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

Hi Carys, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?

I can’t think of any time in my life when I wasn’t an artist. Sometimes there are pursuits or interests that call to us later in life, but everything in my adult life has a thread that can be followed to things that have inspired me since I was very young. My childhood was an abundant mix of both playful and deeply challenging experiences split between two countries – the U.S. and Mexico – and I found poetry, music and movement to be essential tools for digesting and processing everything that was happening within me and around me.

I did not grow up in a community that really fostered fine arts or supported creative careers. Music is considered an extracurricular activity, one that you eventually trade in for “a real job.” In fact, I had a former choir teacher remind me of this just last year, when she was surprised to learn I still seriously pursued music.

My parents are hardworking immigrant physicians who have been incredibly generous in their support of all my entrepreneurial endeavors. They have always encouraged me to stay true to myself, and ultimately it is because of their love for me that I have been able to weather the challenges that come with becoming a creative professional and independent musician.

I feel a sense of responsibility to cultivate what I believe are spiritual gifts – gifts that allow me to translate my human experience and connect with others more deeply. I believe we all have a responsibility to be fully expressed in our lives, not only because it fulfills us, but because our expression can mirror someone else’s own greatness back to them. It gives others permission to live their lives in integrity with the truth of their own souls, and I believe that is the medicine that heals the world.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

My business path has been anything but traditional. I have never worked a 9-5 job and rarely have I worked jobs that were not creative in nature.

After I graduated Berklee college of music in 2014/2015, I moved to Austin, TX, initially to be closer to home as I began my journey of being an independent artist. The thing that no one tells you about being a creative professional is that you will need to be creative with how you make a living as you pursue the deeper thing. I found social media work in college to be an easy way to earn income and it came natural to me as I had an innate understanding of how to use it as a business tool. When I arrived to Austin, I was looking for any type of temp job and I found someone through a former film scoring classmate whose mother was searching for a personal assistant and social media manager for her small law firm. From there she referred me to another lawyer in immigration who was also searching for a social media manager and the rest is history.

This year I celebrated eight years of working as a social media manager with the immigration lawyer and the skills I’ve developed in this world have helped me in all facets of my career.

Since then, I’ve had a number of odd jobs: dog-walking, house sitting, craft services for film crews in LA, making rainbow cotton candy at a pop-up art installation, teaching cannabis yoga and selling custom herbal tea blends, running merch for my friend’s reggae band and even a brief stint in medical sales. I’m sure there are others I’ve now forgotten about.

And then I found fire-dancing, which truly feels like a soul-calling that I would do no matter what, but having the opportunity to earn an income with this art form is definitely a dream come true.

There is nothing about self-employment that is easy, but it is deeply satisfying and rewarding to create jobs out of thin air that can fuel my life.

I often thought about turning to the corporate world and fantasized about having a stable salary or a 401k, but if it’s one thing that I value more than money it is time.

Time on this planet is a precious and non-renewable resource and it is so important to me that I have been able to dedicate my time to creating art, to traveling, to deepening my relationships and talents rather than donating that time to someone else’s cause under the promise of one day being able to enjoy my life.

I think it’s really easy to get sucked into the fantasy of, “One day, this.’
We are conditioned to believe, ‘One day, when I achieve, X, then I’ll be this. One day, when I get to do that, then I’ll be Y,’
and then you wake up one day and realize you have been striving to feel important or achieve some preconceived notion of success when in actuality success is every time you remember that life is already worthy of celebration as you are right now in this moment. And it is inside of that rememberance that you can truly reach greater heights.

One of the biggest lessons for me throughout the journey is to stay open to the actual path in front of me versus trying to fit it into my mind’s idea of what anything in my life should look like based on whatever my ego thinks it wants to be or whatever society has told me I should be by a certain time, etc.

The artist’s river is one that ebbs and flows and is flush with detours and eddies along the way. A brilliant professor at Berklee, Dr. Richard Boulanger, once said to me that anything we do as artists is beneficial to our art. And it stuck with me because it’s a great reminder that no matter where life takes us, we are artists first. Everything else is “just a day job” or a means to an end, but we never stop being artists when you see every experience, every interaction and every turn as an opportunity and as a part of your palette to make art with your life as it unfolds.

Finally and crucially, don’t be afraid to stay humble because life will certainly humble you eventually either way.

Today you can find me on tour with SunDub, in Austin with my social media clients, Fire dancing or on set in LA, or enjoying a stroll through my favorite neighborhoods in New York City.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

There is no way you could see all of my favorite spots in LA in one week, but we are going to try to squeeze it all in. Remember LA is a huge city that is spread out and home to roughly 4 million people, which means sometimes it takes an hour to get across town and that can severely limit your options, but the beautiful thing about LA is that even if that thing you want to do is across town and hard to get to, chances are, there is something else just as thrilling and fun right around the corner.

Arrive at LAX and head straight to Malibu Farms pier for a great lunch and ocean views.
Riding down the PCH is a classic cant-miss experience, no matter the time of day.

Then ease our way down the coast into Santa Monica where we’d have the option to shop or grab a cocktail and snack at any of the world-class establishments on Ocean Avenue.

From there we could mosey on down to Venice for people watching on the boardwalk and to watch the sunset. You may even end up posing with a python around your body! And on the way home I’d stop at one of the scenic overlooks in the Hollywood Hills to catch the night lights glittering across the city.

No LA visit is complete without some sort of wellness activity, be it a quick morning hike or a heated yoga class. I like Artha on Sunset Blvd or TruFusion on La Brea followed by a delicious lunch at Dialog Cafe. Don’t forget the green smoothie!

Since most of my friends are also creative professionals, we would inevitably need to stop for coffee and work on some emails (or interviews!) in the afternoon. Any Urth Caffe in town is the perfect spot to post-up for a while. If you visit the one on Melrose, you’re in the perfect spot to go thrifting as soon as you close that laptop! Check out The RealReal just down the street.

Of course, we would need to catch a show or two or three, since there is always an option for live music pretty much anywhere in the city. My favorite venues are Hotel Cafe for up and coming singer/songwriters, Sound Nightclub for the best sound system and world-renowned techno artists and Black Rabbit Rose for jazz night and jams.

There is so much history in Hollywood and many museums showcasing mind-expanding exhibits – some of them interactive! I love The Getty Center, LACMA, and The Broad.

For something more relaxing, I like to take a long stroll through Griffith Park and set up a picnic. There are a lot of parks around LA that are good for separating from the hustle of city life and re-centering with nature. I like getting lost in the hills.

I’d also inevitably stop at one of the beautiful cannabis cafes in town for a truly heightened experience of the city. When in Rome! Check out The Artist Tree on Sunset or The Woods down the street to enjoy nature’s medicine in a safe, controlled and legal way.

If it’s summertime, we can’t miss movie night at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This is the perfect way to enjoy a mellow evening with friends surrounded by stars, both in the sky and in the ground.

It’s hard to choose between all of the incredible restaurants all over the city, but my go-tos for an elevated meal are: Matu, Boss Sushi, or Javier’s. For a less bougie night I’d turn to: Sugarfish, Candela La Brea, or Toi on Sunset.

No matter where you go hang out in the city, a good time is pretty much guaranteed.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I am nothing without my people. Firstly, my parents, who I consider to be brilliant in the ways they have raised my three siblings and I.

They are my biggest supporters, most trusted confidants and certainly my biggest motivators in the pursuit of my dreams and expansion of our lives. There is nothing I couldn’t come to my parents with that wouldn’t be met with so much love and acceptance. My life would look very different without their wisdom, and it is because of them that I am inspired to take risks in my career. It is because of them that I ever learned how to believe in myself and that what I have to offer is valuable and necessary.

My two sisters, Mayra and Sophia and my brother, Daniel, are also quintessential to my support system. They are incredibly intelligent and creative souls in their own right and they constantly uplift me. I would be nowhere without their love and encouragement.

I also really need to credit my friends at SunDub, the Brooklyn-based reggae band. They invited me on tour to assist with merchandise sales at a time in my life that became suddenly disorienting and destabilizing. I was faced with choices that may have derailed my artistic career for a bit, but to be surrounded by other artists who make music their business and way of life has been grounding and reaffirms for me the importance of following the truth of what your soul is here to do and express. I feel emboldened in my own creativity as I witness them be supported by theirs.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_carysvanessa_/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carys-matar-86726392/

Other: Listen to my music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3fsJo8nxzMHZZqnFRAWBOY?si=u8LHkJbeRK6KXRbiOZRfxA&nd=1 Hire me to fire-dance at your next event: https://www.gigsalad.com/moonlight_fires_north_hollywood

Image Credits
Steve Neel for Fire pictures 1, 2, 3 and Vita Sullivan for the Fire in Film picture (long exposure).

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.