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After several weeks off due to the holidays, I’ve been anxious to get The “Lucky” Ones interview series back up and running. (You can read past interviews here.) My first interviewee of 2013 is a creative soul with an adventurous spirit. Meet artist and Shiatsu practitioner, Julie Kesti!

Julie Kesti is an artist—both in the traditional sense and otherwise. After receiving her art degree from the University of Minnesota, she began to explore other paths (mail carrier, face painter, museum guard, and birthing doula to name a few). But what grabbed her attention—and stuck—was another kind of art: healing bodywork. Inspired by previous work in a yoga studio, Julie learned the practice of Shiatsu, a Japanese alternative medicine that incorporates massage and stretching. She eventually started her own business both as a Shiatsu and Thai massage practitioner while continuing to create art.

A major life change, not to mention culture shock, forced Julie out of her comfort zone when her husband’s job recently transplanted them to China. It’s made for a whole new source of inspiration for Julie’s artwork—which is mostly paintings and drawings that use various materials, as well as a series of art-by-mail projects which she ships to people all over the world from her new home in Shanghai. Crediting her childhood as the youngest of five siblings, Julie’s power of observation has made her independent career both successful and fulfilling.

Welcome, Julie!

You’ve explored many careers on your path to art and bodywork. What led you to where you are now, and how did you know when you had a good fit?

I remember my college advisor saying, “It doesn’t matter what you major in, companies want employees who are intelligent and can think creatively.” I think this is probably both true and untrue. At the time, though, I somehow knew [art] was the right choice for me. Oddly I also knew that I wasn’t going to go out and try and show my stuff in galleries. I recall being really clear about that, though not about what it was I would do instead. I think studying art was developing a way of interacting with the world, and I didn’t know where that would take me.

Since then I’ve worked all sorts of jobs. In the midst of all that I also studied bodywork and eventually started my own business as a Shiatsu and Thai Massage practitioner, including co-creating a great bodywork space that hosted arts events. Two of my best roles were working in an assistant role, which is a little surprising because I can be stubbornly independent, but not so surprising because I like to find pattern and organization in things. I was lucky to work alongside brilliant experts in their fields. They each had a well-honed talent, and I was able to step in to join with them to make that work easier and better, while learning from their expertise.

Did you experience a lot of uncertainty when you took on these different roles? How would you decide what to pursue next or when you felt it was time to move on?

I don’t exactly believe in fate, but I have to admit, as I look back on all this, there have been several times I was sure about doing something but wasn’t sure exactly where it would go.  My doula work—I was so excited about it when I began and loved doing it, but then at a certain point, I was like, I think this part of my work is done. I just knew it. It was a little awkward, really, because I had no good explanation for people, apart from saying something about a switching of priorities. But it was about that time that I met [my friend] Sarah and Blooma (the yoga studio) was opening, and things evolved from there. I was just going to work at the desk a couple days a week because I thought it was such an exciting new concept to be around, but it evolved, and I was able to take on a leadership role there that used a lot of skills I’d developed over the years, and taught me a lot of new ones. I think, really, in that case in particular, my college advisor was right—it was my ability to think creatively and organize and sort information, key tools of an artist, that made me a good fit for that role.

It seems you were intent on becoming an artist from the start. But what about bodywork? What was it about the practice that resonated with you?

This work did in some ways come out of my art practice. [In school], a lot of my work explored the idea of living in a body, how we are viewed and project ourselves through our physical forms, and more specifically, as women. One of the most influential classes I took was a course called “Women’s Images and Images of Women.” It altered my understanding of history and the way that the personal and the political reflect each other. Fast-forward a few years, and I’d lived in China for a stretch, and served a year as an Americorps Volunteer, gotten married and was back in Minneapolis. A friend of mine was in Shiatsu school and would tell me about Chinese Medicine and practiced on me. I was intrigued and thought it would be a way to keep examining our human bodies, and also a way to study that wasn’t all about book studying (which was what I’d done most of my life) but also hands-on. Shiatsu and Chinese Medicine are interesting because they discuss the body in a way that includes so many factors—environment, emotions, lifestyle, history—and that of course appealed to me as an artist.

On the surface, art and bodywork appear to be two very different professions, though it seems bodywork is its own art form, and art, healing. Do you feel the same? And how do you do both?

A friend once came for a session and noted that to her my Shiatsu work felt like I was “making a painting.” That’s a little abstract, but I think it’s pretty accurate—you are creating each session for each client, and you are listening and responding to what you notice in the body—it is a creative process. You also develop your own style as you grow as a practitioner, the same with an art-making practice. And both art and bodywork are beneficial to the practitioner—you feel good and energized after giving a Shiatsu, and painting is invigorating in a similar way.

Practically speaking, though, I seem to always have multiple interests going on—which can be both a blessing and a curse—to keep up with it all logistically, and of course to make it all work financially.

How has relocating to a completely different part of the world shifted your perspective of your work and lifestyle?

Since moving to China this year I’ve had a lot of time to think and have been forced to examine how the next phases of my work will evolve. Not much here is built-in for me, and this move wasn’t entirely my choice—not that I was forced to go, but it is my husband who has a job here, and who has studied Mandarin and Chinese culture for years and years, so my investment is different from his. There is an (I think) terrible term for this: “trailing spouse!”

So I’ve been in a bit of a free fall, which is terrifying and also a great gift. It makes me have to step up to the plate—I can’t relax in established relationships or roles or even, you know, ways of getting groceries and doing laundry. It’s a chance to Teach English (believe me, everyone will tell you, “You could always teach English!”) or Do Something Else. So I’ve been staring at Something Else a lot and trying to discern it, and exploring what others have done in a similar situation. And it seems like this is a lot of what the blogging world is about—people trying to do something other than what they were doing, or trying to shift their lifestyle, or maybe keep doing the same thing but be more reflective and/or intentional about it.

Has your new home influenced your art? Are people in Shanghai receptive to it?

Yes, it has. Partly just in having my time wide open and saying, okay, let’s do this. Partly because I think the urban landscape is making me paint plant after plant after plant. It’s got me thinking about how to make an art practice that is viable no matter where I am—hence my experiments with art-by-mail and my new Etsy site. (Thank you postal services of the world!)

I’m not sure yet if people here are receptive to it—I am still trying to get to know the community and find a spot for myself. There are some inspiring projects here, so I have hope. The skies here can be very grey and smoggy, so I have a feeling there is a place for my colorful work in this city.

Bodywork-wise, I’ve been set up to give Shiatsus here for about a month. So far so good. It’s extra nice to create a cozy oasis for people in the midst of this huge city.

What challenges have you faced as a result of simply being in your respective fields, as well as immersing yourself in such a vastly different culture? What about the rewards?

The challenge with learning bodywork initially was going to school and learning anatomy and stretching my brain to think in terms of Chinese Medicine, which can be a very different view of the human ecosystem. I had some great teachers to guide me in this process. (Thanks Tomas and Andre.) Once you get through all that, there is the challenge of starting a business and figuring out how to share it with others. This was actually a fun challenge, however, one I still enjoy and am learning about, and one that I can now bring back around to my art-making. It’s funny—I forget sometimes how much of a learner-by-doer I am. I suppose this is why I often am not sure what the next step is, so I keep walking ’til I’m in it.

Immersing myself in a different culture is hugely challenging. And here in Shanghai, it’s many cultures—Chinese, Shanghainese, the Expatriate world, the world of the very-corporately-employed, a world of regular food scandals, a world of a pretty totalitarian government with a really annoying internet firewall. It’s a big change from Minneapolis. At many moments it has totally, completely sucked. But—but—of course, just to laugh in the face of my most pessimistic moments, of course it is rewarding to me, too. I can see in what ways I was pampered by being in one place for many years. I encounter viewpoints and lifestyles and cultural references that I didn’t in my circles back home. Generally, foreigners in Shanghai are extremely bright and ambitious people, which creates a unique dynamic to observe and learn from. Let’s be honest, I’ve been thrust into the ultimate make-it-up-as-you-go situation, so this should be right up my alley.

It makes me think about immigrants all the time. I am pretty sure I’ll be back in my home country again—I think about what it would be like if I knew I wasn’t going back.

What has been your biggest success to date, and how do you hope to see your art forms evolve?

I’m so bad at “biggest/most” questions, but I’d have to say one of the biggest successes was the Art Swap Shanty. It was part of the Art Shanty Projects on a frozen lake outside of Minneapolis. Artists are commissioned to build themed huts (like ice fishing houses) that become an interactive creative village, visited by thousands of people over several weekends in the dead of winter. Our shanty started as an idea by my junior high friend Dana, who lives in L.A., and me, and we roped in a few friends and before we knew it we had hundreds of people swapping works of art in our tiny space in the glow of our wood stove, under a giant stocking cap.

This was the first community art project I’d done, and it was cool to use my organizational skills in an arts setting. I don’t always love group projects, but we had a good synchronicity with this group, and everyone had a good skill that made the shanty work. Equally important to its success was being part of the Art Shanty Projects—they’d been going for several years and, for good reason, had a great following by then. It was an awesome experience of collaboration and of feeling first-hand the way that not reinventing the wheel has its benefits!

My other big success would be a series of drawings I “collaborated” with my nephew on. I put that in quotes because he died before I made the drawings, when he was 9 years old. I took his drawings and writings and made new works out of them. I think that project will continue somehow in the future. It involved mystery and story and maps and thinking about what a life is, and how we make meaning, which is so much of what I’ve been doing, really.  You can read more about that project here.

Are there any books you’d recommend (whether they’re personal or professional favorites) to like-minded readers?

I’m pretty obsessed with Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny, Beautiful Things, Lynda Barry’s What It Is, and Danielle Laporte’s The Firestarter Sessions right now. My favorite children’s books ever are Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus and Jose Aruego, and Andrew Henry’s Meadow, by Doris Burn, which I still refer to often. If you are interested in Chinese Medicine, Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life by Gail Reichstein is a nice place to begin.

(I love reading novels—who knows why they aren’t on the list today.)

Which has played a bigger role in your success: persistence or luck?

Huh. Hm. Well.

In the grand scheme of things I know I’m very lucky. Privilege upon privilege, an awesome family, and growing up in a place with fresh air and trees and lakes and educational opportunities…

But I’d say “success” requires persistence. Not in the force-it-make-it-happen sort of way, but in the keep-on-keepin’-on sort of way, and in let’s-give-it-a-try sort of way, in the letting-your-heart-grow-three-sizes-again-and-again sort of way.

I can’t think of a better conclusion to that interview. Thanks so much for sharing your story, Julie! If you enjoyed reading Julie’s story and insight, let her know in the comments!