Alchemist and Artist: Meet Chetna Mehta of Mosaiceye Collective
Alchemist and Artist: Meet Chetna Mehta of Mosaiceye Collective
A special interview with my inspiring friend and creative coach
Hello 2024. I’ve missed you all in this space! The longer I have had time away, the more little notes I’ve jotted down in hopes to share them with you throughout the coming months. I used to make these kinds of notes in order to share them on my instagram. I’m finding that platform has changed so drastically, and this one is feeling more and more appealing for longer form, more authentic & personal sharing. Elizabeth Gilbert recently said in a podcast interview that “social media doesn’t feel safe for me anymore”…and I think that’s it. It just isn’t the platform where I can lay out what matters and have it feel seen, held, supported, reciprocated, dialogued about. And honestly, even noticed! With all that being said, I am so grateful to have you all here. I hope for this to be a space that grows this year, both in what I can share and offer, and what I can be in conversation about with you all.
As I am in the FINAL stretch of my cookbook illustration project with Samin, and there isn’t much space in my life for new personal work, and I’m pretty sure I shared most of my paintings creation stories’ here throughout 2023, I have decided to dedicate the next several months of my newsletter to interviewing other creative makers that I find inspiring. I will be asking them the same questions each month, so there is a cohesive thread weaving them all together. If you yourself have any looming questions for Chetna after reading through these, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.
I was introduced to
through a mutual friend who has worked with her in the facilitation space. When I began this book project with Samin last year, I felt incredibly overwhelmed and for sure some imposter syndrome coming up. As I was leaving yet another voice note asking for some work advice from my friend Katherine, she replied very kindly with- “I think you need a coach”. Chetna has been incredible to work with these past 10 months. She has helped me to find clarity and confidence and more than anything else, helped guide me to the place where I find sacredness and ritual in my art practice. It has been the biggest gift of this whole project, and I am forever deeply grateful. We continue to meet in a one-on-one container once a month. I cannot recommend working with Chetna enough. I’ll now let her tell you a bit more :)In your own words, can you tell us what you do for a living?
For a living, I meditate, contemplate, spiral, breathe- sometimes shallowly, sometimes deeply. I observe, listen, disrupt, I connect, I disconnect, I heal and free. I love, I fight, and I come back to love, again and again and again.
I am blessed and privileged that much of what I do for a living also overlaps with what I do for work to pay for things in society. I am a multidisciplinary artist, currently focusing on writing and illustration. I’m a therapeutic facilitator and steward for peace, love, freedom, purpose, clarity and alchemy with artists, activists, and disruptors in community and within organizations.
When did considering yourself an 'artist' begin for you? Did you feel like an artist as a child, or was it something that you came to when you were older?
As a daughter of a preschool teacher and granddaughter of phenomenal cooks, quiet quilters, clothing designers and holistic healers disguised as dutiful homemakers, I’ve always been allowed to center my artist self.
Dancing, journalling my dreams, crafting skits with my younger brother and putting on plays, hijacking the camcorder, singing, painting, channeling my longing into poetry and letters were all my love languages as a child and adolescent. Art has always been a part of my life as a way to express my care, outlet my pain and give air to my loneliness, especially after immigrating to the States from South Africa when I was 7.
I first started to take my art “seriously" and consider pursuing it as a "profession" when I was a young adult living in the Mission district of San Francisco, surrounded by beautiful, historical, cultured murals. I was building friendships with gorgeous activists, musicians, ceramicists, muralists, and dancers who were inspiring me and inviting me to claim my artistry in a new way.
It wasn’t until a few years later that a "profession" sprouted. I was prioritizing a daily drawing practice to soothe my nervous system while I was counseling at a low-income urban high school during the Trump era. It was a desperate way to ground myself as a presence of some hope and resilience as much as possible in my therapy room with the youth I was working with- many of whom were undocumented. As I began to share some of the drawings with people in my life, they resonated with the clear, affirming messages of faith and compassion, and started to request prints. The Mosaiceye shop was born on the summer solstice in 2017. Following intuition and the joyful spirit of creativity, listening to and observing what my relationships were wanting and needing, Mosaiceye grew into a therapeutic private practice, and now is evolving into an artist-owned cooperative in year seven of its existence in the world.
What is your favorite medium/artform to create with?
Right now, the medium that feels most fluid is writing, so it is currently my favorite. I've also been selective with illustration commissions- working with publications and organizations that I'm learning from and align with. Healing and alchemy facilitation continues to be a humbling, rewarding and cherished art form that I absolutely consider a medium of strong collaboration (between Spirit, my clients and I).
The spirit of creativity flows through me differently in different seasons of my life. Over the years, my mediums have shifted. For example, I acted and modelled professionally for over two decades and really loved the process of art direction, photography, styling and telling a story with my body and image. If you’d asked me this question then, I would’ve said something like "being in front of a camera". It almost feels like a previous lifetime.
I realize that I get the most pleasure when I honor the modality that the spirit of creativity wants for me, and that it's my work to get out of the way and practice detachment (to any previous modalities that got me "success" or ideas of what I "should" be doing for money, value, or validation). I keep learning that it's actually less about the medium and more about honoring my creative muses by listening and devotedly moving my feet in whatever way they deem right- that this is what gives the most prolific and impactful creative life force energy.
How did you first get into coaching? How would you describe your niche, and how did you find it?
An aptitude for coaching became clear while I was working at Netflix in staffing operations. I was training coordinators, facilitating new hire orientations, and specializing in relocation and immigration where I got to walk with new hires through big and sensitive transitions and migrations from their home countries or cities to our HQ location. After four years, I realized that my gifts would be of higher use elsewhere.
I went to therapy school to get a masters in counseling psychology and chose to travel down a more liberatory path for myself outside of the American therapist licensure process. When I launched Mosaiceye as a private therapeutic practice, I noticed there were certain people who were attracted to me and the space: women and non-binary artists, activists and multicultural immigrants, empaths and high sensitives who are yearning to disrupt systems of oppression by "decolonizing" their creativity.
In clarifying my "niche," I paid great attention who I enjoyed working with most and why. I love working with high-achieving changemakers who are doing important disruptive work in the world and are realizing that their logic and need for control are keeping them stuck, sick or unsatisfied. They are desiring to connect more with their bodies, sensitivity, creativity and divine calling. They long to deeply trust themselves in their emotional and intuitive wisdom, and they are motivated and committed to radical transformation, personally and collectively. I also tend to draw in folks who are not interested in just talk therapy but also space to be in ritual, expressive healing arts, and with spirit, however my clients define spirit for themselves.
I work best with these folks because in many ways, I am them. As a highly Vata libra sun (pisces moon and virgo rising), I am an intellectual and I love thinking, being in my head, and daydreaming. I am also pragmatic, and deeply feeling and sensing. The universe has humbled me into balance, time and again, and I have been pushed to let go of "stability" and "success" as I had known it. My lessons in healing and transformation in the ancient spaces beyond logic, in trusting intuition and synchronicity are what infuses a magic in the work I do with my clients that I can't even always "understand" or predict.
When you are struggling to find your creative voice, what are some practices that bring it back for you?
In December, I was feeling really burnt out- burnt out by the end of the year, by the on-going violence in Palestine and Israel, Sudan, Congo, and more. When I feel overwhelmed or overstimulated, it’s challenging to access the subtle heart and gut wisdom of my creative muses. So for a weekend, I protected my time with fierce boundaries; I made no plans to attend any functions, gatherings or socials, and I moved very slowly.
I carved out time to go for walks without any destinations in mind; to just be outside and to intuitively determine which direction to go, which bench to sit on and for how long, with each step after step. I observed myself walking. I observed the narration in my mind as I gazed at the beautiful leaves in their transitions. I observed the urges to do more or to have a reason for doing anything at all. While sitting and noticing the breeze blowing through the trees, I felt like mushrooms were working their magic in my system; euphoria, time-bending, and sheer awe filled me. I didn't ingest any plant medicine though. I did however carve out space as if I was going to ceremoniously partake. But at that moment, plant medicine didn't have to be ingested, I slowed down enough to see and feel it all around me.
The practice that reliably brings me back to spirit is slowing down. Slowing down to observe myself walking, doing, thinking, feeling. Whether I'm walking outside or simply to the kitchen, noticing myself walking on the journey is the medicine. It reclaims some of my attention from the future destination, however near or far out, and brings it back to the present in each step. The energy that is regenerated within me is so loyal and reliable when I carve out a slow space of observance, for a weekend, a week or more.
Who are some artists/creatives/change makers that inspire you?
So many! Overall, I am drawn to artists that pour into their work a divine devotion that transcends space and time - this includes you, Molly!
One long-time muse is Akka Mahadevi, she was a Bhakti poet and devotee of Shiva. She walked around naked around the time of 1200bc trusting that she was protected by her god whom she wrote poetry of longing for. Her awe, courage and gratitude for her divine muse is felt for centuries after and fills me with a divine longing that makes me want to cry.
Thich Nhat Hanh is another changemaker, teacher and artist that I draw so much inspiration from. As an activist and writer, he channelled such clear, simple universal wisdom straight from a blooming heart. I aspire to write with his sharp, succinct communication. Since his passing in 2022, I feel his presence even more and turn to his teaching more frequently; I believe that his spirit is more accessible than ever before now that he's not contained to a human body on earth.
I've also been turning to the writing and voice of Valarie Kaur lately. Her revolutionary love in the face of violence, crisis, racism and the times we're in helps me stay soft and open in my heart. Her art gives me the hope needed to keep showing up.
What advice would you give to someone trying to become a professional artist?
Generally, my advice is to "create ritualistically and devotedly for yourself (and your creative muses) first," and I'd normally tell a story here about me or a specific client and how this advice unfolded with them...so :) I'd love for you to share instead what guidance, invitations, etc. from me helped you, if you're open to it.
From Molly- I love this advice, and thank you for the invitation! I would say that learning how to bring a sense of ritual to my art practice has definitely been one of the most helpful tools you have guided me in. The idea of starting my time in my studio by creating a ‘state change’, so that I consciously feel that I am leaving one space and entering into another has been so helpful. For me, that is lighting a candle. It is so simple, yet so profound. Every time I start a new piece for this book, I light a candle and put a little prayer out for that particular painting. It automatically shifts me from the mode of ‘producing’ and puts me into a state of presence, with the opportunity to honor the unique character of the current painting I am about to dive into. It brings a reverence to my painting practice.
I’d also say that you really helped me when I was feeling a bit stuck in a rut last fall. I was feeling very uninspired by my current paintings, and not sure how to keep painting without that drive. You suggested that I find other creative outlets I love outside of painting to do around my studio time. So I brought baking and dance more into my days, and it really helped me feel more in flow again. It was almost like giving myself the play I needed so that then being in my studio didn’t feel as hard, and the pressure was off for that to be the main source of inspiration.
Do you have a mentor? If so, how has that support helped you get to where you are now?
I’ve had the blessing of having many mentors in my life during different seasons. Many of them have been women who aren’t afraid to disrupt the status quo, to share their gifts in service, and to cultivate the prosperity and wealth across so many currencies in those they interact with. Some of my current mentors are Anjuli Sherin, Lakshmi Nair, Shilpa Jain and Fabienne Fredrickson.
Through their guidance, embodiment and modeling, I have become more courageous to sing, to speak, to lead, to offer bold invitations, to celebrate myself and others. Through witnessing them, I have learned how to love and dream bigger. I’ve become a more compassionate mother and muse to myself first. I am because they (and so many others) are.
Please tell us about some of the current and upcoming offerings you have!
Mosaiceye has our flagship offering starting soon- a 3 month program called Creative Somatic Alchemy for women and non-binary changemakers to create, embody and alchemize in community. It’s such a powerful container of learning, play, discussion and transformation. We start in March and applications are open until mid February.
I work one on one with folks in a container that I call Creative Alchemy. Through the seven chakra system, individual and group space, somatic practice, ritual and ceremony, we develop and transform various realms of life like emotional grace and body wisdom, fierce self-kindness, self-discipline and devotion, and prosperity consciousness.
I have a newsletter called Chetna unfolding. Chetna means "awareness" in Sanskrit, so this is a place where I practice sharing reflections in consciousness, creative practice and spiritual activism.
You can learn more about me at chetnamehta.co and Mosaiceye at mosaiceyecollective.com
Current Inspirations and Musings…
-I just finished reading Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach and cannot recommend it enough. Sometimes books just find you at the right time. This feels like one of those life guides I will continuously come back to, and could recommend to absolutely everyone to read.
-I so loved this episode of Glennon Doyle’s podcast with Elizabeth Gilbert and her practice of Letters from Love. She also has a substack where she shares so much more on this practice.
-I’ve been listening to a lot of different music while painting, and recently have been really inspired by the voice of Joanne Shenandoah, a Indigenous vocalist and member of the Wolf Clan of the Oneida Nation, Iroquois Confederacy.
-I have a winter sale going on right now in my online shop! It ends on February 15th, so just a few days left. Original paintings are on sale, as well as limited edition prints and large format prints. Use the code WINTERTIME for an extra 15% off your entire order. Check it out here
Thank you all for reading and subscribing, til next time xx-Molly