Meet October Sharify

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful October Sharify. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with October below.

Hi October, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.

Optimism to me really isn’t a choice. Sometimes it is the only thing you can do. I think that considering my background, my family, my ancestors, and what it means to live and work as an artist today, being hopeful and resilient is the only possible way forward. My work is really influenced by technology and the future intermingling with the past- and to me advancement technological or otherwise runs exclusively on a hope for a better future, and I believe we have what we have today because of that.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am a painter, sculptor, and newly- a teacher! I started out as a recreational painter when I was a teenager, and my artistic practice has slowly bloomed into something I’ve carved my life out around. My work is very often a vehicle for me to process visually my own philosophies on life, technology, spirituality, history, etc. I work within a very limited palette: blues, pinks, purples and the occasional red. Blue, however is the signature color of almost all my work; I find it to be a very atmospheric and almost spiritual color. I work a lot with the figure and portraiture, and I paint almost exclusively black + african american people. When I am making a new painting I want to show people something they have never seen before, wrapped up in the context of something they definitely have. This year I am finally dipping my feet into teaching, and I will be hitting the studio making more work every day!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think when I was developing an artist it was really important for me to have a really good foundation of knowledge to build on; whether it was formal schooling or my own practice. Once I really felt comfortable doing what other people were doing it was very easy for me to move into doing my own thing. I also not only had a near obsessive level of passion when it came to artmaking but I was very engaged with other people’s art and practice, which I think both showed me what could be done and the motivation to do it. If I had to give any up and coming artist a piece of advice I would say to not be so shamed by the use of resources and references; I think sometimes we get so caught up on being a singular and original person that we make things inadvertently much harder on ourselves and limit what we can do. I saw a post once where someone found the stock image that an artist referenced part of their piece on and I was thinking okay, so what? It seems unrealistic to expect every creative to have what they want to make fully formed and perfect already inside them.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

My biggest area of growth within the last year has been definitely the work itself. Within the last year I made the move from painting exclusively on canvas to creating my own sculptures that I could incorporate my paintings within. I’d always been pretty resistant to change and giving new mediums a try so it feel kind of big for me that I could change my practice so inherently. Working with new materials, namely learning how to integrate sculpture into my work has really opened up doors for me as far as what I can make- and the newfound freedom is very inspiring to me. I definitely can feel myself developing that muscle to push past what’s easy for myself and I end up trying something a little bit more challenging with every new piece, which is hard but rewarding.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/impology