Ria Sharon

pondering creativity, process, and making art

We All Have Choices

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If you look at our Facebook friends, it seems that Becky and I have been circling each other for years. But finally (thanks to one of those mutual friends), we met for coffee, then a long lunch and the rest is herstory! Becky is the writer, speaker and dreamer of You Are Not Stuck. Like many of us, she is on a journey towards empowerment and consciously creating the life we dream of.

Over the years, I’ve been stuck in the wrong marriage, stuck in the wrong job, stuck in bad habits. I was not immune to feelings of powerlessness and going nowhere, even as the view from the outside told a much different story. So I said goodbye to relationships that didn’t nurture. I traded a high-stress career speaking for others for a life in yoga pants. And when I’m not teaching on the mat, I’m writing in my own voice and speaking my own truth. ~ Becky Vollmer

bv-bw-e1409747720523It’s my honor and delight to be working on a collection of art printables created in collaboration with Becky. Her truisms are featured on four new pieces in the etsy shop, including the one pictured above.

If you are feeling the need for some encouragement and motivation, head over and see what words speak to you.

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p.s. And if you’re looking for that perfect gift for the awesome women in your life this coming Mother’s Day, I have a collection of inspirational sayings (including Becky’s) that may be just the words someone needs to hear.

Happy holiday weekend, everybunny!!!

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Happy holiday weekend! Wow! Easter and Passover all rolled into one. Bring out the matzo bunnies!

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with finding the golden egg at the annual Easter Egg Hunt, for the sole reason of winning the real live bunny they awarded the winner! I never did.

I’m clearly a grown up now because I’ll take the Lindt chocolate bunnies over the real live bunny any day! Unless the bunny poops chocolate. Then maybe.

It’s with delight and honor that I’m introducing my bunny birthday collection, inspired by the talented ceramic artist, Alisha Katz Hastings-Kimball of Songbird Studios. You’ll be hearing more about her soon. ;P For now, know that she is the creator of the bunny cake toppers and magic spoons!

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Still Here.

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It’s been a crazy week. Everyone was sick. But for accountabilities sake, I wanted to post what I’ve been up to. I finished this piece last weekend:

I also asked Henry to help me with new product shots for my Etsy store. These are just a couple. It’s a different kind of creativity but it was really fun trying my hand at merchandising and “display.” I tried to think of my shop as an actual storefront… and what would draw shoppers into the store.

Take a look at the new storefront. Oh yeah, I made a new banner too. 

© Ria Sharon

The Things You Say…

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The only sounds you could hear in the studio was the soft creaking of the press and someone grinding away at an old image on their litho stone. My instructor (also my advisor) stopped his rounds and leaned over my lithograph, fresh off the press. “Your technical proficiency is impressive,” he said.
He himself was a talented printmaker. But as an instructor, he was quite reserved so all of us in the art program would collect each word like precious jewels. I felt myself warmed by his observation. Still he stood over my print. And then looking up at me with a curious expression, he added, “But you don’t have anything to say.”
I nodded. It didn’t even occur to me to be hurt or insulted. It was just an observation. And he would know, wouldn’t he?
It didn’t occur to me to dispute his statement. I took it as I assumed he intended — a matter of fact. Over the course of 20 years, I would live out his pronouncement. His voice becoming the one in my head, saying, “I’m a good craftsman. I just don’t have anything to say.”
It’s why I pursued a a professional career in graphic design instead of enrolling in the graduate program at the Art Institute. At least my technical abilities would be put to good use, in service to other people’s ideas or causes or movements… people with something to say.
Have you had an experience like this? A defining moment in which you realized that some belief you had about who you are was actually borrowed from someone else? Perhaps then you’ve also experienced the thrill that comes from shedding it, like a heavy coat that you suddenly discovered you don’t have to wear anymore.
© Ria Sharon

You Can Rest

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It’s been a couple of weeks since moving from my little apartment to what my kids and I fondly call “the flat,” I’m exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years.

But who will let the dog out or unpack the boxes still waiting downstairs or make sure M’s basketball uniform was clean for tomorrow and… who will write the post and pay the bills and settle this month’s accounting….

But try as I might, on this overcast Sunday, I can’t will my body to move. one. inch. Have you ever felt that? That strange temporary paralysis when your mind is awake but your body refuses to acknowledge it? It’s as if I’m frozen by a sleeping curse.

Perhaps it is my stubborn insistence to orchestrate this move like I was still 20-something and move everything except the big pieces myself. Or perhaps it’s the compounded 41 years of thinking that way… you know, I can do this — this life — all by myself! This morning, my body is not having it for one more second and I am trapped in my bed underneath an invisible hundred pound boulder.

My mind wandered to this painting, propped up in the windowsill of my studio, just just steps away from the bed, through the glass-paned doors. And my heart aches a little from its divine reassurance. It’s a sort of blasphemy to think that the world revolves around my ability to get things done. It’s an insidious lie that we’re alone in it.

You can rest.
It’s okay, every now and again, to put it all down.

© Ria Sharon