Sharika Roland

I have been going walking /running with my friend every day now for a week. We go four miles and try and shave off time each day.

While pounding the pavement we talk about how to get faster and better and faster and better. The sky and water push out all the cares of the rest of the day for the hour we spend exercising. What a relief to have a friend to go with and focus with. It is so much easier to do the work when she is by me doing the same thing. She is a type A personality and I love to surround myself with type A’s. They push me and prod me to not be lazy.

This friend I have I have had since I was 13. She was more ambitious than me and ran circles around me for years. But now we are older and she is in a different place. She is not in charge of 200 employees like she was for 20 years. She is on to the next level of life and I am so glad she is going to be spending all this time with me. She inspires me and makes me think I can do more. Yes I can.

Everyone should have one person at least in their lives that push you ahead of what you think you can do. They are bootcamp and yell at the scared part of you to take a hike and make way for the fierce courageous part of you that wants to live out everything, every possibility and develop every skill that you have. You should do a good job on life as you only have one. You better make God glad he made you.

photo by this person

I love to visit New York. The fierce competition for business makes the level of achievement and quality of products there unique.

Competition makes us try harder and refine refine refine our plan till we are the best. You have to be the best or you are invisible and go out of business. Any business in New York that has been there a long time is not only great but constantly getting better.

A trap of success is success. You might get some but then you have to do more. You always have to go to the next level. competition is the friend of the artist. It is the best thing for everyone.

So with that said, I hope ten artists move right by me and are fantastic and I hope I am the worst one . That would be the biggest most wonderful push. Bring it on!

I am so blessed to have friends that wanted to help out with the dinner party. I thought they would help but when push came to shove, the dinner party was a lot of work and I had to talk to my guests so could not even be in the kitchen. So much for my idea of serving each person.

Jenny and Susie worked feverishly in the kitchen and brought out the food and I sat with the guests and tried to be with each of them. The conversation was wonderful. It seemed like everybody was sharing lots of themselves, and that was totally what  I wanted.

Sometimes when I am completely open, other people will be the same. This life is too short to not be open.

The party was pretty much euphoric for me. Even though I did not know everyone really well, it did not matter. We were doing something new. We were being with art and talking about art and we were doing a new kind of gallery.

Paintings have a way of coming into a room and being with you the same as a person. Especially if they are paintings of people. the girls were at the dinner party too.

The food was wonderful and my friends who cooked the whole thing were on a vibe in in the kitchen.

After everyone left, I was basking in the afterglow.  After such a great time, I like to leave all the furniture up the same way it was so I can make it last longer emotionally. Next time I am going to get a caterer and invite more people. I think I can accomodate twenty.  And I am going to do a walk around the room and talk about each painting. If I have another person showing , they will talk about each one.

Artists need to share more and not expect everyone to just understand everything immediately. One of the guests at the party shared a story with me about her husband who is an architect. He wrote notecards and put them around a house he had designed explaining why he designed each room the way he did. I thought that was a wonderful thing to share with the buyers. Something they should know and something they will cherish and enjoy forever after.

Little things are so important.

I had this idea to invite all the people that bought work of mine in the past to a dinner party. Artwork is so personal and you don’t buy it unless it speaks to you so I figured that the same voice that spoke to each person would be a voice they all had in common. Getting them all together would be a way to meet that common link and it would make for some interesting dinner conversation.

I am positive that they will find the common voice quickly. Art is not just pretty or interesting or anything else objective. It has a invisible presence that is like nothing else. It has a spirit. Why do people feel compelled to do art? The spirit wants out. Nobody chooses to be an artist. I would have picked an easier career if I could. But it picks you. You do not have a choice. Believe me I think it would be easier to be something else. Staring at the canvas, or bland paper or musical score sheet.. and waiting waiting for IT to come. You can’t force it and if you think you can do it because you have done it a million times before and you are not afraid that it won’t come again, then you are a hack. Art will not be confined to skill or repetition. It has to come on its own terms.

Mel Blanc who drew the bugs bunny cartoons said he was terrified every time he finished a cartoon because he was sure there were no more in him. I feel like that immediately after finishing a painting too. Thats it there is no more. But we are compelled to do it again, We sit in front of the blank and pray “Dear God let it come”
that is what I am going to talk about at the dinner party and I hope they share what is in them that made them pick my work over someone elses. I really want to know.

Painting:

Nikolaos Gysis (1842-1901)
The Liberal Arts and their Spirits, 1878-1880

oil on canvas
(Collection of the Euripidis Koutlidis Foundation)

People want to do something different. Anytime there is a revolutionary idea, soon it becomes normal and it loses its newness. Like Music. rock and roll was a rebellion against elevator music, then disco was a rebellion against rock and roll and then punk was a rebellion against disco and then grunge was a rebellion against punk then techno was a rebellion against punk then luxuria is a rebellion against techno. Luxuria is sort of jazzed up elevator music. So what was once scorned is now hip.

Of course it is the same with clothes and houses styles and everything else. The bottom line is you better change and grow and evolve into something that looks different pretty soon. That is what I am doing with my big painting. Looking for some new feeling idea. That is a challenge. You cannot rest on your laurels. We adore fresh looks. As an artist, your body of work better change at least a little.