! My name is Crystal Elyse. I am originally from Atlanta, GA, and was raised in Charlotte, NC. I moved to Dallas, Texas 7 years ago. in, 2018, I started my business CCXV & Co. as a personal chef. CCXV is the roman numeral for 215. August 3rd follows on the 215th day of the year, which is my son’s birthday. I started my business for my son, so that I may bring generational wealth to him and my family. In 2019, when COVID hit, I turned my business into my first love, which is art. I started my art career in 2019, but I started drawing at the age of 10. My dad is a good artist, so I feel like I received skills genetically. In high school, I was in art classes, but I never had that much confidence in my skills. I gained my confidence when I started my first art pour, which was hideous to me, but it got sold. After that client bought my painting, it changed my perspective on a lot of things for me. I finally had that confidence to just go for it, who cares if one person is going to like your painting, someone will. Once I started selling my paintings and practicing more, I got better and better. I started to become more diverse in my art. I started to put my paintings on swimsuits, shirts, duffle bags, lighter, cups, hats, books, etc.

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

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

To be completely honest I’m still learning. I am starting to post more content and going to my art shows and pop up shops to network more

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My resilience journey is that I finally got out of my way. As an individual, we go through so much, emotionally and mentally. As an artist, it is hard to be creative when you are dealing with a lot. When you are going through emotions, you can go through the artist’s block. I started to not trust the process in my skills. You get to a point where you don’t want to do anything, so painting or drawing doesn’t even come to mind, because you are not in a creative space. I had gotten to a point where I haven’t painted in 8 months. I had an upcoming art show in January and I knew that I needed to overcome this artist block I was having. I had to get to a point where I had to let a lot of things go mentally and physically and it created space for my creativity. Once I started painting again that artist’s block began to fade away and I relearned that art was my therapy. I wanted to keep going and challenge myself with my new projects. Trusting the process again I finally learned my niche.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crystalelyse.com
• Instagram: crystalelysepaints ccxvxswim ccxvbooks Galacticsociety_ ccxvandco
• Other: [email protected]