The Get Inspired! Project – Cathy Chervanick November 12, 2012 8:35 AM × Listen to the interview here! Cathy Chervanick Your browser does not support the audio element. Cathy Chervanick Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project. Today I am joined by a lovely lady. Cathy, would you tell us a little bit about yourself? Cathy Chervanick: My name is Cathy Chervanick. I am a resident of beautiful Bern Township in Berks County. I was born as a coal cracker in Mount Carmel, and we moved to this lovely area in 1986. I’m married to my high school sweetheart, Tom, and have three children. I started my business as a custom stenciler over 25 years ago. The business expanded to include interior design, staging, exterior and interior color consulting, custom wall design, hand painting, specialty pain finishes, murals, designer faux artistry effects for commercial and residential uses. Some of my services include the design consulting specialty plaster finishes, Venetian plasters, wall glazing, marbling, wood graining, murals, custom stenciling, gilding textures, faux artistry, dimensional stenciling, patinas, leather, and multilayered applications combining the above. It may sound a little Greek to you, Toni, but I make sense of all these beautiful textures and see what’s really appropriate for the individual client. Toni: I see. It does sound Greek to me, because I am very illiterate in that area, but it sounds to me as though you are brilliant, and I’ve also seen some of your work, which is absolutely gorgeous. Let’s get into the first question of the Project. What does inspiration mean to you? Cathy: I find inspiration when I go outside, Toni. I have a keen awareness of my surroundings, whether it be the moss growing through the sidewalk or the patina of the copper that’s on a rain gutter or part of a roof on a home or building. Inspiration is the ember that fuels my creativity. Nature inspires me, totally, whether it be the formation of puffy clouds or the peeling bark of a tree. Inspiration is standing at VF Outlet last Saturday – it was a brilliant, brilliant day outside – and I stood there in the parking lot with my fan deck held high to the sky, trying to color match the sky. I probably looked a little strange to those surrounding me, but it’s what I do. The blue was so vibrant that day, and it was evident that as hard as we try, the colors of nature aren’t found in a fan deck. They’re found in enjoying the beauty of that moment; that fleeting, reflective moment and God’s gift to this beautiful world provides the inspiration for me to be creative. As an artist and designer, I have the joy of looking at things a little differently – where others see falling rain, I’m inspired to create a wall finish that will use glass and paints to reflect the image etched in my mind of falling rain. Where others see a freshly fallen tree, I see a coffee table top. Where others see a shell, I see a pearl-inspired paint combination. Inspiration is knowing that nothing is unrealistic. Inspiration lets me embrace my childish wonder and curiosity, and allows me to color outside the lines and think outside the box. Inspiration allows me to create. I learn. I grow. I do. Toni: Thank you so very much for that answer, Cathy. You’ve really given a lot of thought to this question, and there was a lot in that answer that I would love to be able to dive into. What I hear the most though is all about color. You are inspired by color, whether it is the bark on a tree or it is that sky – whatever it is that you’re looking at, that inspiration comes to you in the form of vibrancy and color. Cathy: That’s correct, Toni. Not only the vibrancy, but it’s the textural relationships that I see in nature. Going back to that bark tree – how can I translate that texture to a visual surface that might be used in an environment, whether it be at home or commercial environment? Toni: Building upon that, how do you put that type of inspiration into practice in Berks County? Cathy: Last Saturday at the VF Outlet, looking at the sky. I was working on a sky mural for a client in Berks County, and just making some color adjustments and just visually making a note of how on Monday, two days later, I was going to translate, my vision, my afternoon out shopping turning into a resource for referencing the cloud formation that I was going to be executing that following workday Monday. Toni: So really, it never leaves you, does it? Cathy: No, it doesn’t. It’s surrounding me all the time. It’s so awesome that for over 25 years that my career has allowed me to get my wonderful Berks County clients excited about color – and not just antique white. It seems as though back in the 80s, it was either blue, mauve, or antique white. Now what I do is really entice people to see what makes them happy, and how interpreting their visions for their own home environment or commercial environment will result in the most pleasing interior atmosphere that we could possibly imagine. It doesn’t necessarily have to be bright, bold colors. It can be subtle colors with different nuances that would translate to a pleasant surrounding. Every day I awake knowing that somewhere in Berks County and beyond I’m making someone’s home or office environment a better place to be inspired in. Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you? Cathy: On a very personal level, Toni, my children. Mike, Dan, and Marie have inspired me. As children, they believed that anything was possible. They had to contend with me writing on every one of their school books and copybooks that famous Aristotle quote, “Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” As adults, they matured in such a way that they are showing me how to become a better person by their example. They know me in a way that no one else has. They opened me to things that I never knew existed. They drove me to insanity, and they pushed me to my depths. They are the beat of my heart, the pulse of my veins, and the energy in my soul. They are truly who inspires me in Berks County. They’re 31, 29, and 27 now, and we’re still learning from each other how to be better persons and better citizens of our community. Toni: Cathy, the way that they have been surrounded by your inspired sense of color and texture and your creativity, has that flowed into their upbringing? Cathy: Yes. I would say that they have looked beyond what is to be expected of them, and they’ve taken it a step further. As I have always encouraged them to take risks, to take a flying leap, and sometimes you don’t know what is certain, and it’s with that sense of adventure that I look at things and they do as well. I have to tell you that they are a source of pride for me, and just living in an environment where we really did paint outside the lines has allowed them to grow and mature and to take some steps with their career that others maybe would be afraid to. Just like when I’m working on a project, whether it be an interior design project, sometimes you have to think beyond what is expected. It’s a journey. It’s an adventure. That’s what I’ve always told them – each day is an adventure. It’s kind of our family mantra. Toni: But it is really interesting how things go together and run parallel, and that’s what’s so great about this Project and has been really fantastic about it in the past, which is when you think about what inspires you in your creativity and the beauty of things and the texture and coloring outside the lines and encouraging people to take risks with their color to think a little bit differently, you’ve applied that same creative thinking and inspired way of being to your children, and they’ve applied that maybe not to a career like you have, but in their way of life – that’s pretty magnificent. What do you want your legacy to be? Cathy: For me, Toni, I guess I like to speak of others more than myself. Those who know me know that I’m passionate about what I do. I think I’d like to be remembered for helping others and never putting myself first, personally or even professionally. I would love folks to remember that there is color beyond antique white. I would love people to remember the laughter and the joy when I played with paint, the proud when I spoke about my family, and the ability to contribute to my community something which is much, much bigger than myself. Toni: Cathy, it has been an honor and a privilege to talk to you today. Cathy: Toni, it’s been a pleasure to speak with you and share these great questions on being inspired. Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Project. Back to Search Results