Visual Artist, Activist and Author Christine Lowe: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Fame is not as fun as you think. Having been on TV and in print numerous times, I can tell you that it attracts trolls. You will find yourself being slandered in actionable ways, and not be able to do anything about it.
Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked on Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50s.
How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?
In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.
As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christine Lowe.
Canadian Christine Lowe is a globally renowned visual artist, author, and activist who has made her mark on the art world in spite of serious medical challenges. In 2023 she and her partner moved from Ottawa to Cape Breton, to embark on a fascinating new entrepreneurial project.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born in Perth, Ontario and raised in nearby Almonte. It was a difficult childhood. I was a nerdy, boyish-looking child who was bullied daily, while also dealing with frequent random seizures. I have been drawing since I was a child.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Don’t dream it, be it.” It is a line from a song in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I took it to mean “let your freak flag fly”. In Ottawa in the late 90s, there were not a lot of queer people dressing flamboyantly, but I was one of a handful of very conspicuous weirdos. I helped normalize colorful public weirdness in Ottawa.
You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
My main success has been surviving. I was told at age 21 that I was unlikely to live past 40, the doctor telling me that most people my age die from the pharmaceuticals, secondary injuries from falls, or suicide. I am in generally very good health — better than most women my age, I would say — but also, I could just “up and die” any minute, any day.
The main things I did was change my diet, stop using pharmaceutical anticonvulsants, and start using cannabis daily.
I still have seizures, but my quality of life is many times better.
Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?
I recently inherited a modest sum of money, and decided that risking it all on some business ventures was smarter than languishing on a disability pension, nibbling away at a trust, unable to move forward. It was not enough money to just go live off of, and it wasn’t even enough for my old age, so… I was just 54 and looking at what was essentially a forced retirement. So we sold the condo, bought some land to start a vegetable business, bought shares in a women’s health product, and launched my painting career.
And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?
From 2002 to 2017 my life has been about cannabis law reform activism. The art I did, mostly pen and ink, was mostly to do with that. The early commissions I got on this new aesthetic came from cannabis activist colleagues.
In late 2020 I decided to change my approach and just start painting things I wanted to paint.
In 2021 we started TwitchyDesign.ca so that some of my designs could be made available on clothes, decor, and accessories.
And then in 2023 I decided to walk away from a secure pension and risk it all on some business ventures, namely the vegetable garden and Femme Flexor.
Pretty big shift, I’d say
Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?
I was unable to make any progress with my art career while on Ontario Disability pension. I didn’t have enough money to promote my career or buy into Femme Flexor, and if I started to actually sell paintings, they would claw back a lot of my earnings. The catalyst came in Dec. 2022 when our ODSP worker changed her interpretation of the regulations regarding trust for the third time in two years. We knew then that the coming years would be nothing but stress and worry as we tried to cope with random changes to rules and regulations based on their vague and uneducated interpretations. It had to end.
What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?
The aesthetic I have been developing over the past three years came about gradually, experimenting with materials not normally used in fine art paintings. Once I got a few of the early ones done on canvas, full-size, I realized that they would not look out of place in any contemporary gallery in the world.
How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.
The greenhouse is in the process of being built and we should start growing food for our local community soon. Every single person we talk to — neighbours or workmen — think it is a wonderful idea. Meanwhile, Femme Flexor is gradually gaining notoriety, especially among medical professionals, and there have been a few articles about my art and other projects recently.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Aside from my husband who serves as my 24/7 caregiver, I would have to say Tracy Lamourie. I have known her for like 14 years and watched her gradually, through Facebook posts, build up her world-class public relations business from literally nothing. I saw her and thought “why not me?”
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?
We decided that my health, and the health of our little dog, should not be risked flying from Ottawa to Sydney, Nova Scotia. A short but expensive flight, but it would still require the dog to be sedated and me to be among flight attendants.
So we hired a car taxi — basically a limo service — and took a two-day drive from Ottawa to our new home in Cape Breton.
Just weeks after we got here, I saw an article about how Air Canada forced a disabled man to crawl off a plane, and another where they decided a man’s chest pains were no big deal so they did nothing… and he died.
Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?
Every day is a struggle to justify my existence, frankly. I have epilepsy. 25–30 random seizures per month. I feel like I am a burden to my husband, though he never makes me feel that way. I overcome it by just looking at the work I have been producing. I come back after a series of seizures and scroll through my iPad and thing “I did all this?”
I often have no memory of the work I produced.
In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?
Ha… I didn’t really. I had my husband and my dog and friends who wished me well, but it came down to throwing that 20-sided die and risking my inheritance. And some might say “Oh, well, she has it easy, she inherited money” but it was not a lot of money. It was enough to venture out and try for something better than what Ontario and the pension had to offer, which was a medically and financially sequestered life with no chance of earning my way out of it. I couldn’t even afford a one-week vacation.
Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?
Since 2002 I have had the moderate security of ODSP. It was not quite enough to live on, but it provided most of what I needed. Changing provinces, starting a business, risking funds on a startup…. Way outside my comfort zone. Nothing even close to this has happened to me before.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started” and why?
- Get a publicist. Cold-emailing galleries will get you sent to a spam folder. I just got a polite rejection from a gallery, and the email came ten and a half months after I sent it.
- Be ready to spend a lot more money than you think you have to. The greenhouse we are planning is about twice the cost we originally expected, but we need to push through to get the long term benefits.
- Don’t just do one thing. Although you don’t want to spread yourself too thin, it is also wise to diversify. This is why I have so many — but not TOO many — irons in the fire. The trick is figuring out how much you can handle. Delegating helps.
- Don’t try to please the whole audience. Do the thing you do, and find the audience.
- Fame is not as fun as you think. Having been on TV and in print numerous times, I can tell you that it attracts trolls. You will find yourself being slandered in actionable ways, and not be able to do anything about it.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would get everyone to stop with this lawn nonsense and start more food gardens. I see a lawn, and I imagine greenhouses, food gardens, and fruit orchards. Or re-naturing.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. 🙂
David Attenborough. He has taught me more than any teacher I have had. Decades of watching him talk about nature with such genuine enthusiasm…. I would love to meet him.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
christinelowart.ca
twitchydesign.ca
https://www.facebook.com/ChristinesCornerArt/
https://www.instagram.com/christineloweart/
https://opensea.io/christinelowe
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Visual Artist, Activist and Author Christine Lowe: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.