Meet Chelsea Garter | Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chelsea Garter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I think the most important factor behind the success I have had is showing up as a real person in spheres like social media. It is hard to find real, messy people who are living lives that feel familiar and therefore, accessible.

I think if more people can show the reality of their humanity, it can make them seem more relatable. I try to talk about things like my mental health journey, and daily life struggles instead of just showing curated moments and beautiful paintings. I show up with greasy hair and paint on my nose as well as photos where I feel pretty or put together. Everyones life is wonderful but also hard and kinda sucks a lot of days, I like to show that part too.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I honestly so grateful and blown away that I am able to create abstract art for a living. it feels absolutely unreal to me. a dream. I love to decorate with more neutral style, creating lively and calming environments, but my art is something different. It is loud and expressive, but sometimes also so soft at the same time.

My work is an expression of the timeframe of life that I am in.

It has been a challenge to not defend my abstract work when I pivoted from painting large animal busts. It was a challenge learning about the art world without first having a degree or knowing what to expect. I sort of had to make my own way which came with a ton of challenges.

I have to thank my husband for being someone who is terrified but at the same time pushes me to think outside the box. He helped me so much to get where I am at. There have been so many challenges, but I think because of my love for the work and the people who encouraged me as I went, I just was able to keep going.

I want the world to know that it is possible to do the things that you love if you can believe in them enough and press into the challenges. I had to work a lot of other jobs at the same time to support myself and a lot of people think you won’t have to work hard for your dreams. I have had to paint things I wasn’t excited about, and simply use my skillset vs. my heart. I had to hustle and grind until I got to a place where I can mostly focus on what I want to focus on.

It takes a ton of work, but its worth it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ha!

I am more of an introvert, so give me a minute.

I would say definitely grab sushi from Maru. Grab coffee at our local Madcap or Field and Fire. Go see a comedy at Dr. Grins. Grab a burger and fries at Butchers union.. also their cheesecake. Visit my brother Josiah at Eastern Kille Distillery for a drink, tacos across the street at donkey. I am currently obsessed with Boneless wings at Shots on the river, or Gyro at the hole in the wall on Leonard, Chicago Gyros. Apparently I like food.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I grew up in an environment that was really different compared to a lot of kids. I was homeschooled from the ground up, and my people did things with their lives like art and modeling and mail manning. I want to thank everyone. I have an Uncle who is an artist and ceramicist and my Mom always had tons of art supplies on hand for us to dive into. Everyone was creative and made it feel accessible. Because of my schooling, I had more downtime, where I was gifted with the ability to really explore what I loved, like climbing trees and making art and writing. I was nurtured this way.

Website: www.Chelseamichalgarter.com

Instagram: chelseamichalart

Image Credits
Cassie Kieda