Sharika Roland

The paintings that I sell the most are girls in red. anything red seems to attract people to buy. Why is a woman in  a red dress irresistible ? Two things. The female form is a powerful motivator. You combine that with the most alluring color in the world and it is a dynamic duo.

Color is such a life supporting thing. Anything Red in a room will immediately attract your eye.

You feel energized  and  excited at the same time. Maybe it is what we associate with the color that triggers our brain to respond like that but you can use that to promote an idea that you want to get across. You can have too much of a good thing too. Once I had a show and it had about 7 big red paintings in it. A customer went on and on  about how there was too much red. She just couldn’t take it. It was overwhelming to her.

But a big red painting in a dull colored room will breath life into it like nothing else will. If I had red walls , I would put the bluest paintings I had up so it would balance it out. Black and white  on red will feel like war. I would stay away from that.

Yellow makes you be more creative. when you look at yellow, a chemical is released into your brain, and that makes you think more creatively. Yellow is happy and that relaxes you so you can think more free form.

You probably know that jail cells are painted pink to calm down the prisoners down. I painted my bathroom pink to take long luxurious baths in. Works like a charm. I don’t care what sex you are pink will calm you down. We sleep better in pink sheets.

Beige. I do not believe in beige. It is like dirty white. and I feel sad and alone when I have to look at it. NO walls should be beige . or greige or any awful color.

Color can be used to help so many areas of our lives . I do not think neutral colors are neutral. Nothing is neutral. Neutral tells me I am too afraid to live.

I say live and breath and have your being!

I need a bright yellow studio .

Attitude is everything, plain and simple. Let me tell you a story.

When I lived in San Francisco, I had this boyfriend who dumped me. I was doing the usual crying sad thing when all of a  sudden I had this realization that I could choose to be happy instead. I could in fact be super happy and have the  greatest life as it was all dependent on me making my mind up to do so. How happy did I want to be?  Really really happy and joyful. The second I thought that I felt this overwhelming sense of power.

If you are not dependent on your environment, then anything can happen and it will be ok. You could be sitting in a jail and be happy or your husband could just leave you with 12 kids and no money and you could be happy still. Your mind will obey you no matter what you tell it. That takes all the power of everybody else away and gives it back to you, where it belongs.It is your life so you should be in charge of how things are run in it. Your life is like a store. You can   always get new inventory.

Anyway back to my story, I walked down the street happy as a lark and two things happened, I  became strong in a new  area , and I was a magnet for what happened next.

Everyone needs money to live and nobody wants to talk about it and how to get it. I have found that anything I do just for money turns out not to sell. If I think, “oh so so will love this and buy it,” I am wrong.  To get money you have to not paint for money or write for money or do anything with that sole purpose in mind.

Now marketing what was already painted for love, that is something else. Marketing is just showing someone what you have. That is all. It is not persuading them to buy, or cajoling them or tricking them or even bothering them. THEY are just people who may or may not love what you do. They have to see it though as you want them to see it.

Wear it if it is clothes. hang it in your house if it is a painting. put it in a natural setting and they will love it too.  Marketing is a gift. Y0u are sharing your special thing and that is not selfish, or money grubbing or anything else negative. It is sharing your loved thing and that is unselfish and pure. Marketing is pure love if you think of it rightly.

Looking out at the rolling hills and the lake and the sky this morning made me realize that there is nothing like space to make you spacey. We look too close at things when we are home. We look at only a few feet in front of us. There are building stopping the space from affecting out outlook and this has a negative effect on our perception of everything.   Having miles and miles of space to look out puts problems in perspective and opens doors that were heretofore unavailable. Wind and sage perfumed air and sun also help clean out tunnel vision.Vision and Vista are pretty close together.

I had a friend once that had this amazing view of the sound and he told me that you get used to it and it has no effect anymore. That was good to know. I will never need to be jealous of anything. You just have to see new things a while and then move on and see something else. You don’t have to own it, You can borrow it and get just as much benefit out of it.

The best things in life really are free. Anyone can go see what I saw anytime. You just have to go to Soap Lake and there it is. forever and a day.

Visiting a small town can give you culture shock. Visiting a small house can do the same. I adore looking at tiny houses on the internet. I would also adore seeing them in person and sitting in the the tiny kitchens and looking out the tiny windows too if they were some around here. But here all I see is big big big.

I have a big house but I moved our life into a small part of the big house. I do not like suburban sprawl. I put our bedroom in a the smallest room of the house. It is 7 feet by 20 feet long. We don’t need that much space. Ideally I would like a 10 by 10 every room. Even for two you only need that much space to live.?So 400 feet would be plenty big for everything.

What size do the interior designers say to make a conversation area. 10 by 10. They say that because that is the space that is most comfortable to talk to several people. I think four 10 by 10 buildings in a square with a courtyard would be a great way to live. I think I t would be fun to have to go outside to get to the kitchen or bathroom. You would need another shed if you had a child. Everyone could be in a small space that was perfect for thinking all time.

I am in my bedroom and it is too big. I don’t need this much space. My theory is that Americans live in too big of a house because they are used to it and it has the effect of making everyone alienated. In Europe the rooms are tiny the villages are tiny the streets are tiny the streets are one inch from the front doors of the small houses. You can walk down the street and look in the lace curtains of the house that is right there at the end of your nose and look in and see the tiny table and chairs. People stand next to each other there.

Even if you don’t know anyone in the tiny village you love them because you have seen where they live. It is super intimate.  I love those villages. I remember looking in the windows and thinking how I wish they were home to I could see them and talk to them. New York is a little better than here because of the stoops where people hang out. But in the wealthy neighborhoods you have gates. Keep out. America with the big lawn and yard in front and our big back yards with lots of privacy. We all have lots of cars to hide in too and lots of parking lots.

Give me a village any day. I want to see you.

photo from this person