Chetna is a mixed media artist that creates beautiful imagery combined with empowering words of wisdom. Her art evokes feelings of knowing and remembrance; reminders that there’s beauty in the journey, and that we are all connected by it.
She is also a wellness consultant with her Master’s in Counseling Psychology, and hosts really cool events and workshops, incorporating all kinds of tools like mindfulness, movement, psychology, and expressive arts. If you want to work with Chetna yourself, you can get in touch on her website.
Read on for more on her work, some of the things that keep her inspired, and her journey to self acceptance and overcoming shame.
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Name: Chetna Mehta
Age: 31
Your sign: Libra
Where are you from?
I’m originally from South Africa, and lived in the Bay Area, California for most of my life
Where are you going?
So many places! This year, I intend to explore more of Chicago, my new home. I plan to visit to Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa to be with my grandparents and homeland. I also intend at some point to visit my ancestral motherland again, India, and excavate more information about my great grandparents and lineage.
Creatively, I am expanding into offering my therapeutic and creative skills to helping people find their own abundant creativity, empowerment and wellness; I especially serve women of color, adolescents, and conscious organizations that value self-development for their teams.
Can you tell us a little bit about your work?
My work is an affirmation, a reminder, a connection to the sacred nature of ourselves. I create art and spaces that encourage us to use our full bodies, our vulnerabilities and our shadows to illuminate our light and power. You can read more here about how I’ve used my art to be my own best friend.
What’s your favourite thing about hosting gatherings?
In the gatherings that I host, I emphasize leveraging other languages that we don’t intentionally use and communicate in our day-to-day; including expressive drawing, expressive body movement and writing without concern of structure, rules and rationale. The willingness people have to be vulnerable, and the gems of wisdom, expression self-realization and interconnection that are excavated from their trust in the process are what I love most about hosting gatherings as such.
What keeps you inspired to create?
My pain; creating art is a beloved way of coping and empowering myself.
People who live their lives shamelessly with liberation, honesty and vulnerability.
Nature in all her spectacular colors and shapes.
Have you gone through or overcome something in life? What got you through to the other side?
I’ve gone through and overcome several things in my life worth noting though I’ll share how I was in a car accident and in a wheelchair for 2 months. The loving care of my family, my volition to study and confront myself, and my friends and colleagues who were patient and present in my life during this time all got me to the other side.
Best words of wisdom?
So many good words of wisdom but I always resonate with this quote by Terence, “I consider nothing that is human alien to me.” It teaches us to have compassion for others, to see ourselves in them no matter how foreign or different they seem; we are all human and so we all possess the capacity to experience the full human spectrum.
What are your superpowers?
My emotional sensitivity, my gentle and spacious presence (the air sign in me), my deep drive to create and make things, my motivation to advise others hand-in-hand to be empowered and conscious, my unwavering devotion to self-development.
What’s on your music playlist?
I’ve been bumping my “Sovereign Women” playlist on Spotify on repeat with artists like MaMuse, Janelle Monae, Little Dragon, Lizzo, Billie Eilish and Beautiful Chorus.
Has learning to accept yourself been a journey for you or has it come naturally?
It’s been a journey, of course, especially while living in a capitalistic, hierarchical and patriarchal society. It’s been a journey of unlearning internalized oppression and relearning self-empowering narratives; applying critical awareness to everything around me and questioning what the purpose is of things and who in actuality is benefiting from it (i.e. the ever-tempting cosmetic industry not really out for making me/us feel more beautiful but to gain billions of dollars off people not feeling beautiful enough / how can I enjoy makeup as a form of creative self-expression without using it as a crutch?), and seeing the parts of myself that are shameful (like how I can feel overwhelmingly jealous and envious), and hearing those parts out with curiosity and non-judgment.
In my journey to accept myself more, my relationship with shame has evolved dramatically: I grew up being disciplined and molded by shame. As I’ve done the work to face myself, I’ve also faced a lot of shame that I had carried about the simplest most humanly things; like being wrong about a fact in conversation, being disliked by someone in authority, feeling quiet in groups sometimes, having delicious and wild sex, my emotional sensitivity, my thinning hair, or my desire to use garlic powder sometimes instead of fresh garlic!
I’ve been able to release so much of the shame I held in my body by talking about it in therapy, in women’s circles, and with my friends and family, making art to recognize our shadows, and most importantly, laughing at how funny some of the things are that I was shameful of! It’s not all serious and heavy, sometimes I realize something and I just crack myself up because of how outdated and unaligned it is to my essence; and I intentionally choose to let it go.
What is your best advice for loving yourself?
Forgive yourself, often. Punishing yourself isn’t hurting anyone except you and the people who love and care most about your well-being, so bring compassion and forgiveness to yourself every single day. It won’t make you lazy or unambitious; it might alter your priorities and your ideas of success, and it will make you kinder and lighter both with yourself, and with others.
What would you tell your younger self?
Baby girl, you are here for important reasons; follow the things that excite you the most, trust that voice inside you. People will want to tell you different and respect them for their perspectives and limitations; but ultimately, you know… you know.
