Chuck Dransfield Celebrity Artist & Medium Lucille Ball

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hey everyone it's me whimsy and i've got uh  hello hi really amazing person here uh my friend   chuck and amazing artist and trans medium chuck  dransfield is here again to answer our questions   about what it is like to be in the heart and soul  of another person as an artist but specifically   you've done a lot of work uh for people who don't  know uh chuck is a professional artist you live in   hollywood los angeles yes and you've been painting  celebrities for quite a while now haven't you   uh probably since i was a child yeah in fact  uh the very first drawing i ever did in my life   my first portrait was lucille ball when i was  three years old this stick figure with orange   curly hair with the crayon my sister had that  drawing for many years and now she can't find it   i keep telling her please locate it because  i would love to frame that and put it up   with all my that's probably the earliest  record of me doing a celebrity portrait   now today because you you know i hope you'll  keep coming back but today i just was so curious   uh if you could talk a little bit about developing  the relation you have a very special relationship   with all of the people you paint you connect with  them and really deep ways can you talk about your   relationship at all with uh lucille ball why is a  really young child do you think you were attracted   oh a particular actor that's one of the people i  can't remember a time in my life where i wasn't   attracted to her uh my sister said my big sister  she's 14 years older than i am she said when i   was a little boy like two three years old i used  to go up to the television set when lucy would be   on and i would just almost want to hug the tv  the tv screen and i i know for myself lucy was   like a mother figure to me my own relationship  with my birth mother was rather complicated   i won't go into it here it's forgiven but  nonetheless it was a complex relationship   i wasn't really getting the nurturement i needed  from her and lucy was bigger than life and   i i guess she just made me happy she made me feel  good i felt so safe and protected when i was in   lucy's presence so it started at a very early  age where she became like a mother figure to me   you know i mean i say that with the awareness you  know she was on a television screen you know i   don't but that's how it felt to me as a child and  i think that got rooted deeply into me early on   wow and so you probably spent a lot of time uh  watching her career over the years is that right   oh yeah oh yes i became a big i love lucy fan  early on i'd watch the lucy i grew up in the   early 60s so it was the lucy show at night  and it was i love lucy on during the daytime   so that was my double dose i just knew i loved  her and she made me laugh so hard she made me   feel so good um so yes lifelong fan i even got  to see her work once i never got to meet lucy but   in 1986 she attempted a revival of her sitcom it  didn't do well it only lasted about eight episodes   unfortunately but i got to sit in the audience so  i got to sit in the audience and watch the great   lucille ball work in front of the cameras and i  consider that a milestone in my life i could not   have been more thrilled it could have meant more  to me wow how's that now do you remember where   where you were when you heard that she had passed  over that she had passed on yes i do as a matter   of fact well i knew that she had been ill you know  she had been in cedar sinai for the week she had a   uh i believe a partial heart transplant oh  wow yeah it was very serious but her aorta   uh very early in the morning like five in the  morning and i was at work in beverly hills at   the time and it was maybe 9 30 10 o'clock someone  came in and said did you hear that lucy died   no because i we were all holding out that she  was going to recover you know she you know that   everything looked good until that morning when  her aorta ruptured it was just her time to go   and i i i people took it like a death in the  family i saw people all around beverly hills   walking on the sidewalks looking sad forlorn  and and then later that day i talked to other   people i had people calling me because they knew  what she meant to me i actually had friends from   the east coast and all around the valley calling  me are you okay are you okay like i had lost a   family member that's what it did feel like it  was like losing a family member i was i was very   sad but i guess this this cuts into what we were  going to talk about about her spirit being with me of course that's uh for a lot of  people don't know that you are   actually a medium that you are trans medium and  that you communicate with people who have passed   on and so i guess like that's what i want to ask  about is when did she actually start communicating   with you did you well that's how what happened  when you actually it was very quick oh it was   very quick you see in those days she died in  1989 in those days i didn't think of myself   as being a trans medium i just knew that  i would pick up on things i was sensitive   uh i said this in the last interview it's like  when you know you have your back turned and you   know a person is in the room you know their  energy i i can't tangibly explain it except   three days after her death i knew she was with me  i just knew it my cat's getting in the frame here   i just knew she was in the room and i could feel  her energy it was very comforting and it was   like i'm okay it's okay don't be sad it's okay  i just transitioned it's all right but she came   to me so fast and i couldn't even understand it i  thought well maybe this is just my imagination but   it just felt so solid and real and then she came  to me in a dream that night and just started   chatting with me i don't remember the specifics  of the conversation other than it was engaging and   warm and friendly and loving and then i started  having dreams almost every night for a while where   she would come to me and again just chat with me  and like she wanted to get to know me better and   she more or less implied like she had known me  like in in a in past lives we had known each other   already so she knew where to find me and  she just sought me out i maybe she was   magnetized to the energy because i was in so  much grief and i was thinking about her so much   and other people who do this will say  that when you're in that state it's like   making a phone call like you're you're  dialing out to the universe and spirits   will pick up on that whatever it was she was  magnetized and came to me within three days um   it became more involved as time went on  because you know this was over 30 years ago   right i don't want to i don't know if you have  other questions i don't know if i should go on to   some other things yeah like how did your  because it i mean this the wild thing about   your relationship with lucille ball is that it you  actually begin your relationship with her after   she passes on that is interesting and i'll tell  you another thing that's interesting after she   passed away then i started meeting a lot of her  friends a lot of her co-workers uh i met her son i   met her daughter met her uh her husband uh it was  like everybody started coming out of the woodworks   it wasn't when she was alive it was after  she died so i don't know if it was lucy   guiding people to me coincidental but i suddenly  started to meet people who were on i love lucy   i met uh people who worked for her when  she was their boss relatives close friends   where she just felt like part of my family so it's  kind of like she brought you into her inner circle   afterwards like you know what chuck you're i think  maybe so you and said you know i'm gonna connect   you with my friends this almost sounds like well  one of the people i was connected with was a man   named bart andrews he uh wrote the i love lucy  book that's what it's called the i love lucy   book and it was a big bestseller i think it had  something like 26 printings just an iconic book   that was a like a perennial in the bookstores it  was around 1991 i met him and we became very close   very close and he introduced me to a  lot of the i love lucy people as well   but years i'm jumping ahead here but years  later he and i collaborated on a book   about i love lucy and lucille  ball it never got published   because of a lot of politics for a variety of  reasons it didn't get published but i did have   the experience of intimately researching  lucille ball's life where i used to joke   that i was eating sleeping and breathing i love  lucy i was getting my doctorate in tessie lou   and there was this one night i was writing about  her step-grandmother when she was a little girl   the story was that her mother had to leave  her with the step-grandmother for a while   while she went off to work in another city and  i had read these biographical accounts of how   strict the grandmother was it was almost  like something out of a dickens novel   like she would make lucy wash dishes over and over  and over until they were perfect she'd make lucy   sweep the floor over and over until it was  perfect and i thought that was rather abusive   psychologically abusive if nothing else and i  was writing about it my computer died just you   know just went out completely and i lost all my  work for the night and i was so upset about it   and i thought okay i can't do anything about  it i went to bed well remember that dream   i talked about james dean last week well  lucy came to me in a dream and she was mad   well i should say she was very stern she but  she was like look buster i don't like what   you wrote about my grandmother i don't like  that i'm the one who made your computer crash   and then she yeah yeah and i remember those  blue eyes right up to my eyes and she was   blazing because lucy was a very forceful  person you know she was a task master   uh she said what she felt and she was looking me  in the eyes blazing saying look buddy i don't like   what you wrote now you gotta understand something  i loved my step-grandmother and she loved me   and the fact that she made me do things over and  over until they were perfect told me that she   loved me and that established my own worth ethic  because if you know anything about lucy she did   that on i love lucy on her show she made people  do things over and over until they were perfect   and then lucy said to me everybody said i was a  [ __ ] everybody said i was a monster because i   was tough with people and i made people do things  over and over and it was because i loved them and   i cared about them just like my grandmother  loved me she taught me that's what love was   and the dream was so intense i you know  those dreams where you wake up you're shaking   that that's the kind of dream was like lightning  going through me and the next day i was walking   through pasadena thinking about that dream and i  realized that lucy had just given me a big piece   of the puzzle to understanding her because i had  interviewed people half the people were telling   me what an angel she was and how wonderful and  how loving i had another half tell me oh she   was a [ __ ] oh she was horrible oh she was so  tough and mean and awful i realized that's what   lucy was telling me she was misunderstood because  she was just showing her love and care for people   and people thought she was being a [ __ ]  because she did it but she was a perfectionist   you watch i love lucy she wanted them to be  their best and she was willing to put time   and effort into making sure yes she was because  you watch i love lucy every person right down to   the person who has one line is perfect and that's  because lucy worked people until they were perfect   and she learned part of that i believe from her  step grandmother so she gave me that tool and you   know here's something that's interesting i was in  pasadena and i was still like did i just imagine   this and i just make this up you know i said lucy  if this was real i want you to give me a sign   i swear this is true i turn my head and in the  store window is a great big i love lucy pillow   right to that when i said lucy give me  a sign that that was you in the dream   i knew it was real oh wow yeah and we just  saw your familiar uh walking behind you your   cat sasha yes yes yes this is tasha my  son yeah sasha is a beautiful kitten now   there's a transition that starts to happen  with you the medium and the artist and   lucy where it takes on a new dimension uh and  she almost becomes like a spirit guide to you   can you talk very much she takes you up  under her wing and she starts to literally   she kind of does the same thing to you doesn't  she she's the tax master that gets you up and   yes she does she's the type of person what are you  doing sitting around on your butt come on come on   get to work get to her you know show i hear that  i hear her nudging me if i'm getting a little lazy   or the other extreme is sometimes she reminds me  you know you need to relax you need to slow down   and that's the very nurturing motherly side  of her which i had other people tell me   she was like this was a woman who was the head  of a studio and she would see a security guard   in a booth at midnight when she was leaving in a  car she'd turn a car around go back into a prop   room and get a blanket and bring it back to the  guard she was very motherly like that so i get   a lot of that from her where she's tough with  me but she's also nurturing very comforting um i just i just feel her around me a  lot more so than any other spirit   and i don't want to make any audacious  claims this is just what my experience is um wow so i want to talk now about the actual art  you've done of lucy a little bit of that when you   are i love that one i love the one you did  for me i said make me something romantic   and then you did a beautiful painting of all  of her with her husband oh i love that one   too my favorite husband you always felt that  that was truly her soul mate uh desi oh yes   yes you know what's interesting  um his name was desidario her both names translate to mean  the same thing desire hmm yeah   they were they were soul mates they never got  over each other uh they remained very close   friends desi once said in an interview that  they spoke three times a week on the phone   in fact lucy even took care of him for a while  in her guest house when he was dying of cancer   and she never got over him i've talked to many  people who knew them who said that you know she   loved her husband gary of course but desi was  the great love i think it was just a case of   it was too intense too intense for both of them  it was a case of you can't live with someone   but you can't live without them either like after  they both divorced both of them became seriously   ill lucy came close to dying from pneumonia desi  almost died from uh serious colitis wow yeah they   were both very sick i think their physical bodies  just could not handle the emotional impact of   what had happened lucy even said we were never the  same emotionally or physically after that divorce wow in fact do you know that lucy was the last  person does he ever talk to uh that daughter   lucia ernest was taking care of him and she  called her mother and said uh mom i think   you better talk to him i don't this doesn't  look good he hasn't eaten in three days he's   very weak he can barely hold his head up and  she said let me hold the phone to his ear and   lucille said yes of course of course and lucy has  told this story lucy arnett has told this story   because she could overhear she just heard her  mother going dizzy i love you i love you i   love you i love you i love you she kept saying it  over and over putting emphasis on each i love you   and then desi he was very weak but he said i love  you too and then he closed his eyes and went into   a coma those were the last words he ever spoke  it was to lucy and the last thing i ever heard   was lucy's voice telling him she loved it  oh god that's so i know that incredible now   here's the kicker the day turned out to be what  would have been their 46th wedding anniversary how beautiful 46th wedding anniversary  you know and it was just total coincidence   oh that was a fun conversation that no that's  soulmate love and also lucianez told the story   uh her mother came down three weeks earlier to  visit desi and he was of course very frail he   was bald from chemotherapy and he didn't want to  be seen like that and lucille had to just kind   of knock on the door please hi let me let me in he  finally let her in they sat on the edge of the bed   and the daughter daughter lucy arnez brought in a  stack of vhs videotapes of i love lucy and that's   how they spent their very last afternoon watching  i love lucy together sitting on the edge of the   bed because i know it's i know i get emotional  thinking about it too well we all love them   yeah you know that lucy uh two or three months  before she died there was a gallup poll taken   um naming people were to name who's the most  beloved person in the world the most beloved woman   in the world mother teresa was first princess  diana was second number three was lucille ball of course now i have a question when yes  i love your baby you're freezing hopefully   the film will be okay when we uh download this  but when you're painting her i know as a medium   that you are connecting we call it heart centered  remote viewing that the actual technical term when   you're bonding heart to heart with someone  whether they're alive or they've passed over   when you have that heart-to-heart connection with  someone who's passed over i know of course you   can do it with lucy but you've also painted people  that are unknown friends and family oh my goodness   can you talk about what it feels i just need  to know because i'm curious as a medium it just   feels to me like you open your heart to the person  who's passed over very similar to hcrv and then   do they lead you how to paint them do they tell  you what they want like how does media okay   i was going to say that no two situations are  the same so the stories are going to vary but i   can give you an example about a year ago i got  this idea to do a series of portraits of 1930   starlets women who came to hollywood with talent  and beauty but never made it they never made it   to the league of greta garbo or betty davis or  hepburn i thought that would be interesting to   do a series of portraits of these shall we say  forgotten women and as i started doing those i   could feel their presence i can't  help this whenever i do a portrait   i may have i don't know if i mentioned this  before but i always focus on eyes first and   foremost because the eyes tell you everything  you would ever want to know about a person that's   their soul you see if i gave you a my brother  passed a wave and when he was young he died when   he was 21. if i commissioned you to paint i mean  because i've been trying to connect with who if   i were to give you a picture my brother would you  be able to paint him and then maybe give a message   i do believe so yes because i almost invariably  always do receive a message i you can't because   you see i spend several hours on a portrait i've  never been too good at just doing quick sketches i   put a lot of detail into what i do so a typical  portrait can be anywhere from five to fifteen   hours so that's a lot of time being in their  energy looking into their eyes and i can't help it   whenever i look at a photo i can always see the  story the backstory of that person i sense it   but invariably messages do start coming in such as  the starlets i was working on i this may sound a   little corny to say but consistently i would hear  these women saying oh thank you for remembering me   thank you for making me beautiful and young again  thank you for bringing me back to life again   like i get that gratitude from them because these  were women who were actresses you know if you   know anything about actors they're different joey  people they're very representational they're very   look at me so i got that sense that they were  enjoying this process and they felt privileged   by it that's just what i got from them but  messages are going to differ from each person um   i just recently did a portrait of a mother and her  young child that was from a photo of 30 years ago   the mother is now deceased and  i could just hear her saying   i want my son to know it's okay it's okay it's  okay i'm in a good place right now it's okay   i i love him maybe that sounds very generalized  but that's what i was hearing as i was doing the   portrait and i was focusing on her eyes and her  little boy um i've done portraits of my mother   that have been enormously healing because that's  a chance to be in her energy again for a while and   communicate and to release and to even forgive i  also take joy in that and i think she takes joy   because my mother was a very beautiful woman in  her youth so i love you i love to do it looked   like an actress his mother was he looked like  a guard yes she did so i loved to do portraits   of her when she was young beautiful because i  can see she was happy i really sensed that was   the one time in her life she was really and she  was really happy she was on top of her situation   she was optimistic because when i knew my mother  that optimus long gone she was going to tear up   the town i have a question for you yes true for  you as a medium and is that what i feel you do   like what you did for me when i went through my  divorce and i was grieving and then you gave me   the lucille ball and there's that really meant a  lot to me and i'm feeling broken down and i'm like   i'm old and i'm unlucky i mean i really went  through a rough time but i would look at that   painting and see their love and it just really got  me through through it a lot but i just wanted to   also say that i feel that in a way spiritually  what you're doing in your paintings is you're   healing the past for people that that person has  passed on that person's gone and it's too late   a person may feel like it's too late for me to  resolve my issue with this individual and what   i think you really have done at least for me just  through your art is you bring these people back   to life and you bring their messages back and in  a way you kind of heal the past and it helps us   reframe the past can you speak to that at all well  yeah i was just going to say i don't consciously   set out to do that always well sometimes most  of the part i just set out to do a really good   portrait but in doing a good piece of art you  have to get out of your head you know in your   head you have all of your technique your schooling  your education your background what you've learned   from making years of mistakes but ultimately you  have to get out of your head and open your heart   center up that's the only way i know to work and  so when i open my heart center up all this just   naturally starts flowing through me you're doing  yeah but i mean you really are a heart-centered   remote viewer but you're what you're doing with  your gift is your is the art and that's the thing   that i have no artistic talent that's why i just  love what you do but i'm sorry to interrupt you   but i was gonna say that it's not like i  consciously go okay i'm gonna channel this and   i'm gonna encode this into the piece no it just  naturally happens uh the energy of that person   goes into my work it goes into the eyes it goes  into the expression and i say this because other   people have told me this when they receive  the art they feel it it's like oh my god you   brought that person back to life yeah that's what  i felt i was just trying to do my sincerest best   you know i i come from a place that no ego if  you know me i'm very humble about my art but   i i come from a place of love and just whatever  comes out comes out it's like when i was doing   the james dean art for his hometown and i told  you i was feeling james dean's energy i said   jimmy i don't know what you want to say to the  people in this art i'm just going to be your   vessel let it go into the art let it encode  into the art i'm just going to let it flow   through me well that's what happens when i'm doing  portraits it flows through me and it comes on   there it's something bigger than me much bigger  than me i'm just a vessel i think about mother   teresa what she said about i'm just a pencil in  god's hands uh i'm a pencil and a paintbrush yeah   a colored pencil i'm just a vessel all  right i have a couple questions from fans   uh you are getting a fan group first off they  want to know if you plan on having a youtube   channel because they want to support you that's  in the works uh i've got to be honest i am very   feeble-minded when it comes to social media  and technology and i'm at the mercy of a lot of   good people who are helping me to do this i'm  trying to learn all the nuts and bolts of it   finally mastered instagram finally have a website  but i do need to do a youtube channel eventually   that's going to happen so if people want you to  do a spirit painting like say or a family member   or something like that how would they go about  that well uh they can contact me on my website   very easy www.chuckdransfield.com you know i'm  sure you're going to give the information also   all my contact info is on there so it's just  simple as firing me an email and can you paint   from a photograph say somebody has a picture  of themselves with their husband and they don't   the relationship is resolved  you could look at the picture   yes in fact that's my preferred method to working  because i tend to work slowly methodically   sometimes it takes me several hours so i am more  comfortable with the photograph than a live model   though i've done that of course but i find  with a photograph everything i need is there   i can read the energy and the the photo is  like a catalyst anyway because once i start   drawing and i'm focusing my energy i've opened  my heart it comes in it starts coming in now it   comes in different ways uh sometimes it's just  a very simple message like what i said about   mothers just saying i want to tell my son i'm okay  everything is fine i love him it's that's simple   occasionally it will be something a little more  profound sometimes it's something intangible   that i can't really put into words it's more of  feeling but i try my best to put that feeling   into the artwork and i like to believe that the  recipient of the art may be the same thing as   me where they're not going to get it in their  conscious mind but they're going to feel it   we'll feel that we all know what that's like  when we've gone to an art museum or we see a   great movie a play a piece of literature where we  feel it we feel the energy it's it it goes beyond   the intangible the tangible it goes beyond  that and to me that's always what genius is   you know whether you're an actor a writer  a musician a dancer it's those artists who   go beyond the human realm they're tapping into  something that you're channeling that you can't   define and how and you charge by the the amount  of time you put into the painting is that yes i do   i do um i normally it it's going to depend on the  medium i'm using i'm versed in a number of mediums   but if it were something very detailed well  like for example the lucy this is a technique of   watercolor and colored pencil and it involves  many many layers of color it's not unusual for   me to put as many as 60 layers of color down so  a drawing like this would have about 15 hours   in it so something like this it's very complex  i would have to maybe charge a little more   uh a drawing like that i would say on  average about 350 dollars on average but   i'm willing to work with a person you know if  i i see that that's out of their price range let's talk let's talk what could you fairly give  me i would be res receptive to hearing that maybe   i could even work in something that would  be a simpler style like maybe something   in pencil or charcoal or line drawing so but  i'm i try to be flexible with people because i i   one of my great joys is making my art accessible  to others i i love when people who normally   can't have original art can have it  because i've made it available to them   but i do take joy in that and and i do see  it as gratitude to the universe for giving   me the gift i think it's very important  to give as much as we can where we can wow   so much fun i you know the next time you come i  wanna i mean like you have done so many paintings   and uh you've you've channeled so many amazing  people um so you'll come back again of course of   course you're well and i just want to say thank  you to everyone the last interview there were   so many warm loving responses you know messages  for me you've been after me forever and ever to   do an interview i finally said okay let's do  it and i it was like coming out of the closet   with what i do and i thought it was a lot of  messages you know well i don't want to see you   know people's like well you're not or you're come  on you're making this up or whatever no everybody   was very supportive well i think you've proven  it because you've you've checked your own stuff   you know i think any kind of a heart centered  remote viewer or anybody who connects with spirit   we will check our work we will go back and find  out is did this happen or they'll give us a   private little tidbit or something and so yeah i  think you've done that many times all right i have   a couple more just in terms of logistics there  have been a few people that want to buy the lucy   paintings they want to buy the other paintings had  about 10 12 people ask i would say go to chuck now   have a spirit message you need uh or just a loved  one who's passed over their art this is definitely   the art you've come this is definitely something  i can do for you the best and thank you and   many of the pieces are available as signed pieces  signed and numbered limited edition pieces so just   ask me you know it's a way if you can't afford a  piece of original art i can make prints a lot more   affordable i try to be accessible in every way but  there are cases such as with lucille ball where   there are legalities and i have to observe that  that's why i say ask me about the individual piece   well thank you chuck and again if anybody wants  to find out more about chuck's amazing uh career   and art you can go to chuck dransfield.com all  right thanks for watching everyone thank you   yeah i love you love you too and we'll see you  next time peace out see you next time goodbye  Note: The representation of Lucille Ball  for commercial use is prohibited. Chuck   Dransfield simply loves Lucille Ball and  has painted her as a tribute to her work.

2021-12-08

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