Carolina Russo´s best tips for creative people.

How to stay creative

 

Today I am happy to introduce you to Carolina Russo, who that I found on WordPress back in 2015 when I first started my blog, Since then I have following her artistic journey.

Caroline is very creative in lots of different ways which make her special and interesting to follow. She gave me some great new ideas on how an artist deals with the inner critic. I want to thank Carolina for all the support and inspiration she has given me to keep on blogging.

Carolina Russo´s best tips for creative people.

Tell us about yourself

Carolina: I am so proud to be able to say that I am one of the featured artists on your beautiful Blog. Thank you, Magny for the kind opportunity and interview. It is very exciting to me because you are a wonderful inspiring artist and I admire you and your work very much.

Now let’s introduce and tell you a little bit of my life story. First I have to say that I am very thankful for the gift of my artistic talent. I realized that I was very creative as a child. I loved drawing and creating things with my hands. By the time I was a teenager I knew this was my calling, creating art was what I wanted to do. My father is an Artist and I learned a lot just by observing him working on his beautiful oil paintings. I was born and raised in Italy a beautiful country of art and masterpieces all over around there is creativity and history. During the past 20 years, I’ve evolved in my passions experiencing my artistic visions and taught myself many skills and art forms. Watercolor painting naturally came into my life. I never took a watercolor class I just started painting and loving it. I also enjoy acrylics and mixed media, but my favorite medium when I paint is watercolors. I love the fluidity and elegance of this beautiful medium. 

Experimentation with other media and exploring new techniques is something I love to do. My passion for sketching with inks and watercolors comes with the love for fashion, jewelry design and illustration. During the years of Art School, I loved sketching very much. 

At the end of school, I became an independent freelance fashion designer, selling my sketches. I have been award-winning, participating in fashion design contests issued on the Italian edition of “Glamour” fashion magazine. I also had work experiences not related to art but connected to computer graphics, design and office administration I also had my own small business in Italy. Long ago I began to use my creativity digitally, loving photo manipulations and turning them into digital art, something that I still love to do very much. You can see some of my digital portraits on my website here

I moved from Italy to United States California in 2002 and one year later I became a mom of a wonderful daughter. I have been working successfully for several years as a fashion expert for some great American brands. But all of a sudden my heart called me back to my roots. My “Art” was screaming at me to come back creating. During the years here in US I had gone through some life events that prevented me from being a creative artist the way I wanted to be because I had to focus on other very important things. I missed drawing, painting and sketching, I felt like a part of me was locked in a box losing years of precious creativity. I was sad and frustrated because I missed a part of me and I wanted to use my talent. Since young age I had in mind that I wanted to leave a trace of my creativity in this world. Then one day I visited an art store and bought all the supplies needed and I started painting again after ten years without touching a brush and it all came back naturally. I never stopped since then. My art is now my life and my work it is what I want to do. I love to create and I am happy to express my creativity in different ways and able to share it with the world. When I am not busy painting I like to write poems, haiku and short stories, some of them have been published…a dream I have is to create an illustrated book including my art and creative writings. Here you can find some of my published poetry and poems 

I started my Blog yesterdayafter.com in 2015. It is my showroom, my “Gallery” and it means a lot to me. It is the place where I debut, share, sell my art and where people can connect with me. I always wanted to be an Independent Artist with the ability to create freely which is what I am focused on right now. Recently I have redesigned my Blog and included my own Carolina Russo Art Shop

which is not an ordinary e-commerce standard shop. It has a website layout and is the only place where I sell my Art. I also offer art on a commission basis and I love to collaborate with authors, music artists and anyone that loves my creativity. The 2018 has been a wonderful year. I had some great projects. I like to mention three of the latest accomplished, I have collaborated with a UK Author MJ Mallon creating two character illustrations for her latest book release “The Curse Of Time #1 Bloodstone” and another collaboration is with Nu-San a Scottish electronic music composer for him I have created a painting that is the cover design for his new album “Nu-Nostalgia” released in Vinyl and CD version. I also have collaborated with a Scottish editor and designed the cover for “Razur Cuts” a nice Indie FanZINE magazine. I am very proud of these international collaborations and wonderful projects I am very grateful and looking forward to see what the future brings on my path.

Tell us about your creative process.

I love to create…my mind always wonders how I can create things. My creative work extends to several media. I like to not limit myself and I love to experiment, exploring new ways in my art. My primary medium of choice is watercolor painting. I am a very intuitive person and so is my art. I love to let my watercolor flow naturally in shapes and layers the process leads me to my finished work when I wrap up everything with the final touches of my ink pen. Very often I don’t plan my paintings and just let the white paper challenge me like an open door where I jump into the unknown free to create my magic world. Lately, my world is made of lots of faces. I love to paint faces of ethereal and mystical girls. I like to work and focus on creating mesmerizing eyes for my characters. In life , I think that the eyes are the mirror of our soul and I love to bring it in my paintings. One of my aims is “What makes me happy is to give happiness and inspire people through my Art, give feelings to the heart and deep to the soul!”

How do you get new ideas?

Well, my ideas can come suddenly in my mind no matter what I am doing or where I am. My favorite places to go is walking in the nature, or near the ocean, I love the sound of nature, water, wind, rain, animals all the elements in nature are a great inspiration for me. If I am at home looking for inspiration I have to search and look throughout images, materials, colors, I listen to music or I get still and meditate… or I look at my surroundings, also simply browsing online on my Pinterest account where I have created numerous boards with thousands of pins of things I like and inspires me often I find starting ideas from there especially if I am dealing with a creative block in that case I like to go out for a walk or visiting my artist friends Blogs, Instagram is another great way to get the creative juice flowing. It also depends on which medium I want to work with on that specific moment. I also have a notebook where I take notes whenever something comes to mind and a sketchbook is always available.

 

How do you handle criticism?

Well, criticism isn’t something easy to deal with for anyone! Especially if it’s in a negative way. In that case I am honest, it effects me at first and puts me in a sad and annoyed mood and I question it with kindness because I want to know why and I try to explain my view but since we aren’t all the same and we all have a different tastes, points of view and perception. I try to understand the reasons behind that negative criticism. I work very hard on each of my paintings or artworks and of course, I love when they are well received. In end I do handle criticism well and I don’t let it influence me with negativity I accept it when is constructive and when I can learn or improve from it otherwise I let it go. Overall I am very confident in myself and my creativity that I won’t let criticism affect me too much. I think in art there is not “Perfection”. We all are searching for it but “Art” for me it is “Expression”. We all can be perfect in our own expression of inner creativity. I am following my own path from years and I will keep going, following my seeds and see them grow, transform and blossom.

How is your inner critic and how do you deal with it?

I am very critical with myself! My inner critic voice shows up at times more intensively than others, but I deal with it walking away from my work for a while, taking a break, leaving my painting alone for a day while I get busy doing other things and when I go back to it I have a new and better view looking at it and I am able to change and see what I don’t like. I also ask opinions from family and my close artists friends.

How do you find inspiration? (Other than things you find and see digitally)

My inspiration comes from everything that surrounds me no matter where I am, if it’s day or night, I love to create in late evenings when all is quiet and calm. Any place or anything is inspiring it’s just matter to be open to receive that magic spark of inspiration. When it suddenly hits you with an idea for your creation then grab it and transform it in art. Don’t lose your inspiration! For me, If I am not ready to paint I take notes or a quick sketch for later. I also love to create jewelry for my “Among Nature” Jewelry Collection 

 

 

“Nature” is my greatest inspiration for my Jewelry Designs. I often use objects found in nature, hand-picked by me in special places I visit. All my creations are hand made using only beautiful natural gemstones, seashells fragments, fossils, wood, bone and crystals which I combine with precious and semi precious metals. These special finds are the inspiration starter for my pieces.

 

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What are your best tips for other creative people?

My best tip is to believe in yourself before anything else, no matter what is your level. If you’re a beginner or not is about to feel confident and to enjoy. 

the process of your creativity step by step walking through your own path. Keep on going, do what you love, don’t compare yourself with other artists, instead get inspired by them and never give up. Don’t be afraid to try new things out, don’t worry about mistakes, every day is a learning and is part of your growth, experimenting is a great way to learn and to find your own voice and style. Don’t be afraid to share your creations with others, it is motivating and encouraging when you read the comments and feedback from people. Art needs to be shared: have a Blog or website. And if you are a beginner and need a guide to learn, there are many great online videos from artists that share their skills or available online courses also my dear friend Magny here has wonderful ones.

Thank you again, Magny! I loved to be here much love to all!

and then I have to say thank you so much, Carolina, for your inspiration and sharing everything whit us!