Crista Cloutier

Do you hate social media? Do you hate self-promotion? Do you hate the competitiveness? The vacuous echo? The soul-sucking amount of time it takes? I hated all those things too. Yet people were always telling me that I had to do it. I had to do what everyone else is doing. There was no other

I don’t know about you, the last years have taught me some important lessons. These lessons marked my soul so deeply that they should be tattooed into my very flesh. They are the lessons of faith, grace, and joy. Faith.  Like many artists, I often suffer from anxiety. There never seems to be enough time,

Has anyone ever told you that your creative work sucks? If not, just wait. It’ll happen. And when it does, avoid the urge to hide in a hole. Instead, consider it a rite of passage… I’ve been told several times over my career that I’m not a good writer. And my photographs have been dismissed

All artists have dreams, wishes and goals. It doesn’t matter whether we keep our light hidden and never share our aspirations with another soul, or we announce our plans loudly to the universe. Either way, as artists, we all want our work to be seen, to connect with others. We each desire respect for our talent and our

This picture of me is not the most glamorous, yet it’s my favorite. Let me explain. All my life I’ve been terrified of sharks. Truly terrified. My fears grew so big that I became unable to go in the ocean, in lakes, and finally, I couldn’t even go into swimming pools. Seriously! I know that

I like a hero as much as the next girl, maybe more. Probably more. But my heroes aren’t action stars, sports legends, nor Kardashians. They’re not even all artists. My heroes tend to be the special teachers I’ve had over the years. A few of them worked in a classroom, most of them didn’t. But

Artists often confide to me that they’re afraid to put themselves “out there.” Afraid of what other people will think. Afraid of what other people might say. Afraid of haters. I get it. Both being an artist myself, as well as having an online business has opened me up to abuse. People can be mean.

I once dragged a film crew to the Scottsdale Arts Festival. The cameras followed me as I collected wisdom from exhibiting artists. I wanted to capture the artists’ stories, learn tricks of the trade, get their insights into how this whole art fair thing works for them. After all, sales at art fairs were exploding.