Some questions answered..

Every now and then I have some of you lovely readers ask me some questions about what I do about certain things. Here are my answers to two questions I have received recently.

Question
1 - "I saw one of your 2008 goals is 'to do more paintings'.. my question is, when you paint, do you 'just paint' or do you ' paint a picture'?"

Answer
Depending on how I feel, I have done both actually. Sometimes, I have an image or an idea come into my head at random that I feel the need to act on and paint. For example, the 'Water Goddess' painting I painted to raise funds for the Johor flood victims, that image came to me as soon as I received the sms from my friend who was organising the fundraising event. It didn't turn out exactly the way i first saw in my mind, but then again, nothing I first imagine ever comes out the way I see in my mind. What I see on the canvas turns out better. Even now, I see an image that wants to be painted and i have been seeing it for a while. It's like it's haunting me. I know I need to paint it. The image will not go away from my mind until I do. To not paint it, would be disrespectful to the image.

Other times, like when I have had a bad day, or a stressed or want to do something completely different, I just take a canvas, some tubes of paint of colours that I feel like painting with at the time and just paint.. whatever.... anything... no rules, no wrong, no right... just paint..

I do have one painting that I have been 'working on' for almost 4 years. I do not consider it finished. The background is totally wrong to me. I have repainted the background 3 times and it still is not what I want it to be. It's frustrating and I'm not too sure what to do about it. The composition is right, the colours are right, it's just the background that is bothering me. In situations like this, I don't force myself at all. The answer will come in it's due time. And I know when it's done, it will be one of my most powerful pieces.

I personally don't analyse the how or why I paint too much.

And I never think about which side of my brain I am using for anything! :)

Question 2
I had someone else ask me about how I look after my hair and what do I do to make it look the way it does.

Answer
I use a lot of conditioner and try to leave it in my hair for as long as possible. If I've had an event or shoot where a lot of hair spray or style product was used in my hair, i put a lot of hair conditioner in my hair first, leave it in for a while and then only wash my hair. Swimming can really wreck your hair so I put olive oil through my hair first before I go swimming to avoid drying it out as much as possible. I don't wash my hair everyday. This is because over washing dries your hair out too. And whenever I have to attend an event, I get it blow dried at a hair dresser. To save time, wash your hair at home, get dressed, go to hair dresser then straight on to event. To blow dry your hair only is also cheaper at the hairdresser. Another good natural remedy for your hair is to put really creamy mayonnaise through and leave for as long as possible. I promise you, your hair won't smell when you wash it out.

I hope these answers are helpful.. :)

Love Sasha