Check out Chelsea Robson

Chelsea, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I grew up performing, since I was four years old, at a western dinner theater that was owned and operated by my parents. Sometimes we would do between 100 and 200 shows a year. It was a wonderful experience that taught me many life lessons and gave me opportunities to do amazing things like performing in the Super Bowl with my family.

After 35 years in business, my parents decided to retire, and the old family ranch was sold in December of 2018. Even though I see it all as positive, it’s still been a whirlwind of change in a very short amount of time. I’m using this time to look at all of my talents and really determine what it is that drives me.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Classic Western music has defiantly been foundational to my story, but along the way, I’ve always felt a draw to a variety of music. I’ve found that my passion for songwriting has really grown. I have a desire to really cultivate art from everything that I have seen and done.

Today, I have “The song of the Month Club.” I write a new song every month in one of a variety of genres from country to pop and even rock to something with a Latin flair. They are all things that interest me. Every song also has a visual design and a set of merchandise to go along with it. At the end of it all, I create a podcast/video about how I wrote the song, what it means to me, and maybe what I learned in the process.

The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
I have gotten in the rut of procrastinating the start of a project because I didn’t think I had the right tools or enough time, but then I realized those were really just excuses.

The first thing I would do is just use what you have to do what you can.

Then, find a mentor. I invest in people who have already overcome many of my challenges, so I don’t have to waste time and money in places that really don’t help move me forward.

Last, I am real with myself. If I haven’t done the things that I know I need to do in order to progress in one area, I come to terms with the fact that it really isn’t that important to me. Then, I can move on and have more attention to focus on the things that really do fulfill me.