Failure - Not an Option

An excerpt of an interview of Carla Sanders, www.CarlaSanders.com, by Mel. Edwards for the Votre Vray Creative Women project.

When Carla Sanders began following her truth, her husband was afraid for their future, and he said, “You can give it a year and then you’ll have to admit you’ve failed and you can get a job doing something else.” Sanders knew he had done his job for years with plans of retiring and handing the earning reigns over to her when the time came. He never banked on her choice and wasn’t prepared. It came down to Carla having to select her passion or give up her spirit by doing something else. Her spirit won, even if her marriage didn’t. “I like the line that Tom Hank’s character says in Apollo 13, ‘Failure is not an option.’ I’ve adopted it as my motto.”

I asked if it was scary for her to honor her truth. “Yes. If I said it wasn’t I’d be kidding myself. I’m mature, in my 50s, and I’ve been doing this for a long time now. Some busy years, and some light years when no one sees me. Is that fear?” I offered that her slower years maybe she was filling the well. “Maybe. That’s it. I need to fill the well.”
Still, Carla likes to keep her work around her, “to prove I’m an artist. Once I had a business card, and a one woman show, I still didn’t believe it inside. I had to learn it from the inside out.”

It also helps that Carla has had plenty of others support her path. “The director of the Temple of Women is my biggest collector. I have a lot of friends who support me, and my greatest feedback comes from people who are not yet my friends (strangers) who say, “You don’t know what you’ve got.” It is all important, regardless of how it landed on me. Still, the sincerest form of appreciation is when they pull out a checkbook.”

How does she stick with it now that she’s an adult orphan, and her marriage is gone? Sometimes it is a fight through a thicket with a machete or it is like rising to the surface for air as you challenge yourself. Sometimes it can be very fragile, with everything seemingly stacked against you. I just know now that it (my truth) is written on my heart. I have something treasured to give and what I offer means a lot to them (her customers). My work has transformed, inspired, healed.”

When she falls down the rabbit hole, how does she climb out and get back into her groove? “I give myself permission to create really shitty art. Some pieces I’ve just made (in silver) are going back to the refiners. I just work in fits and starts. Then, it just happens because you’re in the flow somehow.”

Carla also is willing to share the flow of her passion in other ways with women artists. “I’d love to see…love to hear, what you perceive your struggles are right now, and hear your triumphs. They go hand in hand.”
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Readers may reach out to Carla through her blog, and view a 39 minute video of her titled “Love Medicine” located in the upper corner of her front page of her website. Tell her Mel Edwards’ Votre Vray sent you.

Four Women Artists Worth Knowing

Hello, and Happy July!
Most of us get a three day weekend coming up, and since you have time to sit back and relax a bit, why not meet an artist?

The Votre Vray interviews are moving along fast and furiously, with about 30 slated to be completed by July 11th.

Here are links to a few of the fabulous women I've had the pleasure of speaking with in the past week:

Carla Sanders is an artist who focuses upon shamanic and erotic sculpture, painting and silver work. You can't be more pro-feminine than this! Visit her at: www.CarlaSanders.com

Janet Perry, master needleworker and author who has her own designs (and promotes needlework of others through her shop as well) in spite of the fact she is battling MS.
Janet can be reached at: http://www.napaneedlepoint.com/

Violette, a sassy, spunky, Canadian folk artist with a genuine love of color and glitter. See her art, van, and watch a video
of her house (as was featured on the TV show Weird Homes). Violette's site is: www.violette.ca

Tisha DeShields, wanted to have a legacy all mothers could pass on to their children filled with memories and love, so she created belly castings that can be decorated and personalized for each child. You've got to see: www.OriginalBellyWorks.com

Keep posted as the first wave of artist profiles pop up as the holiday weekend nears, and continue through July 18th.

Until next time, keep creating!