What is an “Exile Aesthetic”?

And why.

Welcome to yet another thing on the internet to read. The existence of this new substack was a very last minute decision, one I made about thirty minutes ago while unfortunately listening to a Christmas song my sister texted me (if I had known it was a Christmas song I would have held off until after Thanksgiving) but alas, the titled tricked me and I couldn’t stop once I realized my mistake, so here we are – with a new substack. Thanks, River by Audrey Assad. 

Anyway, substack credit to two friends of mine: Dear Abigail & Tabby, thank you for such full and lengthy conversations over the last two days. The need for a semi-work-related newsletter for my email subscribers is becoming more apparent, especially for those walking the line between the business x art x faith crossroads where the conversations are only growing!

The idea behind Exile Aesthetic is simply this: I understand my artist life as coming from a place of exile. What exile? This exile. This earth. This world. This spiritual realm. This exilic existence is interwoven with my faith in such a way that I find myself bearing witness to scenes, stories, and signposts of eternity all around and everywhere all at once. I am attempting to live an honest Exile-contemplative life in a world that often feels vaguely like Home, but not really. I’m here to throw open a net to catch the slices of Heaven I feel and see, and express it, show it, tell it through my art. That’s it! 

Hopefully, I can pull together what I’m incoherently writing in my Notion pages on the daily into some helpful posts that bless and encourage you readers to get back into the Real world and keep making good art.

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Come with me?

This space is for you if you care about Christianity, art, photography, and personal stories. There will most likely be some angst, some rage, and I make no promises as to how often these posts will show up in your inbox, but know that I appreciate anyone being open to thinking through our exile-existence together. Who knows what new ideas we’ll stumble upon along the way?

charlotte, between heaven & earth, 2022