art music inspiration
C C T R E A D W A Y : A R T I S T
B I O Born in Mt. Kisco NY, CC studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a BFA in Film/Animation/Video.She went on to study dance in New York City at many studios including the Alvin Ailey School, as well as energy healing at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts. After a debilitating injury, she had to stop dancing, moved to Miami and began editing music videos for Latin America for such stars as Juanes and Thalia. She then went on to work as an editor for the Discovery Channel Latin America, winning a BDA ProMax award, while beginning her studies at the 4 year healing college, The Brennan Healing Institute. She then moved back to New York and began freelancing editing as major cable networks like MTV and VH1. All the while writing and performing original music through New York, as well as creating her first spiritually based, multi-disciplinary arts program in 2006, The Sacred Circle for the Emerging Artist. She opened her private healing practice in the same year, and began teaching spiritual development, creativity and healing. For 6 years she was a staff writer for the online magazine, The Spirit of Maat for renowned spiritual teacher, Drunvalo Melchizedek. She also edited the acclaimed musical documentary about the Tuareg, Footsteps in Africa: A Nomadic Journey with South African director, Kathi von Koerber. While traveling around the world to participate in ceremonies with indigenous cultures, she fell in love with the desert, left the corporate world and moved to Sedona, AZ to deepen her connection to nature. The landscapes, culture and spirituality of the southwest profoundly affected her. When she unexpectedly returned to Brooklyn in 2011 her work picked up momentum and purpose. From 2011-2014 she co-created events with the artist collective, Unitribe. These events combined creative expression with non-denominational, spiritual upliftment in the form of ceremonial parties for the residents of NYC. Her original healing music was weaved into these events as they offered a new way for people to enjoy nightlife, and fostered a sense of belonging and community in the big city. In 2014 she began working with women to heal sexual trauma and to unleash their creative force. That same year, she went on a year long road trip around the country, teaching and performing in different towns. She co-created The Holy Chalice workshops for women with Cynthia Olivera in Sedona, AZ and taught The Primordial voice with Katie Clancy in Durango, Colorado. She also began teaching her year long program: LightSchool for the Sacred Arts: A deep dive into how spiritual connection influences creativity and service in the world. In 2015 iLuminarias came to life, a one woman show combining storytelling, original music, sacred music and meditations as well as an online listening/learning experience. iLuminarias debuted at the Sacred Arts Research Center in Brooklyn, NY. Based out of Miami at this time, she was accepted into the Thom Sessa Invitational Gospel Choir. She performed with TSIC all over South Florida for 3 years. She also commuted to Kiawah, South Carolina to do healing work with the elderly with acupuncturist and D.O., Heather Wilkinson, and continued to teach and practice in Sedona as well as New York. In 2016, she began a series of animal paintings as a way to transmit the messages she was receiving from them in her dreams. That same year, she returned to the Brennan Healing Institute to study transpersonal psychology and graduated in 2018. She moved back to New York, this time to the Hudson Valley. Out of great turmoil, the course Turn Your Broken Heart into Art, an art therapy curriculum was born. This course helps women who have experienced great loss find themselves and their creativity again. She also began performing with sacred musician, Radharani at such venues as Ananda Ashram, Omega Institute and the Ahimsa Yoga Festival. In the Hudson Valley her visual art came to life and in 2018 she had her first solo show, “What’s Good About You,” at Bright Hill Press in Treadwell, NY. She continue to create commissioned work, as well as have more shows throughout the Hudson Valley and New York City. She was accepted into the Chateau D’Orquevaux international arts residency in 2024 and began the body of work, “Florida” in dedication to the springs that flow throughout the state, as well as the animals that inhabit them, drawing attention to their relationship to the plastic that is everywhere. She is also a part of the Hudson Valley based creative collective, “Crescent,” that creates moving, interactive ritual theater performances, where often her original music is showcased. In 2022 she enrolled at the Juilliard Extension School to dive deeply into the study of classical music and she began performing classical music, woven with Irish, original and more, throughout New York State.
S T A T E M E N T As a child, I felt myself in a profound bond with my mother’s collection of paintings from around the world. Year after year, layer by layer, these works of art revealed themselves to me. To me, each one was a magical story imbued with hidden messages, vast perspectives, and personal experiences for which I had no frame of reference; they transmitted feelings I didn’t receive from anywhere else. As an adult I came to see that paintings have the power to become life long friends and allies, and can deeply influence our world view. Seeing a painting on a wall in a museum or gallery is wonderful, growing up with art that is part of your external landscape, becomes part of your internal landscape for life. My desire to paint animals first came through the dreamtime with a deer politely insisting she be painted. Nature, the dreamtime, the arts and how they make me feel inspire me to paint; specifically, the special connection between animals and humans drives me to the canvas. Something in a shared bond with an animal helps us to remember our humanity in its natural state. While realism is never my goal, often the animals become life like because of my insistence that they be fully represented, and because I feel such a deep connection with each animal, and I want to fully get to know them through painting. Using primarily acrylic paints, sometimes oil and sometimes watercolor, I draw from a colorful palette to express nature’s richness, as well as the human gaze upon her. Much of my work hopes to evoke the great wonder and mystery we all feel in our most undefended moments, and specifically hopes to comfort and delight children who might be disconnected from nature. It is impossible, when spending time in nature, not to be affected by the current battle to keep our ecosystems functioning, not only for our very survival, but because of this primal love affair between this earth and humanity. My passion for the Earth and deep spiritual connection has led me to spend time with indigenous nations throughout the Americas as an earth activist and supporter of indigenous rights. Their perspective and approach to life has deeply influenced my world view, art and way of life. In the mid 2000’s, while spending time on Easter Island with the Rapa Nui Nation, I saw a people and culture that was actually living sustainably. After almost destroying themselves, they gave up profit, disposability, mass production, and any solution born from the mind of industrialism, in favor of living at one with nature, tradition and community. To come out of trauma, habit, and a path of destruction takes a massive effort, there must be a tidal wave, a movement of energy so strong that it picks people up and carries them to the future. This wave must be magnetic, and be created by the masses. It must carry not just the awareness of what is wrong, but what will be right. While we may argue about everything under the sun, we can stand with confidence for the health of our planet and ourselves. I see myself not just as a climate artist, but a humanity artist. As an energy healer and counselor with a private practice for 20 years, my understanding of the human journey expresses itself in my work. My first solo show, “What’s Good About You,” served as a reminder that we have an innate goodness within that must be fostered through every stage of life, or else we can diverge into destruction. My work hopes to inspire the viewer through beauty and truth, that it is time to turn the corner and become the wave that carries us into a sustainable and joyful future.
S E L E C T E D W O R K S
D R E A M A N I M A L S
Our hearts are precious beings. They don’t have a lot of discernment. They are like the Unicorn - pure. They must be protected, but if they are hidden and underused, they become grief itself. They are confused if they’ve been battered, lied to, abused, or forgotten. They can lose their vital function. They need space for grief, longing and hope to be sung. They need the strength of the Raven, the snuggly courage and love of the big cats, the innocence and restorative powers of the deer. They need the primordial ancient memory of the emerging woman, and the cunning protective watchful eyes of the hare. Most people walking around with broken hearts, needing to be brought back into that soft place within, needing a safe place to do so; even needing someone to remind them that the hardening has set in, because we often have no idea. Maybe it’s a friend, family member, a lover, a healer, a stranger, an angel, or even, of course, a dream animal, that reminds you of your goodness and offers to bring you home. It takes great courage to love again after heartbreak, loss, change or just simply living in a society that has lost its vital connection to life, so much so that we live amongst unspeakable violence. Yet next to the horror are those still committed to heroic acts of selflessness and love. It’s hard to reconcile. We need something to remind us, so we can remember, what is good about us, that we are made of a pure essence that never changes, no matter what. This is what’s good about us. And it’s really good. Because if we can have the courage to, no matter what has happened to us, or what horror we might see around us, if we have the courage to shed our defenses and come into loving essence, we can easily see this beauty in others. We can see that goodness in others and we can be just a little less afraid. We can take the time to bring a lost friend home. We can remember.
F L O R I D A
A dedication to the springs that flow throughout the state, and the animals that inhabit them. In progress. The purpose of the animals with the plastic trash is multifold: 1. To illuminate the nature of all beings to bond, even in a sweet way, with that which is not necessarily good for us 2. To illustrate in a relatable, yet evocative way, that the waters still have plastic in them. 3. To remind us that now is the time to participate in cleaning up the earth, especially the waters. My work hopes to inspire through beauty, thought, and truth, that it is time to turn the corner and become the wave that carries us into a future of sustainable ecosystems.
ENERGY
How does energy intersect with our bodies, our energies, our hope? When I am in pure connection with Spirit, boundaries dissolve into the connective tissue that unites us; the mysterious joy of being alive.
