Violette: The Colour of Inspiration!

 Violette, Peace Princess!

I am so pleased to share this interview with you all! Violette Clark of Surrey, B. C. CANADA (yay!)  is genuine, vulnerable, insightful, intuitive, brave, funny, generous, gifted....I could easily keep going, but first, the interview!  

By the way, Violette's birthday is June 15th! Why not send her some special birthday wishes!

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Hi Wendy,

Thanks for taking the time to interview me......here are my answers:

1. Who are you and what do you do all day? What do you do all night?

My name is Violette, I'm a mixed media artist, teacher and author.  I also teach a variety of classes from art journaling to graffiti purse painting.  My book Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash your Inner Eccentric came out last year.  I've created some online classes based on it.  So what do i do all day?  I make art, brainstorm ideas, work on projects for magazines, plan workshops, sometimes teach in the schools.  I spend a lot of time e-mailing pitches to magazines and blogs and newspapers.  Work on Social Networking, blog almost daily (5 days a week), read art books and business books (mostly at night though).  Oh.......i live in beautiful British Columbia in the quaint little community of White Rock. I live in a purple magic cottage too.  My home is a big inspiration for me.......it was my original canvas. It's a riot of colour!

2. Sign?

I'm a gemini through and through! I was born on June 15th in Casablanca Morocco.

3. What got you started?

Well i've been an artist my entire life but i guess what made me aware that i had some talent was when i was in grade four and i drew a picture of Twiggy - who was a famous skinny super model at the time.  All of my classmates said the drawing was great and it was then i realized that i had found my calling. When my marriage came to an end 14 years ago my world kind of opened up in a colourful way.  I surrounded myself with friends who believed in me (i call them my Bohemian Tribe) and encouraged me to do whatever i wanted to artistically. It's as if i was given permission to colour on the walls.  It was very liberating. So i guess at the age of 41 i virtually came alive artistically and began to embrace colour in a big way!  All kinds of magical things happened after that......one of them being a dream which told me to paint my doors. Afterwards i contacted the TV show Weird Homes and because they loved my painted doors so much they shot a segment on my home.  Things kind of opened up after that! You can see the Weird Homes segment on my youtube channel: creativeboho

4. What keeps you going?

I love encouraging and inspiring women to embrace their creativity. I also love to encourage women to live outside the box a bit.  This keeps me going - knowing that i am making a difference in women's lives is what gives me juice.

5. What stops you?

My vicious inner critic at times stops me or a bad review or a nasty comment.  Sometimes it doesn't matter how many kind e-mails i receive, one bad review can haunt me for days - strange how that happens. I kind of mope around for a bit and then get my act together and get back on track.

6. What's new and exciting?

What's new and exciting?  Well there isn't a lot that is new around - everything seems to have been done before - basically it's just a question of revamping things and putting your own twist or view on it. On the materials/supplies front though there are so many new materials that it's baffling - the selection sometimes is overwhelming. You don't really need a whole lot to begin creating - a permanent black pen, pencil, eraser, acrylic or folkart paints and some watercolours.  I especially like Twinkling H2O's but you can use anything really! Hmmmmmmmmmmm.............i suppose in regards to technology - no other time has it been easier to connect with your favourite artist as it is now.  With the advent of blogs, facebook, twitter etc......you can connect in the blink of an eye.  Technology has made it easier to take classes from teachers who live to far away from you - online classes make that a breeze.  Skype makes it easier to get coaching from creatives too.  I guess rapidly changing technology is the newest thing of all.

7. Best advice?

Do you mean the best advice i've received?  I supposed it's from Joseph Campbell the famous Anthropologist who said "Follow your Bliss".  If you pay attention to what gives you juice that's where your joy resides..........go after that!  The world will be a better place if you do!

8. Favourite colour?

Do i have to pick one?  Right now it's Chartreuse, Orange and Purple :)

9. Favourite crafting tool?

Micron pens and Twinkling H2O's - you probably meant one tool though?

10. This time next year?

This time next year I hope to have several more online classes ready to go and some e-books as well. Hopefully my Etsy store will be generating more interest as well.  I'll probably be thinking of working on another book proposal by then too!  My Creative juju will hopefully continue to increase and I'll be churning out more projects for magazines!

Thanks so much Wendy!

Love,

 

Violette

www.violette.ca, www.freakflag.ca
"Joyful art that feeds the soul!"

My book is released - Journal Bliss: Creative Prompts to Unleash your Inner Eccentric

Violette on: Youtube  Twitter  Facebook

Have you entered to win Journal Bliss, the book and workshop, yet? Check my June 1, 2010 posting for more details!