Gabrielle’s Gift Of Play

We love interviewing all manner of Costa Mesans, but must confess, the city’s ‘creative types’ are some of our favorite subjects.

Maybe it’s unearthing each unpredictable interest they’re ‘into’ at the moment, or the thrill of pacing the breakneck speed of their ideas. Maybe it’s plumbing their vast depths of self-reflection, or the hilarity of a non-linear sense of humor.

Usually, it’s all of the above… and all at once. A swirling whirl of ideas, laughter, stories, show-and-tells (and sometimes, tears) that leaves us utterly inspired and happily exhausted.

Connecting with local artist, wife, mother and Eastside Costa Mesan, Gabrielle McLean – owner of HeARTfelt Play Studio – was one such electrifying engagement.

The first thing you should know about Gabrielle is that we never meant to meet her.

We were actually looking to drive through a nearby neighborhood on our way to lunch. But an accidental turn off Baker Street, down the short cul-de-sac of Grace Lane, had us dead to rights at a dead end.

“Oh shoot,” we thought as we began our awkward u-turn.

But just as we were backing up into a three-point turn, a colorful sign caught the corner of our eye. Cheerfully teal-and-salmon against the gray strip of understated commercial businesses lining the lot, it read: “HeARTfelt Play Studio.”

Well, as longtime readers know: Heart + Art + Play = The I Heart Costa Mesa team is all over it!

Unexpected Art Encounter: Finding Heartfelt Play on Grace Lane in Costa Mesa

What we stumbled into that day on Grace Lane, is something so wonderful and immersive, it really has to be seen in person. We had inadvertently entered the carefully-curated studio world – and adjoining event space – of a local artist as imaginative as she is intense.

Beaming and loquacious one moment, modest and introverted the next, Gabrielle is like a rollicking roller-coaster of creativity and we were totally in for the ride.

“You should probably just call me ‘Gabrielle’ for your article,” began the artist from her peaceful, Zen-like office. “I have so many names I can barely keep track.”

In true artist fashion, every aspect of Gabrielle’s life is up for ruthless reinvention; name included.

“At different points in my life, I’ve been known as Carey Friedley, Carey Lee, Gabrielle Benton, Gabrielle Carey, Gabrielle McLean,” she said. “And most of my close friends just call me Elle or Bri.

“As a painter, I’m known as Gabrielle Carey. The other parts of my life are a real mixed bag. New friends are always so confused, ‘How do I find you on Facebook? You’ve got, like, five names.’

“But it just is what it is.”

“Just Call Me Gabrielle”: The Artist, Painter and Creator In Her Costa Mesa Studio

Accepting that a thing “is what it is” has been a gradual process for Gabrielle. She’s spent years in the art profession – decades, even – but like most gifted and complex people, still struggles to comfortably define herself.

“I have a hard time calling myself an artist,” she admitted. “Finally, after all this time, I’m at a place where I can use the word with a straight face. Once I owned that I was an artist – not because of the way I paint, but because of the way I see the world – only then could I finally get comfortable defining that side of myself.”

To Gabrielle, ‘artist’ is more about P-O-V than J-O-B.

“I see the world creatively in most areas of my life,” she said. “‘Artist’ is an attitude. It’s a kind of universal perspective you possess, not a skill you’ve acquired. Someone might have zero artistic skills but they can have an artist outlook on the world and on life.”

Being artistic may not require hard skills, but Gabrielle has them anyway.

She’s garnered sizable client demand for her paintings and artwork – and is often too busy to take on more. A majority of her clients are interior designers, along with a few loyal, private patrons with ongoing art and ‘maker’ needs.

“There’s a client I’m working with a lot these days,” said Gabrielle. “She’ll bring me a little piece of inspiration – like a piece of fabric or wallpaper – and want me to create something in a similar vein. I’ll usually chew on it for a while and then come back with a sketch I’ve drawn up on the computer. From there, I bring it to life on canvas.”

“There’s actually a huge canvas in my studio, right now,” she continued. “It’s for a landscape painting commissioned by another client. They brought in a photo from their private collection of a recent trip they took. The client wants me to paint my interpretation of that landscape so they can hang it in their house. I’m going to stylize it a lot – and get creative with it – so that’s really exciting.

“So yeah, basically clients just come to me with a nub of an idea, then I put my mind to it – and my paintbrush – and we go from there.”

Her projects aren’t always paintings, either. She also designs and builds things like props, custom party decorations and even a pair of cheerful, paper-mache burros that won our hearts over.

Two Burros Are Better Than One, at Heartfelt Play Studio in Costa Mesa, CA.

After all these years as a professional artist, Gabrielle recently decided she was ready for something more. She had shared the gift of her own creativity for so long – but now longed for a way to help people find their own.

“There’s something called the ‘creativity slump’ that happens around age eight or nine,” said Gabrielle. “That’s about the age kids become self-conscious about not doing things the way other kids are doing things. There’s a tendency to start getting really insecure about standing out, so we start to mimic.

“Then, as we lose our courage our creativity get stifled and we simply outgrow it.

“You’ll hear most adults say, ‘Oh, I can’t paint. I can’t draw. I’m not creative.’ It’s really sad and really universal – and also totally untrue! I am here to tell you that not only can you paint and draw, but we are all innately creative in our own way.”

Gabrielle wanted to put her belief into practice and help more people “liberate their creative side from the pressure of conformity.” So when her next-door neighbor, Hoppy Paws – an Easter-bunny, paw print decal company “as seen on Shark Tank” – moved on to a bigger space, Gabrielle pounced and rented the adjoining studio.

“I created HeARTfelt Play Studio to be a safe space where I can help reintroduce people to their own creativity,” said Gabrielle. “Now, no matter their age or skill-level, people can come here to create freely and non-competitively. And as far as events go, the space really is a blank slate.”

Gabrielle hosts painting parties, birthdays, showers and other “maker events” at HeARTfelt Play Studio. But she admits she especially loves putting on creative, team-building workshops for corporate clients.

“That’s when the really fun breakthroughs happen,” she said. “You get these high-powered, office people in a room and at first they don’t know what to do with themselves. Especially the men, they are totally unsure. But after we’ve all been painting for a while, the men stay on painting way longer than the women.

“We had an event, recently, and this one guy – he’s a hotshot, top attorney in the county – he was in the studio forever just painting, painting, painting. By the time he left, he was saying things like, ‘That was so cathartic.’ It was so fun to see. I mean, when do you think was the last time he sat down to color something? Probably when he was nine.”

Letting The Creativity Fly at a HeARTfelt Play Studio Art Workshop in Costa Mesa, CA.

The work Gabrielle does with HeARTfelt Play Studio isn’t just meaningful on a personal level. She sees it as part of a greater mission to combat, what she believes, is a disturbing trend in modern society.

“I think we live in a culture where we are being systematically indoctrinated to feel insecure,” she said emphatically. “The powers-that-be want you that way so you’ll buy things and ‘know your place.’ So we all walk around with these voices in our heads of ‘never enough.’ I’m not good enough. I’m not thin enough. I’m not rich enough. I’m not attractive enough.

“I think our detachment from our creative side is just one of the manifestations of this insecurity. We’re social animals and we want to fit in with our crowd – but those honest, human desires are now being levied against us to sell products we don’t need for problems we don’t have.

“I’m not trying to get political, here. But if I have to choose, I want to be on the side that’s working to accept ourselves the way we are and contributing as much as we can to help other people do the same.”

Play For The Day: Rediscover Your Own Creative Side at HeARTfelt Play Studio, Costa Mesa!

In that vein, Gabrielle is heartened by the burgeoning creative scene here in Costa Mesa.

“I’ve lived in Eastside Costa Mesa for a while, now, and I can see the change happening,” she said. “What I think Costa Mesa has always had going for it is that it’s demographically diverse. There’s a real strength in that. I know that I personally feel more alive when I’m surrounded by people who are not exactly like me. They inspire me to get beyond whatever limitations I put on myself.

“I don’t just mean cultural diversity, which is definitely great. I also mean diversity of thought and action in all the little ways, too. The way each of us contributes to it. Like a neighbor on my street might paint their house a really funky color, for example. My first thought is, ‘Now I have to look at that weird house every day?’ But my second thought is always, ‘Oh, thank God I get to live in a neighborhood where people can do that. Where we’re not just free, but encouraged, to express ourselves. Where we won’t get fined for it.'”

Gabrielle believes that freedom and creativity have been simmering beneath the surface of Costa Mesa for a long time. Now it’s all beginning to coalesce and mature into its own identity.

“There’s a renaissance happening here,” said Gabrielle. “All the pockets of art are finally coming together under one umbrella. The way I see it, my studio is one pocket. This guy I know does artist retreats, he’s another pocket. The photographer across town or the writer down the street – they’re all part of it. I think I Heart Costa Mesa is a big part of it, too. You’re broadcasting all of this positivity and reminding people to nurture their creativity and take a fresh look at their city.

“Stitch together all those pockets and you’ve got something real. None of us feel like we’re alone, anymore.” ♥

Thanks for reading! Ready to wear that Costa Mesa love? Check out our store!