Niyas Place

KSVY 91.3 Interviews Niya | Doggie Art and LA Screenwriters Expo

Ken Brown interviews Niya November 18 about her holiday doggie art business--(Dogz Cafe) and somehow the conversation goes in the deep waters of the role of silence in film. Only on KSVY,  could this happen. Sonoma's beloved Radio Station. So listen and enjoy. Its just over 10 minutes long. Niya is donating 10 % of all proceeds of the commissioned dog portraits for the holidays to KSVY Sonoma.

 Download KSVY-Niya_dogz_expo.mov

PS: Yes Dakota is peeved that this one isn't all about him as promised, but I'm working on it. I'm a bit of a queen just like him! 

Vignettes of Provence: Exhibit of New Paintings by N I Y A

In March 2008, on a painting commission Niya stayed in a small traditional French Village, Carces, just north of Marseille. She discovered a place completely unto itself—so un-enchanted by the ‘new’. She has created a new a new series of paintings in scenes: People, Pizza, Pink Haired Women, Century Old Vines, Dogs, Food, Vino and so on. The stories accompany the paintings expressed in graphical themes.

Here is her statement:

“Whether I was sitting in the middle of a dirt road while the wild boars had their midnight snack in front of my car or woken by the soft, warm winds of North Africa in the morning looking out over the village rooftops, one thing was certain, Provence clearly held in its daily life, a force of imagination that flattened any goals or ambitions I had coming into it.”

Come and see the stories for yourself at the Sunflower Caffe in the month of June! And please eat, drink and be in the villages of France with us for an evening. 

 • • •

What and when: The artist’s reception will be Friday June 13, from 5 till 7 at the Sunflower Caffe.  The Exhibit will remain up from June 1 till June 30. 

Where: The Sunflower Caffe is located at 421 W. First Street on the Square in Sonoma.  Go to the calendar at www.sonomasunflower.com

Links: The Villa Artist Gallery where the commissioned work from the Villa Owners is displayed: Our Place in Provence ARTISTS

Niya Christine Paintings Website: www.niyastudios.com

Tune in to KSVY Sonoma FM| 91.3| June 4th at 9:45 a.m. to hear Niya being interviewed by Sonoma Mayor and host of 'Mornings in Sonoma', Ken Brown.

Rakish Reeds of Rabbit Money

I’ve come to believe that everything you were as a child, you are now.
Yes, there’s some editing involved as we become adults and trade out what’s possible for what’s practical. Zzz...

But, as I look back on everything that’s good in my life now, somewhere along the line I was…like a gymnast spotted in some awkward but successful contortion. I was shown in life that inspiration could meet success if I was bored enough, brave enough, and mischievous enough to try.

When I was nine years old I raised angora rabbits and sold them for five dollars a piece to be shorn for yarn making. I was a rather fashion hungry fourth grader and my Mom’s taste in school clothes didn’t cut it for me—(she’s gotten better over the years). I didn’t plan it this way. But after my neighbors gave me a couple of angoras, I woke up to find many babies, little white almost furry, golf balls in the cage. This was on a farm in Redwood Valley Ca. A small farm with an abandoned caboose, and a pig next door that loved to eat purple morning glories.
Inside the abandoned caboose was where my first boyfriend became my boyfriend when he put his arm around me... on a rotten, flea invested, sprung mattress. It was the scariest, most romantic moment of my nine year old life. And then, he ‘went with’ my best friend Susan when the school year began and asked if I would be his summer/caboose girl (don't go there) while Susan was his winter school girl…but this is another story altogether.

One day, about a month after the baby angoras were born, another neighbor came by and offered to buy the litter. He asked how much? I fumbled, sputtered, and I glimpsed at how much I would miss them but thought about school clothes. I thought about looking good for caboose boy, and yes, competing with my best friend (she says shamefully). I said, “Five dollars a piece.” And so, began my first entrepreneurial business.

After graduating from University of Santa Cruz, although my motivations were a bit more complex, they weren’t any less excited than when I sold the little rabbits. I was working at NeXT Computer and I wanted to use my psychology degree towards something artistic. I was interested in brains processed creativity. The most interesting conversations seemed to be around designing the faces of all the interactivity in computing we're experiencing today. So, I would show up at NeXT at 5:30 a.m. and consort with people around this question “What makes an intuitive design?” Iconography, color, and words, interactivity and the psychological patterning of our brains got me as excited as...well you don't want to know, because geek will come to mind... (And, yeah I was there when Jobs was around shaking it up, but I'd rather talk about the relationship between five dollar rabbits and sputtering career advertures.)

A month later, I had created a mock portfolio and was off to interview with several companies on the East Coast for visual interface design positions. At Lotus Corp., it was the same rabbit selling moment. How much would you charge to re-design the face of our leading business product?
What made me blurt out a random number that I thought was way too high, but turned out to be too low was the same feeling I had when I realized the rabbits could make more rabbits. As long as I keep drawing pictures and studying how our brains process interaction, I’ll have more interviews--more chances at this. They wanted to see sketches. So, on the plane, instead of the usual coffee and cream, I ordered Vodka. It was good. I’d never had Vodka straight up. I drew a bunch of crazy pictures and faxed them the next day. They offered me the contract. But, another offer was in the works--a lead visual design job at Claris Corp. And, it was in CA. so...there you have it.

From Rabbits to Entrepreneurial adventures in Design. All of it feeling about as silly as a girl could feel. As a director at Macromedia said to me once, you consultants always have your bare asses out on a very long limb of a very high tree.

My response:
But when I get dressed, damn I have good clothes!

--------------
Dakota doesn’t understand why I don’t wear fur like him. I tell him because if I did this would change our relationship considerably. Like I wouldn’t be talking to him in person, it would be on some other level. He SO doesn't get the whole eating rabbit thing. When I talk like this he gives me a stern look like I’m making no sense and then he gets very busy and ignores me altogether.

Script Done. Redhead Undone

FADE IN:

INT./EXT. BUSY STREET - CAFE - DAY

REDHEAD walks towards a chic cafe on a busy street. She's wearing a sun dress and flip flops that are too big for her feet. She has more freckles than ever from the non-stop ninety degree days. She has a large worn out leather purse on her shoulder with an iBook in it. It's lunch time so she stops an ice cream truck driving by.

ICE CREAM TRUCK MAN
How can I help you?

REDHEAD
An ice cream sandwich please. Do you have other flavors besides chocolate for the outside? Pesto for instance? Or basil, raspberry? Fruits and vegetables are important in any healthy diet.

ICE CREAM TRUCK MAN
(pretends not to hear)
Vanilla or chocolate?

REDHEAD
(sighs)
Vanilla. I mean, I guess...I'm still getting some of the food groups; protein and wheat.

ICE CREAM TRUCK MAN
(no expression)
That will be $1.35.

REDHEAD
(looks at him curiously)
I think this would be the perfect job for me right now. Do you have a job application I can fill out?

ICE CREAM TRUCK MAN
Mam, I'm a solo act.

Kids are lining up. An ice cream frenzy is building behind her.

REDHEAD
(enthusiastically, like she's found a partner in crime)
Me too--at least right now, I'm down the last five scenes in my screenplay. It's nerve wracking. I haven't spoken with any of my clients in weeks. I've been writing for sixteen days straight. My house smells funny. You should see...

ICE CREAM TRUCK MAN
(looking nervously over her head to the excited kids)
Mam, you need to move aside, I have a business to run here.

He waves her off.

FADE OUT:

• • •

The above is a fictional parody -- a metaphor if you will, on the emotional landscape of my past month.

Backgrounder:
I pitched a novella I wrote to producers at a conference in June.
Five of five asked to read the script I had not written and didn't know how to.
I took a month off work to learn and to write it. I figured two weeks to learn and set up notes, two weeks to write.
I completed the first draft, 111 page play in 18 days.
And now am in the rewrite phase with high hopes to send it out by the end of August.
First I need to chum up to two upset, neglected bunnies and get over the bronchitis I got in the mix of stress-- and eating...well, not so great.

Owners manual for anyone seeking a life that includes both art and business:

1. Should you take a month off work to learn something completely new, like: Write a novel or play, learn a musical instrument, a new language or paint a series of paintings. Make sure you have your cupboards and refrigerator stocked, a message on your machine that says, "I'm in artistic purgatory, and believe me, I absolutely can't wait to get back to you, but it will be long past your interest in talking to me; please forgive me in advance."

2. Don't work naked. It scares the neighbors. And believe me, they are already scared of you!

3. For Writers: Make sure you have at least one friend who makes you laugh and knows your drink. This is very important. Otherwise, your characters suffer your grumpiness.

And, they don't deserve it.

They wait patiently for your attention and come to life with the slightest sliver of it. They entertain you endlessly, they love you, they hate you, they don't notice you, they are insecure and overly confident. They are a huge stack of imperfection--so treat em' well, treat yourself well and the clients who come back to your when it's all over. Because they are the real thing!

4. For those of you who can work full-time and write at night and weekends. I'd give 100 freckles to be like you. I think and brainstorm from Friday night to Sunday night and the real action starts to write itself on Monday when most people go to work. I risk a month of client-free living to write. I'll let you know how it turned out as soon as I know.

5. You may think this is a romantic venture. You may see yourself as I did, like this:

BUT IT'S ACTUALLY MORE LIKE...

6. Practice your passion whatever it is. Even if you get sick like I did you're still smiling from your internal organs--your heart, your kidneys, your liver...they are all happy. Even if the dishes in your sink are growing mold and your rabbits show you their backs more than they used to.

7. Buy a bunch of great music. If you aren't a smoker it will help curb the desire.

8. Remember, even if doing what you love most of all obsessively looks incredibly selfish to others--keep the faith. When you're happy you give 3 X's more in the end.

--Make sure you stock your closet with rabbit food. I'm still catching shit on this one!--

The Blue Grit of the Creative Life

Recently I’ve endeavored--so far mostly in my head--to live a creative life from one focal point; though the resulting products may be many. This train of thought began a couple of months ago when I added up all the time it would take to do every project in my head . It equaled only five years of a potential forty (such the optimist) years left to live. And I hadn’t accounted for the fact that all these ideas would likely be traded in for new ones in a month or a year or even a day. Ideas are sneaky that way; a ball of fire that refract off your heart like the sun to water—mostly compelling, always disposable, changing and like the coyote, tricky.

So I've begun to see art as the art of building the spaces in one's life to embody the river of the ideas that come through. And, that its very important to purchase a really cool raft to jump onto when necessary so that one doesn't drown.
I used to think I had to act on every idea I had. That if I didn't, I was somehow spitting in the eye of the Gods. But imagine what my daily existance would be like if I acted weekly on a new import of ideas such as this list:

• Illustrate novella and sell to a publisher who publishes to the audience of weird off beat fiction.

• Finish next series of paintings in a month. Get representation.

• If bored with next series of paintings go back to silk painting but finish series of welded screens to stretch them on. Sell to local restaurants.

• Brand projects for the organizations and people I believe in, no corporations for a year, just earth, animal, food and wine friendly folks. Gear website towards this goal.

• Buy a sustainable trailer and build an art studio on a plot of land with a lake to swim laps daily. Start a blog on the process.

• Continue fundraisers to raise money for underdog causes to raise awareness. PR.

• Create a series of bunny books to brand bunnies as the next cool fad (like penguins, only Dakota wouldn’t be caught dead holding onto an egg for months, more likely he would try to train it be yet another adoring female in his harem and when it didn’t work he’d likely stomp on it).

• Finish novella in Provence France where the novella actually ends. Call it research. Write it off. Oh yeah, I don't have a publisher. That won't work. Try anyway. While there take some dance classes in Spain. Buy a stringy dress and don't let anyone at home catch you dead in it. Only wear this dress in Spain. In fact, buy a dress for every travel experience of the year...

The list goes on. But every idea has its marketing tasks associated and I'm just not that Type A. I need my hot tub, my morning spacing out on the sounds of the birds, planting herbs and cleaning out smelly ol' ponds (new chore this weekend) and just plain not thinking of anything creative and laughing about stupid things, made up things with a friend for the sake of laughter.

I've decided that ideas are like the water I give my garden. Necessary for the sake of creative fertilizer, quality of life, learning and the reward of reaching. And its good to have people who enjoy this type of creative musing; to have lots of outlets and creative spaces to engage in (see next blog on how the architecture of a space influences creative decisions). But perhaps take more of an attitude like Dakota:

If Dakota could speak on creating --for him this mean babies that look exactly like him:
"So what! I can't make babies with Caila, its spring so I'll try anyway. We'll have fun, we'll roll around in the grass. Sometimes I won't know which end is what; which is North or South. No matter. I have carrots, I have a lot of room to run, I have water, I have food, I have love, and when I don't have those things I sulk, I think deeply I write dark poetry in my head and I clean my fur for the females. Its good to stay clean and smelling good no matter what's going on because you never know what good things could happen.