What has become my brand phrase on our Super Savvy Travelers’ YouTube channel “Hi guys! Chris here with Super Savvy Travelers!” is now my endearing way to express my thanks and gratitude for taking the Italian journey with us! 

If you follow me on our channel, thank you. If you just found the channel, welcome! You continue to help us achieve our dreams by allowing us to help you achieve yours. And, for that I am so grateful!

Before my art entered my life last year (2024), I started Super Savvy Travelers with my husband Pete as a travel agency and we sold some travel until Covid hit and decimated the travel industry. And when it became clear that the pandemic was not going away, I decided that we needed to pivot rapidly, ditch travel and do something else. 

By that time Pete and I had already bought and sold homes in Italy, completed quite a few renovations and knew the ins and outs of purchasing property and renovating. We also knew of a perfect Italian village with abandoned homes that just needed a little bit of love to become someone’s dream. 

While Covid was still in full swing I kept posting videos and started FB groups which created a lot of engagement. 

Then when the pandemic ended, people flooded over and started buying and renovating houses. I have never seen anything like it and neither had the locals in the town. But when a lot of money and attention come into an area, the criminals are not far behind. This was no exception. 

On October 22, 2022, our car was viciously burned in the driveway of our home in our village in Italy. 

What followed was a two-year campaign by an unrelenting stalker (not a local) to attack us at every turn using death threats, narcissistic gang stalking campaigns and anything she could think of to run us out of town and take over our business.

It took over two years of investigations, exposing and utilizing all of our contacts to finally get this under control.  But for a few years it was beyond comprehension and inhumane. While that was going on, I fell and shattered my ankle. 

All my life I have followed the author L. Ron Hubbard. And I recalled in his book “The Way to Happiness”, that the best way to apply revenge to your attackers was to flourish and prosper. And I decided to do just that. 

I had always wanted to learn to paint and create masterpieces. I knew that I would be good at it if I just had the right instruction and that is when I stumbled on the Milan Art Institute Mastery program and dove right in. 

So, I committed myself to painting every day for hours. It became my solace and therapy. It was the only thing that helped me stay centered, calm, feeling better.  

But I felt paralyzed. Because of who I am and my social media presence and notoriety, I could not speak out without making things worse.

So I took out a canvas and I painted an angry red background. Then I found a photo of the most vicious snarling tiger I could find and I painted that. With every new attack I painted more and took more pains to make my tiger as perfect as I could. 

In the end I stood back and realized that this vicious tiger, mad as hell and ready to tear someone to shreds was communicating exactly what I was feeling and oddly I began to feel much better. I knew that I had finally fulfilled a lifelong dream and now I was a true artist. 

A true artist, above all communicates. And that is what my tiger did. 

It communicated for me at a time when I could not. And I will always love that painting as a reminder of days of frustration and upset and wondering if I had it in me to paint and communicate what I wanted to. And then seeing the result and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only am I a true artist now, I have always been. Now I am a working artist and starting my own gallery in Tuscany. 

I am living a new life and eternally grateful for that and what’s to come next on this journey of self-discovery. 

Come visit me in my gallery to enjoy the beauty of Tuscany and talk about your experiences, have a coffee and look at some art. 

She Fought Off Brutal Attacks to Become an Artist! Chris Sobolev’s Unbelievable Super Savvy Story

Creating a New World

“In our world, Renaissance does not just happen. It is up to us, the dreamers, the creators and the ones courageous enough to push back against the status quo in order to usher in something better and more beautiful. It is not enough for us to quietly dream, to be secretly creative, to think high thoughts in the confines of one’s room. We must be brave enough to act and create against any and all counter efforts that could tear one down, make one lose hope or break one’s heart. A true renaissance man or woman creates their own hope and in so doing creates beautiful new worlds where all the best human qualities are celebrated and REAL love, compassion and beauty rule the day.”

In short, “You don’t change anything if you dream quietly to yourself.  Get out of you room and go create a new world. Dreamers are great but doers are better and dreamers that do are the most powerful forces for truth and beauty in this universe.”

Chris is beyond proud to introduce her line of fine art, especially featuring the Big Cat series which she credits as being her therapy when she was under the most attack. The Big Cat series represents the elegant beauty of big cats but also their understated raw power which, when activated, can defeat the most vicious of enemies.  Chris is currently exploring the possibility of a new studio in the medieval Tuscan hill town of Torrita di Siena where she hopes to open a gallery where people can come visit, purchase art, have a coffee and talk about all things wonderful including art and vision.

Chris unique talent is to see things others don’t notice and to see them from any angle and perspective and then to communicate ideas through beauty and aesthetics with the highest degree of technical perfection, making the most pure form of communication available in this universe.

My Process

When I see something beautiful I must share it with the world whether it be a perfect child, an emotional scene, a supremely elegant life form we share our planet with, I must paint it with my own interpretation.

The first part of my process begins with composition. The painting must be balanced and draw the viewers’ eye and make it go where I want it to go for maximum impact.

Once composition is decided colors are next - I love bright beautiful colors. When someone sees one of my paintings I want their first reaction to be “Oooooooooo!” So color is huge but I also love glitz and glitter. I dislike a world where everything is gray or muted. It is for this reason I choose to live in Italy and California. The light, the colors, everything is so vibrant. Life is vivid and in distinctly three dimensions. And for my process, no manner of art supply is off the table. Acrylics, inks, chalk pastels, metallic paints and glittery Micah powders and even stick on jewels play a part and of course most everything is finished in oil for that amazing pop of color and depth that only oil painting can supply.

For me if I don’t like the painting during the process, it is just not done and persistence comes in where you just keep at it until it is stunningly gorgeous and you are proud to present it.

So when you purchase one of my paintings you know that every possible material, angle, and aesthetic has gone into it to make it the best it can possibly be at that time. And not only will you think “Ooooooo!” every time you see it, your guests will too!