The Path to Art
Where It All Began…
Hello! My name is Charleen, but online, I go by Charleen Creates and theartofcharleen. I’m the firstborn daughter of an immigrant mother from the Dominican Republic and a father from the Bronx, New York. My story began with two distinct backgrounds that laid the foundation for the person I am today and shaped the experiences that have influenced my journey. I was born in New York, but we moved to Florida when I was about four years old.
Growing up as an only child, it was natural for me to explore my curiosities and wonder. I played the piano and trumpet, and participated in sports such as figure skating, soccer, and track. I favored running because it felt simple to put on a pair of shoes, go outside, and start. It was also something I could work at independently.
I spent my childhood summers at an arts camp that I adored. It was a well-rounded introduction to the arts, where every day brought something new. We would draw, paint, sculpt, craft, dance, sing, and act. I loved every minute of it. Outside of camp, as I grew older, I volunteered at a nature center, took jazz dance classes, and even attempted to direct and produce a play with the neighborhood kids, who were otherwise less than enthusiastic about the idea.
If there’s ever a time to graduate with a degree in Entrepreneurship, it was 2020. Right before graduation, I quit one of my jobs, not knowing what was to come. May 2020 through the end of the year was spent navigating the turbulence of a worldwide pandemic. In January 2021, I rediscovered art.
It was either before bed or in a dream when I experienced a jolt of creativity. I remember seeing an image of a blue butterfly in my head and feeling the strongest urge to get it out of my head and into life. In college, we would practice bringing our ideas to life by making the social accounts pretty much right when the idea came to us. I did that with this artwork, and thus, my art account was born.
During the pandemic, all I did was study videos on YouTube of artists drawing or painting, sleep, and make art. To this day, I swear there was something about that learn → sleep → apply formula that helped me improve quickly. As I made art, I continued to share it on my art account, and because I had previously created accounts for other ideas, I knew there was something about this that felt different. It felt organic, and when I had less than a hundred followers, I received my first commission. Don’t get me wrong, I wildly undercharged, but what was different was that there was a natural interest.
I’d be remiss not to take a moment to acknowledge the impact art has had on my emotional and mental health. Like many, I struggled to get back on my feet after the pandemic. Although, now that I’ve unpacked more, I realize the arts were instrumental in cultivating my well-being long before the pandemic. The harsh life transition of graduating in 2020 and no longer having access to the academic environment that helped me grow was hard. I suddenly felt restricted, stressed, isolated, and hidden. Anytime I’d try to move forward in life, it felt difficult.
Throughout my young adult life, I’ve had many panic attacks. If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you know they aren’t fun. If you haven’t, one of my favorite representations of a panic attack is in the movie Inside Out 2. Although the scene more so depicts an anxiety attack, it still hits close to home and shares similarities with a panic attack. Now, imagine having them suddenly and repeatedly, over and over, without knowing why they’re happening. This is a sign and symptom of panic disorder. Another symptom is intense worry about when the next panic attack will happen.
Recently, I was officially diagnosed with panic disorder. The symptom I struggled with the most was a fear of or avoidance of places where panic attacks had occurred in the past. What made this particular symptom so debilitating was that I’ve had panic attacks everywhere—in an airport, in class, at school, at home, at work, in my car, and many times in bathrooms. After a while of not knowing what’s going on, you begin to feel defective and misunderstood.
I’m so grateful to now know what’s going on because I can finally tackle it. So much of my old art, especially the pieces that are most personal, makes so much sense to me now that I’m learning more about the disorder. It feels like I’ve been searching for this missing puzzle piece for years, and I’ve finally found it.
Art has been a part of my therapy and has shown so many benefits in my life. It’s provided an alternative outlet for processing my complex emotions and communicating them visually. Lately, I’ve also been dabbling in poetry, which has helped me narrow down my thoughts and focus on what’s most important. It’s lowered my stress and anxiety, given me a repeated action to focus on, built my personal confidence, and helped me feel brave.
I encourage anyone looking to improve their well-being to try something in the arts.
Growing up, I learned to figure things out as I went, though looking back, I probably could’ve benefited from a little more guidance. That lack of guidance has had its pros and cons. Pros: you become a leader. You learn to navigate your own path by unlearning and relearning what works best for you. Cons: butterflies become your guideposts. Let me explain… To this day, butterflies hold significant spiritual symbolism to me. When I began this journey, I sent up a prayer asking to see one species specifically if I’m ever on the right track. This species appeared the day I received my first commission, the day I posted my first YouTube video, and the day I launched my first website. Whether they’re God winks or not, the truth is, who knows… but I’ve run with it ever since. I say this because, if you pay attention to the details of my work, I sometimes sneak in a fluttering creature as a nod to that original prayer and as a reflection of how much I value spirituality.
Fast-forward, and I continued to explore different subjects in community college. But when it came time to transfer to Florida Gulf Coast University, I was unsure of what I wanted to pursue. I remember scrolling through the list of majors, seeing “Entrepreneurship,” and thinking, “Well, I guess I could do whatever I wanted with that.” It was a decision based purely on intuition and nothing else.
Thankfully, during my first week of classes as an Entrepreneurship major, I knew my instincts had led me to the right place. I’d never felt like I belonged until I was surrounded by brilliant teachers and mentors who shared my delusional optimism. It was an environment that encouraged creativity and nurtured curiosity.
I spent so much of my time connecting and brainstorming in the office of my favorite mentor, Mark Bole. I attribute so much of my growth during that time to him and to the atmosphere he and the other faculty cultivated for their students. I was never able to fully activate academically until I transferred to FGCU and began learning more about entrepreneurship.
At FGCU, I participated in the CEO Club and its Runway program, which was designed to help students launch businesses. I was also nominated for Student of the Year and was one of ten students chosen to become an ambassador for the School of Entrepreneurship. Years later, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship in 2020.
Since then, I’ve grown my art accounts across platforms into the double digits. I now have experience with brand collaborations, working with well-known brands like Ohuhu, Soolla, and Grabie. Plus, an honorable mention: a shoutout from Strathmore, my favorite paper brand!
I do my best to blend my creative process with a lighthearted, instructional tone. My focus is still art, but I also have strong interests in analog hobbies like baking, reading, journaling, and jewelry making. I continue to build my small business, work on commissions and illustrations, visually demonstrate my process through video (both long and short form), and grow a community of artists, makers, and creators.
Above all, art just feels like something I’m meant to do. I love it. Sometimes I feel like I’ll actually explode if I don’t make something. It feels like a gift given to me, born from a spiritual place, and I want to be mindful not to bury it. I want to know what will happen if I water and take care of this seed—if it will grow. It’s my responsibility to my inner child.
I’m so lucky to have found something that gives me purpose and evokes such intense emotions. I don’t take it for granted. How lucky am I that I get to see the world with such vibrancy? Every color makes me feel something different. Every medium teaches me something new. Every piece is a time capsule.
When I look back on my life and think about my legacy, it’s my art: from the doodles of wizard cats to the complexities of agony. That’s art.
I think many people pursuing entrepreneurship or an artistic path would agree that the journey can become a spiritual one, offering opportunities to discover parts of yourself you never knew existed. Speaking for myself, I’ve had to make space for the big questions, process grief and self-doubt, and learn to hold onto faith even when the path ahead feels uncertain. After all, is it really your calling if it doesn’t ask you to confront your fears?
Presently, I’m still a curious mixed-media artist who loves to play and appreciate the beauty of life. My hope is to encourage other artists to let go of expectations and freely explore their childlike wonder. I am based in Florida and am continuing to keep the creative spark alive.