chanté 🌀

@copper.raven

• b r i d g e • art ◯ tattoo ➢ @copper.raven.studio • mutable • fixed • fire •
Posts
3,072
Followers
7,817
Following
3,837
{ Find my ART ➢ @copper.raven.studio } • Mini art update of this month I touched up and essentially repainted all my old work Did 3 artist interviews Painted 2 of my largest pieces to date in 4 days exploring a new creative style and themes adding to my first congruent series of work, Completed a public triptych mural in 2 days speaking to our collective participation in achieving true racial justice & liberation & i get to see some of my new work featured alongside other talented black artists in my first pop up gallery exhibition this month called ‘Melanin’ in the heart of downtown. . Now I drive across the country assisting my friend and tattoo mentor Alex relocate from NY to Cali just in time for Juneteenth celebrations. ..& this really ain’t the half of it. Life is building, breaking, growing, glitching & flowing all at the same time. After a year of what felt like sitting and waiting for traffic to move, this month slammed on the gas & I’m just hangin on. deep breaths & big steps 🌬
430 14
2 years ago
I want to introduce myself to you new Instagram friends. My name is Chanté. ‘Copper Raven’ came from a dream turned painting I am an artist. (@copper.raven.studio ) I love writing(not spelling)&this platform inspires me to do it more than ever. Some posts feel like spells Metaphors are my love language I don’t do well w/ periods. As in the end of sentences or menstruation for that matter. I do do well w/ endings. I’m comfortable w/ leaving I’m comfortable w/ death. I struggle to let my hair grow long. I’m non-binary. Which for me means I flow in my energy. Confused by the concept of gender, I feel bigger than a player on one side of the field. I am the field, the stadium, the birds, bees, trees & wind shifting form in any given moment. circular soft & open pointed guarded & hard as hell wrapped in a body that matches. Im mixed race meaning the 3rd question I get from 99% of people is “what are you?” I’m creative. at least that’s what I’ve always been told. A better word might be- curious.. to understand, to see how this energy manifests through every medium. I feel (my) creativity comes from playing in the space in between, a product of often holding “opposites” simultaneously. I believe in magic. I see a lot of magic between where life & death meet. Travel was my identity for about 6 years. Hitchhiking, sailing, biking, walking,backpacking around the world, dumpster diving, busking, preforming, dirty as fuck & beaming. In the last 2&1/2 years I’ve been stationary- to ground in my work, while a part of my spirit waits in edgy hibernation. It makes me a little sad to think most people who know me now don’t know me in the form where I feel most free. It makes me a little uncomfortable how many “I”s & “me”s are in this post. I had a dog smaller than the whole planet.(I.e. he was very very cute) I have friends that r bigger than the whole world. (I.e.i love them a whole lot) I like when laughter makes its way into unexpected pockets of sadness I like people I like to ponder I love easily I do not trust easily I could keep going on unfolding these origami morsels discovered & rediscovered. But words can’t really hold it, nor can the space allotted in a caption.
1,310 66
4 years ago
Welp.🫣I think I like modeling now. A brief history: I started in Highschool & abruptly stopped when someone at the first &last major agency I went to, told me while gripping the thick of her thighs to lose weight then come back. I decided it wasn’t for me Enjoyed my meals & went traveling instead. From then on, every weird home done haphazard hair cut & color🤡Every tattoo & face piercing, big meal & lazy Sunday served the dual function of a triumphant ‘fuck off’ to those industry standards. Over the years photographer friends would ask if I want to shoot just for fun.. LOLfun? 🙃A bewildering concept I’d inevitably decline. The thought of someone quietly peering at me 👁️_👁️ through a high resolution lens 🔭for hours, immortalizing w every click my attempts(key word) at looking “good”(whatever that actually means) sounded entirely repulsive. Many years passed this way, till I met a sweet human @insightphil who was/is in the industry& felt adamant that things were changing. He showed me that chilling tf out & just being yourself tends to work better than straining to be anything else. 😮‍💨Go figure. Then shoved me into the open arms of a great agency that prioritizes identity over appearances- @otherpeopleschildren & voila Ready for round 2 🥊 It’s been a few years now & I recently turned a new page. Working consistently w great photographers who make the job feel actually enjoyable. Working more w ethically minded brands promoting ideas I resonate w, who on top of it make concerted effort to use ‘they/them’ pronouns?! Woah. Swoon 🤤✨ W more enjoyment comes a(non critical) desire to improve & for the first time I’m doing shoots just to update things &[dare I say it] for fun. 🤸🏽‍♀️ Im discovering that like everything, this too is an art form to be explored. One that can convey tones & stories through shapes &shadows, angles &expressions. A play between you, another artist, a concept & the moment. All to say~ I may be sharing more images from these shoots, *Not to sell you shit, or remind you I have a face, but to share a fragment of evolving life that I’ve been enjoying lately. 🥇📸 @steveakation ! + my lil edits styling & bts Siena Del campo + myself
376 37
1 month ago
Little pebbles • < first photos taken by @miru.jwlr >
230 12
1 month ago
Stormy crafternoon. Started a little painting.. I don’t think I’ve done that in over a year.. or 2? Funny to identify as a thing like: artist or painter. Regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve actually done the thing. Be it for lack of time, light, inspiration, or.. ect. 🌀 Are you defined by the reality of the moment or the sum of them? Is one more empowering, or more honest? I think some things just sit in your bones and inhabit you regardless.🐦‍⬛ Perched and observant like a row of watchful crows on a phone line. Ready for flight in a moments notice. This day, some friends got out the art supplies, the rain gathered us in, and the crow came to perch on my shoulder. It felt like home.
167 10
1 month ago
Went to the coast to meet @olya_yalo to play around and take some photos. We met in 2020 in a little coffee shop garden in California and planned to shoot together but didn’t get it together until now.. in Bali?! I’m so happy we found each other again on the other side of the world and made it happen 🥹 I needed a reason to stuff anthuriums🌺 down my shorts.
710 26
1 month ago
1/2: Went to Thailand to join one of my nearest n dearests @sammypicone on her @trovatrip 🥹 I love this human dearly and not only was it GREAT (imperative) to reunite forces after leaving New York, but it’s always something special to travel & explore more of home 🌏 with folks I hold close. Lots of sun, swim, new smells, flavors, and gut punching levels of delectable spice. 💪🏽🥵 For context on #3- Sammie is an *otherworldly* pole dancer (amongst many other things). So on this trip, she lead a little workshop. Most people had a clue, I really could not do jack shit. It’s been many years since I’ve had to carry my sustained body weight with nothing but my little fingies & arms 🙃 (+ the deep skin twisting burn of my thighs🥲) all while trying to look graceful. I was not successful with the grace.. or strength but became joyfully fixated with the discovery.
811 13
1 month ago
@copper.raven blue hour at the beach. 🦋 styling by Siena Perez Del Campo
0 24
1 month ago
@copper.raven Chanté in the studio styling by Siena Perez Del Campo
306 16
1 month ago
Semi Random assortment of videos from life in Bali the last few months. There is *a lot* to say. And so I think I won’t say too much at all. because it’s one of those things that can’t be tapered into minute long video intervals, or one digestible paragraph. If you start the first page, the whole book must be read to properly make sense of it. & does anybody read books or bloated captions anymore? I suppose this is where paintings or podcasts might come in handy.. an avenue to wring out 💧 every last word for whatever they’re worth, or none at all and let contrasting hues communicate me. 🎨 Maybe later For now I’ll say this island and its people have been lovely, and.. there is a particular flavor to many of the foreigners that flock here that challenges me. The tensions that arise are having me reckon with familiar questions of how to be a welcomed foreigner and good guest. One that does not unconsciously perpetuate the colonial mentalities so many of us have been steeped in since birth. (No matter how spiritual you are.) How to claim earth as my home and do so with respect, and active care for the many lives that have come and tended the land before me. Those who’ve laid down the paths & the prayers i travel on, & seeded the fruits I am nourished by. This applies here & it applies to every other place I/we step foot on, or call home. From Chumash land, to the West Bank & beyond. This has been on my mind lately. Along with this I am learning & growing, deepening in meaningful friendships, diving head first into my expanding list of studies, crafts, movement, meditations & contemplations. I’m cultivating gratitude & staying critical. Life is nuanced & breathing.
697 67
2 months ago
I’d been trying to get the Spain since I landed in New York almost 2 years ago.😬 I was so unsure about my footing there that my backup plan was to move to Spain which I’d already known I loved & had some connections in. In the following 2 years i found a big love for nyc & never ended up making the jump across the Atlantic. As i sat in my room, avoiding buying my departure ticket & starring down a pair of boots (pretending to thin out my closet as to lighten the move); I considered whether i still had time to briefly make it to the wonderful land that gifted us horchata & paella ✈️.. I determined that though i could finagle the time i could not reason the money. I let out a sigh, 🌬️ let go of the thought & stuffed that 3rd pair of boots into a cardboard box busting at the seams. The next morning in meditation, I asked for a sign, a form of confirmation that im making the right moves (that is- upheaving my whole life.. again). I asked for the sign to be in the form of a pink elephant, or perhaps if that was too specific- a great big undeniable synchronicity. Later that morning after duct taping that box shut like it had a body in it- i get a message from my agent saying that (without having sent in any casting media (not normal for me)) I’d likely booked an 8 day fully paid photoshoot in Spain the EXACT DAY of my intended departure from NYC. & by afternoon i passed a literal SIGN on the street with 8 plump pink elephants on it entitled “Delirium”✨ like.. . !?! I pinched myself. I was not delirious, though it all felt pretty dreamy. 🥹 This reminded me that the universe is weird & cheeky & doesn’t aways work out like you hope but also sometimes it does, & sometimes even delivers your dreams direct w a dusting of humor on top. This shoot has been wonderful. It was a freaking fantastic, chill, playful, skillful, tight knit crew on 2 beautiful Spanish islands lined with miles of hand built stone walls older than the USA. Sun soaked people as cool as ice cream blissfully melting over jagged rocks getting anointed in ocean spray, & olive groves blanketing hillsides in every direction. 🫠 Here’s the smallest glimpse 🩵 {Look out for post #2 }
374 38
6 months ago