Interview with artist Melissa Harris

This interview was put together by We Moon and the publishers at Mother Tongue Ink….publishers of the We Moon Datebook calendar, wall calendar, and now the 30^th Year Anthology. The interview is with artist Melissa Harris a fellow artist published in the We Moon Datebook Calendar and the 30^th Year Anthology. The questions are some that I came up with myself and some of the wonderful questions that I was asked by artist Lauren Luquin in a previously blogged interview. Laurens questions were so amazing and on target and I felt would be a wonderful way to introduce Melissa Harris to you. Here’s the link to Melissa’s Blog http://www.melissaharrisart.blogspot.com/ and the link to We Moon http://www.wemoon.ws/

And here’s the interview! In Joy, Jen Otey, MOONbow ARTworks

1. Introduce yourself (Greetings, your name, where you live, etc.)

A. I live in the Catskill mountains in New York State on 9 beautiful acres with meadow and forest.

2. What kinds of art do you do?

A. My paintings are expressive oils and watercolors that vary greatly in size and subject matter. Many of them are paintings of women in interiors or landscapes and some are landscapes. They are painted in a loose style and the watercolors tend to have a dreamy quality to them.

3. What is your favorite part of being an artist? ...and the most challenging?

A. The favorite part for me in being an artist is the joy I feel when I am inspired and bursting to create. The most challenging is finding enough time for the amount of painting I want to do.

4. How has your life prepared you and inspired you for this journey as an artist?

A. Well, my life didn't really prepare me. I had to swim "against the current" to create circumstances to be able to paint. My life has inspired me in that I am able to extract some elements from my life to gain inspiration, such as people, nature and relationships- oh and of course also creatures.

5. How has being a woman had an effect on your work? Where do you see the more feminine aspects of yourself in your art?

A. All of my painting really has been about honoring the sacred feminine even when it is not in a literal sense. Since the feminine is really about receiving - I would say that my work reflects my ability as a psychic to really tune into the essence of what it is that I am focusing on and be able to bring that out successfully in my art.

6. What does your creative workspace look and feel like?

A. After many years of "roughing it" in less than comfortable situations I have manifested my dream studio with french doors and large windows overlooking a meadow and woods and my stone circle with a fire pit. It's really quite extraordinary.

7. What is it like where you live, and with whom? ... what effect does this have on you as an artist

A. Where I live presently is in the mountains alone. I am often inspired to paint local landscapes but I also really enjoy working from photos I take of women either in landscape or in intimate settings. My surroundings really only affect my art when I am painting the literal landscape.

8. What websites do you have, that you’d like to share?

A. www.melissaharris.com

9. Where do you sell your artwork? / Where can we find it?

A. At the above website as well as many new age stores or centers around the country

10. How do you connect spiritually with your art?

A. There is no separation between the two. When I am creating, I am in the right side of the brain, the receptive so I am tuned into Spirit, Source, Goddess or however you think of that energy.

11. What is one thing you’re working on for your personal growth?

A. Continuing to have faith when the world is topsy turvy around us.

12. What made you decide to submit work to the We Moon Datebook Calendar?

A. I love the calendar

13. How has being a part of the We moon Calendar effected your work and the response to your work?

A. Being a part of We Moon has widened my audience.

14. Please describe your creative process?

A. Initially I take a good amount of time to "tune in to" my subject matter, by just sitting. If I am working with another individual it helps me to hold hands with them to connect energetically. Since I am interested in accessing the essence of what I am painting this piece of my process is important. I like working in natural light even if I am working out of my head or depicting a nighttime theme. There's something about the clarity of natural light that I really need in a studio situation."

"I always play music when I am painting. When I look back to a particular piece of artwork I often remember the time I painted it by remembering the music I was listening to. I used to prefer working from life rather than photos and that is shifting."

15. If you could impart wisdom to young women what would you say, do or share with them about what it means to be a creative and powerful woman?

A. Being a creative and powerful woman means always staying true to one’s self , much easier said than done at times. It means being able to take rejection and not letting that affect one's creative process, marching on simply because you love to create, being able to continue to keep going no matter what.

17. What is one thing you’re willing to tell us that most people don’t know about you?

A. I prefer being alone most of the time