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

Alright, Luna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I never intended to become an artist – it’s a career that found me. And I chose to trust the path I’d been shown and follow my heART. Because of this, I set off on the artist’s journey with a very unique mission in the art world.

Although sharing my art is a magical process, the reason I share it is not out of hopes for personal success or even out of receiving any sort of validation. I paint for me. It is my medicine, my therapy. If people relate to it or appreciate it, that’s just a bonus. I share my art and my story because I hope that it will inspire others to follow their heart’s calling as well. I feel most fulfilled in what I do when people reach out to let me know I’ve inspired them to follow their dreams, to create, to do what they’ve always felt called to.

My art was not what it was when I first started and it is thanks to the beautiful people that supported me in at the start of my journey that I was able to dedicate the time necessary to my craft to refine and master it. It is the fellow artists in my community that encouraged me to keep going that lit the spark I needed to dive in head first. It is thanks to that early support that I am the artist I am today. No one is born being able to create masterpieces, it is a learned process. If I can do it, then you can too.

So this brings me back to my mission as an artist.
My mission is to awaken that little piece in people that allows them to step into the version of themselves they’ve always dreamt of being. It is to facilitate a space in which I can inspire others to create things that fill them up. It is to let people know they do not need to fit a mold, that their art can be anything they want. To embrace the little things that make your creative process unique – the only thing that matters when you’re creating art of any kind is that you get to grow as a person thanks to it, that you gain from the process of creation. Nothing else matters.

Creativity is a medicine, it’s a healing thing to partake in, and if I can inspire even one person to heal through creativity, then I have accomplished what I came here to do. It truly is such a blessing that I get to witness that process as often as I do. It’s the reason I’ll never stop creating.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I suppose we can start with the basics. I’m a visionary artist and have been sharing my work professionally for about 8 years. I always loved painting, and when I started sharing my work with the world, I was given so many opportunities (and took every single last one of them), that I quite literally went full time with art the moment I started sharing it… totally unintentionally.

I was actively looking for employment when I decided to post a couple paintings, and made a post searching for opportunities to do some live art at a few events. It all really snowballed out of control in the best way possible. My first post looking for live art gigs landed me 1-4 shows to paint at every weekend for 3 months straight. Next thing I knew, I was a full time artist living in my car. I simply did not have the time to hold down a job. I would paint at a show, make enough to print a bit more merch, put enough gas in my car to get to the next show, get enough bread and hummus to get me through the week, and maybe restock on art supplies.

Although the start of my art career was really chaotic and difficult, I took a total a leap of trust in the universe and myself and I’m so happy I did. I wouldn’t exactly recommend doing it the way I did, but personally it was the journey I needed to embark on to become the artist and person I am today. I wouldn’t change a thing if I could go back.

Now, 8 years later, I paint at festivals and events around the world, exhibit my work in high end galleries, and feel more than supported by what my art brings in financially. I feel so unbelievably blessed every day to be able to do what I do, and do well with it. It truly is a gift to be living my best life. I am so proud of myself for sticking it out, and so humbled by the incredible things I get to experience thanks to the art I create.

Nowadays, I love to incorporate more interactive elements to my creation process (such as letting people paint on my paintings, incorporating UV color, and creating art that works with chroma 3D glasses).

I like to experiment with alternative ways of creating art that challenge the line that separates art from life. Where does the art piece end and reality begin? I find that a really fun boundary to play with and move around. For example, recently, I have been experimenting with connecting paintings to MIDI controllers and using the process of painting as a musical instrument. Suddenly, the process becomes more important than the final painting. The sound becomes a part of how the art is designed to be experienced, the painting is no longer restricted to its existence on a canvas.

I am so excited to be at a point in my career where there is so much room for creative experimentation. I’m having the most fun I ever have creating art lately.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Ooooo – YES! Absolutely.

If you feel art school just isn’t for you, it’s because it really is not for everyone. If you are ready to invest in your creative practice, instead of going to a school, personally I would recommend finding artists whose work you love and are inspired by and seeing if they offer workshops or private lessons. You will stay way more inspired learning from people who already inspire you to begin with than you will in a school curriculum. This is also a better networking opportunity than art schools are as these professionals are people who are already connected to the art scene you’re probably wanting to be a part of.

Seriously, with how much you would usually spend on school, I think your money will take you a lot closer to where you want to be through this method of pursuing an art education. I wish I had known this was an option before going to university and killing my creativity which eventually led to me dropping out.
As a creative, it’s really rare that a piece of paper saying you went to school will be necessary. I haven’t been asked once for my “educational certifications” in this field. Your art will speak for itself. And you’ll make better art learning from your role models.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A LOT of unlearning had to happen to get to where I am today, and it continues to happen every time I hit a wall.

Most of the unlearning I’ve had to do was in my belief systems. I realized that anything that feels like a weight on my creative journey is something I have to analyze and rewire my belief systems on.

For example, I started being a lot more financially successful when I dropped the “starving artist” complex and designed a healthier relationship with money. I thought I hated “business” and “money things”, but really, it just had a lot to do with my relationship to these things. When I decided to approach the business and money through the same lens of love and enthusiasm that I approached my art with, things started skyrocketing. I don’t “have” to do the businessy things, I “get” to, they are a blessing. They allow me to thrive, so I choose to embrace them.

It took a lot of unpacking, trauma work, and facing fears, but it was absolutely worth it.

I did a similar process with social media.

Really, I just look at these parts of my like and personify them. For example, what if social media was a person, how is my relationship with that person? This sheds a lot of light on the parts of that relationship that need attention in order for it to become a healthy relationship. How do you build with that “person”? How do you nourish that relationship so that you are working together, not against each other? You can do this with literally all the things you feel resistance with. It’s a revolutionizing practice.

Not only does it make necessary business practices better, it also makes them more enjoyable. I absolutely love getting to run my socials. I love doing my accounting. I love every aspect of running this machine that allows me to be a creative professionally,

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lunacharlotteart.com
• Instagram: @lunacharlotteart
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lunacharlotteart
• TikTok: @lunacharlotteart
• Threads: @lunacharlotteart