Sharika Roland

You can get clarity all at once without even trying. It will just occur to you when you are not even thinking about anything in particular.

they say the four steps to figuring out a creative problem are

One . Look at the problem and examine it from all sides

Two. Try wild brainstorming ideas as possible solutions. Nothing is too weird.

Three. do something else like paint your house a new color or wash the clothes and fold them and put them away. Clean out dust bunnies from under your bed. Do something that is nice and linear.

Four. Look at the problem again and the solution should come to you 99 percent of the time.

If it does not then do step one two and three again. Your brain will figure it out for you. all the paths created in your brain will fire up and voila solution!

My husband and I have a  couple of houses. We one is a duplex so it has two places to live in. It has been our habit to move into each of the places multiple times. Which makes us look crazy to everyone else.

But we have something that we accomplish every time. This last move a year ago we moved back into the cottage and fixed it up and make it ultra darling for us.

That was good because we never would have painted it pink for a rental. But now we are renting that and going  back to the big house. It took two seconds to rent the pink house and the reason they liked it so much was its color. How many rentals are pink. zero.

But now we are moving back to the big house. I am going to use the 1000 foot basement as a big studio. I have going to spread out the paintings and make even bigger ones.

PLus I am going to paint the walls french blue instead of ochre . A nice warm blue with gold. all the furniture there is ochre and it will look nice with the blue. That is all I  know now. The house will tell me what else it wants when I get there. I do love redecorating .

It has been acknowledged that if you do anything 10 thousand times , you will be an expert. That is what I tell the kids who take art from me. The first time is always shaky.

But if you know that it is only a number to get to you can relax and enjoy the ride.

when you start telling yourself that you are not good at something so just forget it, it is a lie. Your brain just has to learn it.

I suppose I could even learn to sew if I did it every day every day every day. then It would be fun and not a torture .

I know someone who changes jobs every two years just do learn new things. things get stale and they move on then it becomes a habit. Most people would just pick one thing do it will and call it a day. Lucky them to have developed a tolerance to starting over and growing. They must have used up the ten thousand  times and decided to start over with one.

 

 

 

These paintings were slowly completed over three months. Unlike my other shows I let them go where they wanted to. Once I did that it turned into  a room of its own.

I always like the idea of making a room where you can make it just the way you want for yourself.

I know my webmaster Phil has a room like that full of his favorite things.

We all should do that if possible. Even a corner of a bigger room that you take over for some personal reverie. We all would flourish in that kind of welcome safe stimulating cozy space.

Tiny is fine here in fact tiny is better. A private room should be like a hug round you and large spaces cannot do that very well. Your mind has to far to go.

Each painting spoke to me like this. Just a space where delight was found. The poems came naturally from being in those rooms ,

the show feels comfortable.Private.Secret.

 

You don’t need to have the idea in place before you begin. Most great ideas come in the middle of playing around and then you get a bead.
I call getting a bead when the smattering of a great idea is starting. I can feel it. Everything feels meaningless and then suddenly it is right there. The way to go, the reason for this painting to live, the big idea the right color , the right direction.
When this happens everything else goes away and I am home. I do not want to leave there ever because I am in the place that is the reason I even try in the first place. Flow. It is flowing out. It is telling me what to do beyond my usual knowledge.
I used to paint with charcoal and varnish because it was cheap. What a mess and probably toxic as all get out but it worked.
I once sold a painting that was made of charcoal and varnish and masonite from a dumpster. I sold it in a coffeehouse.
When that happened I knew anything was possible. anything. People don’t care what you use they only care if they like it. They also don’t give a ding dong about where you went to school. They could not care less.
I have had people call me us and want to hang out with me to pick my brain for one thing or another. Mostly it is how do you sell your work. How do you break in.
Some of these people have gone to Ivy League schools. what a joke, They think I have fairy dust and can help them. They think I have the answer.
I do. The answer is nobody cares where work comes from . they only care if they like it. YOu are good enough right now.
There also is another key. If you sell a lot of things when you are just a kid you will make it. That seems to be the other thing. It happens when you aren’t even trying to sell it.