Episode 33:
Mutual Inspiration and Creativity with Chicho Lorenzo
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Episode 33 Description
Creativity is an exchange of energy, passion, and trust. Today, mural artist Chicho Lorenzo joins Christine sharing his joy, wisdom, and light. Chicho is living out his calling as a creative in a way that brings people together. He believes that art is best created when it is mutually inspired.
Chicho’s personality is magnetic. He believes in the power of sharing all emotions and that happiness is a shared asset. Today he dives into the process of co-creating with his environment, the importance of relinquishing control, and how to trust the process of creativity knowing that what is meant to be will come to fruition.
Feel inspired as Chicho and Christine create together in today’s episode of Yes! We Rise. Welcome.
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Key takeaways
Happiness is a shared asset
Chicho Lorenzo is a painter, mural artist, and bringer of light. There is a beautiful life and energy to his art as he pours his heart into his paintings. Part of what allows Chicho to come to life is his daily meditation practice, which he describes the power of, and where he connects to himself and his emotions and finds grounding.
Over time, Chicho has come to believe that happiness is in fact a shared asset. When he is having a difficult time or struggling, this means another person is likely experiencing joy, contentment, or happiness. Vice versa, when he is happy, another person is likely struggling. This belief allows him to have contentment and acceptance during the harder days because he knows it will pass, and until it does, another person is able to have reprieve.
In the past, Chicho would try to withhold his pain, sadness, and doubt from others, but he realized that being truthful and vulnerable creates space for others to open up and experience solidarity and connection.
Art as mutual inspiration
Chicho believes in the power of trusting the process. He most often doesn’t even know what he’s creating or where it will go until it is complete. A large component of his creative process is what he calls “mutual inspiration.”
Mutual inspiration is about incorporating others into the process and not creating a predetermined sketch. This allows Chicho to take dreams or ideas and recreate them as reality. His incorporation of what is actually happening in real-time around him brings his art to life. His environment informs his creation, making the result a collaboration between him, his surroundings and the community.
Chicho explains that everyone has something creative to offer. One person may be in sales, another may work with computers, but we all have something to offer the world. He believes that when we are all leaning into our passion and calling, there is a flow and exchange of energy that creates harmony for all of us.
Relinquishing control and trusting the call
Have you ever thought about art as an exercise in relinquishing control?
Taking this idea literally, Chicho shares an experience of creating a painting with a friend for an upcoming exhibit in Charlottesville. On this canvas there were no rules and they each took turns back and forth, adding strokes. At times they would even paint over the other’s work. This practice was a beautiful opportunity to trust the process, relinquish control, and allow for shared creation. The result was art that could never have been created without their collaboration.
Chicho draws everyday, often not even knowing what he’s creating. He practices being present and in the moment, and even if he is unhappy with how a piece is looking, by the end he will most often love the result.
He also believes that to break routines, you have to have them. He himself has a daily routine that starts with speaking out what he wants to manifest into his life. An important part of that list is trust. Trusting that life is going as it should, and trusting that he can do all that he is called to do.
notable quotes from Chicho
“I have this idea that is not necessarily true or not true. It’s just an idea, that happiness is actually a shared asset. So we all share this. If I’m happy all the time, there’s somebody who’s lacking that happiness.”
“I’m mostly positive. I think it’s the best way to live. If you’re positive with whatever happens, and it’s not what I want. It’s not what I choose. But its, it’s the best I have.”
“I base my art in mutual inspiration. That means I don’t really take credit. I take credit just for that dedication, and that time that I put on my practice, learning techniques and whatever. But whatever the topics of my work… that mutual inspiration makes it always interactive somehow.”
“Some people sell things very well; some people do computers. I hope that my art inspires them to do their own art. That is my idea of harmony. If everybody does what they like and are open to that flow of things moving around, it should work.”
“If I talk about the passion, I’m reminding myself what my passions are. And also, I’m sharing both ways, that enthusiasm.”
“I draw every day. And when I’m drawing, I don’t have any clue of what I’m drawing. Many times, I don’t like it. I just finish it. And at the end, many times that I didn’t like it… I love it.”
“Let’s be a child, let’s keep that child mind, which is not irresponsible. I take care of my children. I take care of my life. But, when I play, and I want to play the most as possible – when I play, let’s play with action.”
“I want to enjoy life and to enjoy life is to assess it as an alien that just arrived to this planet.”
“The community is a network we all are part of. It’s like a forest. We are a leaf, another leaf here, another mushroom there, and everything makes each other alive.”
LINKS/RESOURCES MENTIONED
Learn more about Chicho and experience his incredible art through his website, www.chicho.org, and through Facebook and Instagram.
The Yes! We Rise podcast features solutions-seekers, change-makers, and those creating a resilient future. We share stories and strategies to inspire action to build resilience and community transformation. To create change, people need to feel like they belong and that they are part of a growing movement. They need to know their voice matters and that they have the inspiration, agency and ability to transform their lives and their communities. They are the key to a resilient future.
From the Navajo Nation to the mountains of Appalachia, incredible work is being done by community members and leaders. Change is often sparked by inspiration: seeing what others have done, especially in similar situations and places. People see that when someone looks like them or lives in a place like theirs, and has created real, true and lasting change, change that will allow their granddaughters and grandsons to thrive — they begin to imagine what might be possible for them. No longer waiting for someone else to come and save them, they realize they are the ones they have been waiting for. But what creates that spark? What creates that inspiration? Learning through stories and examples, feeling a sense of agency and belonging, and getting fired up to kick ass creates that spark.
We Rise helps community leaders and members learn to forge a new path toward creating resilience and true transformation. One person at a time, one community at a time, one region at a time, the quilt of transformation can grow piece by piece until resilience becomes the norm instead of the exception. Together, we rise.
Links/resources mentioned
Learn more about Chicho and experience his incredible art through his website, www.chicho.org, and through Facebook and Instagram.
The Yes! We Rise is produced by Dialogue + Design Associates, Podcasting For Creatives, with music by Drishti Beats.
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Please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast so we can continue spreading our message far and wide. Find our email list at the website: www.yeswerise.org. Thanks for listening.
The Yes! We Rise podcast features solutions-seekers, change-makers, and those creating a resilient future. We share stories and strategies to inspire action to build resilience and community transformation. To create change, people need to feel like they belong and that they are part of a growing movement. They need to know their voice matters and that they have the inspiration, agency and ability to transform their lives and their communities. They are the key to a resilient future.
From the Navajo Nation to the mountains of Appalachia, incredible work is being done by community members and leaders. Change is often sparked by inspiration: seeing what others have done, especially in similar situations and places. People see that when someone looks like them or lives in a place like theirs, and has created real, true and lasting change, change that will allow their granddaughters and grandsons to thrive — they begin to imagine what might be possible for them. No longer waiting for someone else to come and save them, they realize they are the ones they have been waiting for. But what creates that spark? What creates that inspiration? Learning through stories and examples, feeling a sense of agency and belonging, and getting fired up to kick ass creates that spark.
We Rise helps community leaders and members learn to forge a new path toward creating resilience and true transformation. One person at a time, one community at a time, one region at a time, the quilt of transformation can grow piece by piece until resilience becomes the norm instead of the exception. Together, we rise.
