We’re looking forward to introducing you to Luna Skelton. Check out our conversation below.
Luna, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
These days I’ve been getting up around 5:30am. My work from home day job starts at 8 and I’ve found that it’s really important for my performance and my mental health to actually have some time to begin my day before work.
Ideally, I get coffee and breakfast ready and then I settle in for a video call with my long distance friend from Chicago – we start our mornings by journaling together before work. Journaling every morning is something I picked up from The Artist’s Way a couple of years ago and it’s become a necessary part of a successful day.
After our call, I do the typical morning routine – washing my face, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, and if I still have enough time before work I get some writing done or play with my cat. Or, sometimes I go back to bed.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Luna, I’m a multimedia artist and though I experiment with many mediums and have a long history of digital painting, my passion over the past few years has been with collage art.
Over the past couple of years I have transitioned out of doing only digital art, to working with analog art. I enjoy painting, sculpting, block printing – any art form I can get my hands on, I want to at least try it! I’m a firm believer that everyone is creative, and that the joy of creation lies in the process, not the finished piece.
Divorcing art from capitalism and consumerism as much as possible and making value-led art has been a priority for me. I host a monthly free collage day with my friend Annalisa, and I upcycle and use trash in my art when I can – I have more ideas along these lines in the works, but this value is what led me to embracing collage.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My aunt. I was very close to her as a child and she always saw the artist and the storyteller in me. She fostered it in me, and always believed I was meant for great things.
Writing is an art form that I mostly keep to myself at this time in my life, but it was the first kind of art that I fell in love with, and she’s the reason for it.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
I have struggled with debilitating social anxiety for most of my life, so the fear of being seen, of being misunderstood, of being rejected, these fears have plagued me for a long time.
I realized that it was a problem I needed to fix when I was in high school, desperately wanting to connect with my peers. I’ve always loved people and wanted to be in community with them, but I was too afraid to try for a long time. This fear held me back from being in community, and from many opportunities.
I have come a very, very long way, but it’s something I still struggle with occasionally.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Community, for sure. It’s the thing I can’t shut up about.
The long years of being too afraid to form meaningful community have definitely informed this perspective. I have really built up a strong community around me. I live in a house with four other artists who I love deeply, and I’ve made more friends over the past five years than I had in my entire life before then. Every person in my life is deeply important to me.
Community is the thing that gets us through, and it’s the thing that makes us human. We have always survived in community, and we will continue to survive in community. We support each other and we also push each other to be better. We show up for one another even when it’s hard. Scary times are survived through community. It’s how I keep the existential dread at bay.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would stop looking at my phone all the time. Like a lot of other people in my life, and I think everywhere, I have become increasingly frustrated with the amount of time I spend scrolling.
Right now I spend a lot of time on social media looking at the art other people are doing and thinking about the art I want to make, more than actually making the art. I would get off the phone and actually do the things I want to do, maybe even get rid of my smart phone, something I think about a lot right now but have yet to actually do.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunarskeleton/
- Other: bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lunarskeleton.bsky.social
email: lunarskeletonart@gmail.com
