Author: Christa Avampato

The short of it: Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day. The long of it: My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events. While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series. A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist. My company: I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media: • I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference; • I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable; • I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me. Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
creativity

This just in: Play the long game

Christa Avampato

I recently watched someone navigate a difficult situation with such grace and aplomb that I barely knew she was navigating at all. To be honest, I was irritated with her. She was allowing herself to be treated badly, piping up only occasionally when things really got out of hand. I didn’t get it. From my vantage point, she had cards to play and she just wouldn’t do it. And then something very interesting happening; she got exactly what she wanted. She had been maneuvering the entire time, behind-the-scenes and out of sight of anyone else. She played the long game, concerned more with winning the war and not the individual battles. She also knew well enough to let her opponents be their own demise. All she needed was patience.

Even now, I’m not sure how she did it. I don’t understand how she stayed quiet for so long. I don’t understand how she had such an unshakeable amount of faith in the process and karma. The funny thing is that if it had taken any longer, she would have continued to wait it out. She was in it for the long haul, as long as it took to let the path clear so that she could proceed.

I learned a lot by observing this situation from a distance. And I’ll admit that more than once I very directly questioned her decisions and motives. But looking back, I see now that she had been right to let the situation resolve itself. Yes, I certainly wish this outcome had arrived sooner, and I know that forcing an outcome often results in a disaster. Sometimes the waiting game is our only option. It’s not an option that’s comfortable, though many times it’s the best options we have if we want to change things over the long run.

I’m not sure that I would have pursued this exact path. I probably would have pushed for a swifter resolution. But now that this situation has unfolded as it has, I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next. Sometimes, the best things do come to those who wait.

creativity

This just in: What the Broadway show Hamilton teaches me about dreams

Christa Avampato
Hamilton
Hamilton

“This show has put my dreams to shame.” ~Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer of and lead actor in the Broadway show Hamilton, when interviewed by Charlie Rose

More than anything, we should take the success of Hamilton as a personal inspiration for our own dreams. Make them bigger, wilder, and even more outrageous. Imagine yourself without limits and blockers. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail. How far would you go? How high would you reach? Who would you aspire to be and what would you aspire to do? Do it. Be that person. You never know what might happen until you take the biggest shot you can take. So take it.

 

creativity

This just in: Let your life be your art

Christa Avampato

Life is artIf you’re curating your personal art collection, you collect pieces that bring you joy. Curate your life the same way. Fill it with people, activities, and (a sparing number of) belongings that make you happy. Let your life be your greatest work of art.

creativity

This just in: Paris state of mind

Christa Avampato
Wrapping Paris in love
Wrapping Paris in love

And all I can think of are the bright lights of Paris. And the people and the music and the picture-perfect scene that welcomed me in around every corner all those years ago. Live in the moment, love the heck out of every experience, and help as many people as you can along the way. That’s what Paris taught me all those years ago, and continues to teach me still.

creativity

This just in: It’s time to choose happiness

Christa Avampato
Choose happiness
Choose happiness

“Without play, there would be no Picasso. Without play, there is no experimentation. Experimentation is the quest for answers.” ~Paul Rand

My teacher, mentor, and friend, Ed, posted this photo yesterday and it made me think of this quote from Paul Rand. We don’t play enough. We don’t smile, laugh, or enjoy life to the extent that we should. We deserve to be in the front row of this photo in every way, every day. So choose it or lose it. Experiment. Make art. Sing out loud. Dance like a fool. Try something or create something just because you want to. Love big. Take a chance, hold on, and enjoy the ride no matter where it leads. Happiness and play are choices. Make them.

creativity

This just in: My latest collage – a self-portrait painted in paper

Christa Avampato
My latest collage: a self-portrait painted in paper
My latest collage: a self-portrait painted in paper

My latest collage: a self-portrait painted in paper. Halfway through, I hated it. I almost threw it out but decided to stick with it anyway. I’m glad I did. Sometimes you have to love and nourish something through its difficult early stages to really appreciate what it offers.

creativity

This just in: Be a seeker

Christa Avampato
Be a seeker
Be a seeker

“What you seek is seeking you.” ~Rumi

A few months ago I mentioned that I was interested in building out opportunities to bring D.C. residents together in comfortable settings to do interesting things like artist salons and discovering forgotten and hidden stories. For a hot second, I thought about starting something myself but instead decided to look around to see if something similar existed in Washington that I could join and support. I found two interesting opportunities: Little Salon and Obscura Society’s D.C. chapter.

I learned two important things in this search: 1.) to be a discoverer, you have to begin as a seeker and 2.) the best way to discover is to search together with others. And these are lessons I will continue to carry with me at the top of my mind and at the center of my heart. More details soon!

creativity

This just in: Starting an art collection of photography

Christa Avampato
The lithograph print I ordered by Vincent Laforet
The lithograph print I ordered by Vincent Laforet

On Saturday night, I stopped by to hear a FotoWeek DC panel discussion about the future of photography. To be honest, the panel was much less insightful than I had hoped it would be. However, one quote that inspired and resonated with me came from George Hemphill, the owner of Hemphill Fine Arts, a commercial art gallery here in D.C. He encouraged people to get started collecting by saying, “As a collector you can’t make any mistakes. Just collect what you love.”

In the past few months, I’ve started to dip my toe into the world of art collecting. The genre that’s recently resonated the most with me is photography. My friends, Kriti and Allie, went to Pancakes and Booze this summer and I met CJ Bown, a Philadelphia-based photographer. I fell in love with his work and the process he uses to produce canvases of his photos. (Each one takes about 2 weeks to complete.) I snapped up two of his pieces – one of the stairs to Bethesda Fountain in New York City’s Central Park and another of Boathouse Row in Philadelphia.

On Sunday, I learned about the intensely physical work of aerial photographer Vincent Laforet. “You have to try to take photos that no one else has taken. In 2015, that’s a tall order so I have to come up here.” By “up here”, he means in a helicopter as it whirls around while he attempts to capture stunning nighttime photos of cities. The fruits of his labors are stunning. They are living, breathing artifacts of how a city moves. I couldn’t stop looking at the galleries on his website so I bought a limited-edition lithograph of one of his New York City shots.

Are you a seasoned collector? Have you also started to collect art? Have You been thinking about starting a collection? I’d love to hear any tips, ideas, and perspectives. Let’s learn together.

creativity

This just in: The hard work of editing

Christa Avampato
Edit, edit, and edit again
Edit, edit, and edit again

“I’m all for the scissors. I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.” -Truman Capote

As hard as the writing process can be, editing is so much harder. It’s emotional, even painful, but it’s also necessary. Editing is the polish that makes a piece of work shine, whether that work is done in words, images, or sounds. It takes perspective and intense reflection. What are you really trying to say or show? What thought, feeling, idea, or action are you trying to evoke in the people with whom you share your work? Creation is so much more about what you give, not what you get. It’s an act of generosity so edit, edit, edit, and make it a gift you’re proud to offer.

creativity

This just in: Soul retrieval and the colors of Fall

Christa Avampato
The colors of fall in Cleveland Park are healing
The colors of fall in Cleveland Park are healing

Have you ever had a situation come up in your life and wondered “what the heck is the purpose of this?” This week Brian and I talked about the idea of soul retrieval—the Native American belief that when we go through a traumatic experience we leave a piece of our soul with that experience. Stay with me here; these two ideas connect because Native Americans also believe that throughout our lives we are offered opportunities to reclaim the parts of our souls that we’ve lost. These opportunities show up in the form of confounding situations, scenarios that require us to rise up, change, and do something that’s difficult. They often require us to break a long-held pattern that needs to be reversed.

I recently had a few events like this pop up and Brian did a brilliant job, as usual, of guiding me through them. Even though I knew it wouldn’t lead to the best outcome, I was tempted to act in a way that I’ve acted before when these types of circumstances arise. Brian counseled me to examine how I would normally react and then he encouraged me try a completely different tack. It was uncomfortable to react in a completely different way than I normally would, and I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. Still, I followed Brian’s advice, tried these new approaches, and then waited to see how it would unfold.

Brian’s advice was spot on. I broke patterns that had long-outlived their purpose, and the situations resolved themselves in the most favorable way possible. And I woke up on Friday morning feeling more whole than I’ve felt in a long time. The air was balmy, the wind was soft, and the brilliantly colored leaves made me smile wide. I got some pieces of my soul back. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it.