Shannon Cartier Lucy
Where were you raised? Has the landscape of that place influenced your work in any way?
I was raised in the south, Nashville, TN. I moved to NYC as soon as I graduated high school looking for bigger brighter things. I loved the big city and the frenetic buzz. I found that exciting for a very long time. I moved back to Nashville around the time I turned 40. Its not so much the physical landscape that has influenced my work, but perhaps an emotional one, the feeling of home.
How do you re-charge your creative battery?
Actually, when I step away and focus completely on something not art-related, I feel much more creative. Nowadays, its gardening. This is why I always had a job completely unrelated to art to pay the bills over the years.
What book are you reading?
Honestly, I haven’t read a book in about a year. I have had such a busy year making art and buying a house, I usually wind down by watching a murder show on ID channel or documentaries. Last book I did read was The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins.
What was the last thing that you fell in love with?
Gardening. I never owned a home until a few months ago, and I lived in NYC for 16 years before that, so I am just discovering this new obsession. The hard part is waiting for things to grow.
What do you love most about yourself?
I appreciate my work-ethic. I don’t think people necessarily need to stay busy, but for me personally to have found an outlet like making art and to be able to cultivate that, what a blessing! I’m so grateful.
What do you think is the most important quality in a human?
I’d have to say curiosity. Leaning into life. I think problems arise only when we shut down, label and judge our experience, other people, ideas.
Do you have a spiritual practice?
I do not have a specific spiritual practice or ritual per se. At one time, I used to journal in the mornings. Self-awareness is my spiritual practice these days. Just staying in tune, checking in with myself in relation to whats happening in my life. And honoring that. Even when I am messy and life is messy, honoring that.
Who are your role models?
Those old ladies I see who have that very calm, very wise look in their eyes, that implies they have transcended all of the bullshit of this world.
If you could change one thing about our world, what would it be? Is there a individual or an organization doing work in this area that you want us to know about?
Because I have a parent with severe mental illness, my whole life I have struggled with the ways our society, particularly the U.S., deals with the mentally ill. The stigma, neglect, over-medication, lack of resources, lack of housing. Recently, I watched a documentary called Every Little Thing, about La Borde Clinique in France created to challenge the model of care for the mentally-ill. It showed that the problem was the hospital design not the patients. It challenged the hierarchical role of doctor and patients. They found that the patients needed far less medication than people traditionally institutionalized. The documentary revolves around the residents preparing to perform Operette, an absurd and grotesque play by Witold Gombrowicz. One resident, a diagnosed schizophrenic, said that the dialogue in the play made no sense, which he found comforting.
Before I die I want to…
”die many times,” as the Sufi’s say.
All photos courtesy of Shannon Cartier Lucy
