Episode 41 - Amira Rahim, Abstract Artist & Founder of Better Than Art School - 'Intuitively, On Purpose'

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Amira Rahim, a successful commercial abstract artist who founded Better Than Art School™, shares her journey of finding her creative voice and creating a successful art business around it. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, where other legendary talents like Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill also grew up, Amira felt the pressure to live up to the place's artistic standards. She overcame the two things that were stopping her from finding her voice, which she shares with us inside the episode, along with the methodical method she developed for finding one's creative voice. 

So many valuable insights inside this episode, for artists struggling to find their creative voice and build on it. 

SHOW NOTES

Amira Rahim, a successful commercial abstract artist who founded Better Than Art School™, shares her journey of finding her creative voice and creating a successful art business around it. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, where other legendary talents like Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill also grew up, Amira felt the pressure to live up to the place's artistic standards. She overcame the two things that were stopping her from finding her voice, which she shares with us inside the episode, along with the methodical method she developed for finding one's creative voice. 

So many valuable insights inside this episode, for artists struggling to find their creative voice and build on it. 

This episode is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to be an abstract artist but has struggled with finding their voice. Amira seems to have truly cracked the formula for finding your voice, and inside this episode, she gives you the week-long assignment she gives to all her students who are ready to find their voice.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Living up to the pressures of creativity

• Amira's method for finding her voice as an artist (that she teaches inside Better Than Art School ™) 

• The biggest challenge she thinks we are all facing as artists is the act of creating.

• Amira gives us an assignment that will help anyone feeling stuck and not able to find their creative voice, and she says all it takes is a week.

• Practical pointers for artists struggling with composition and finding their color palette

• Why finding your style is so vital - valuable insights and practical things you can do inside a week that can catapult you forward in finding your voice, especially as an abstract painter.

• What is behind our reluctance to let our paintings go, the ones we really love, and the journey to selling your work consistently as an artist.

  Please leave the show a review in apple podcasts!

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Kate Shepherd: Hello there. How are you?

Of course, I hope you're great. But even if you're not, if today's just one of those days, or this is one of those weeks, I hope that something inside this episode is exactly what you need to hear today. Today's guest is Amira Rahim a, once aspiring lawyer, Amira is now a prolific and very successful commercial abstract artist.

Her work has been in old Navy commercials and heaps of TV and film. And can be found in Wayfair home goods, the home, even on Amazon.

Amira is an incredibly intelligent and methodical human who saw that when it came to creating abstract art. Many artists were floundering, trying to find their voices and to consistently create work that reflected what was inside them.

With a deep calling to be in community and of service to others. Amira applied her learnings and observations from both her fine art and academia backgrounds to create. Better than art school. To help artists identify and set the right foundations to build successful businesses around their art.

If you've ever wanted to be an abstract artist, but have struggled with it. Because it is truly so much harder than it looks right. Amira seems to have truly cracked the formula for finding your voice. And inside this episode, she gives us a week long assignment we can all do. And this is something she gives to all her students inside her program who are ready to find their voice. It's truly powerful stuff. I think you're going to love it. And even if you're not really interested in being an abstract artist, this formula she gives us can be applied to anything.

Last episode, I shared my excitement with you about how a piece from my nurtured series, which is that handmade collection of rare and unusual gemstone pendants that I make. It was worn by a main character in the show, yellow jackets. You know, my tendency is to be sort of demure and not to self promotee.

Which actually is a trauma response, right? It's about dimming our light. When we do that. And. This is one of the things that's actually causing humanity to glitch. We don't share. Our light, we don't share the amazing things that are happening to us for us. Through us. And I have to remind myself how important it is to celebrate the amazing things with my people, which is you.

So thank you for helping me to celebrate the heck out of this . I've been busily sending pieces all over the world this last couple of weeks. And I am adding new ones to the website daily. There is magic in these pieces and it's deeply satisfying for me to see them. Find their people and bring their magic.

I got a message from. Uh, dear customer this week, sending me a picture of her wearing her brand new nurtured piece out on a date with her husband. And it made me squeak, like literally I squeaked. She said tonight is date night with my husband. I absolutely love both pieces. The energy is amazing. We will go on many adventures together. Thank you with all my heart.

And I shared that with you, because I want you to know how magical these pieces are, because I want you to go get one, obviously. But also I want to just give you the reminder that if you have a project or a vision to create something that just keeps coming back to you, please keep going. You have no idea how long it might take or how it will happen. But there is a reason you keep having the whispers to create it. And so I wanted you to consider this your official sign to keep going with your thing. Keep going, go make the thing you've been thinking about.

Oh, and I've extended the discount for the nurtured series. So you can get 15% off your talisman by using the code shine. when you check one out at. Kate Shepherd creative.com.

Amira shares the pressures she felt growing up in Newark, New Jersey. Coming to terms with capitalism, the two things that she feels are stopping her from finding her own voice as a true artist., why she thinks it's so important for us to apply rigor, to finding our creative voice. And the biggest challenge, she thinks that we're all facing as artists.

So many incredible insights. Wait for you right inside this episode, I can hardly wait for you to hear it. And if you like what you're hearing with this show, I want you to do something this week. Tell a random person about the creative genius podcast.

It could be at a farmer's market or at the swimming pool. or even at the grocery store. Look for your moment. The universe will give you one. Now that you're looking for it.

And then come back and tell me the story of how your moment found you tell me everything. I want to hear your magical stories.

I feel so. Passionately committed to this mission that I'm on to help as many people as I can remember, and come back to this important energy of creativity that's inside of all of us.

I'm completely and utterly convinced that our individual lives and humanity can stop glitching. If we can find fall in love with and align with this energy that's inside of us.

If you love the show and you get what I'm doing here. You'll probably really enjoy the secret Patreon only episodes

there's a whole other world of this podcast that exists inside the Patreon membership

Kate Shepherd: these are intimate sit downs with me, where I share personal insights roadblocks things that where I'm stumbling things I'm working on personally setbacks Epiphanes challenges, triumphs. They're really juicy, intimate, vulnerable episodes. I also offer journal worksheets and guided meditations and everything that's already been created in the library will instantly become available to you. when you activate your membership.

I get such lovely feedback from existing members about this content. Every time I'm making some of that Patreon content, I just think, oh, I want everyone to have this. And that is part of the reason why I've made the membership so affordable. It's $5 Canadian a month, which is about $3 and 50 cents us a month. It really is a no brainer. If you love the show and you love the content and you want to see it continue to be made. I can't do it without you. So really, really consider signing up for a Patreon membership.

At the end of this episode, Amira asks me a bold question. And I loved her for doing it. It has caused a deep shift in how I approach my own creativity as a whole. When you get to that part, I imagine she's asking you to. Because really she was. Here's my conversation with Amira Rahim.

.

Kate Shepherd: Amira, thank you for coming. I'm so happy you're here. my impression of you is that you're somebody who has a very clear connection to not only your own style and your own creative voice, but also something a little bit deeper, kind of the source of creativity inside of you and. that it seems really important for you to help other people do the same thing through coaching and mentoring and, um, better than art school, which is something that you've created to, to serve artists.

And when I was reading about you to prepare for the show, I read that you started off as an aspiring lawyer, and I was like,

okay, wait. There's obviously a story here, so tell us everything.

Amira Rahim: yeah, yeah.

Wow. I cannot believe you already got me like tearing up . That's weird.

Kate Shepherd: Oh,

Amira Rahim: Yeah. know what you said about tapping into this unlimited source where creativity comes from. there is a lesson inside of my program where I invite the artists to remember this always with their own work.

I don't know if it comes from like Reiki background, slowly accepting a lot of, I think, dormant psychic abilities and just latent healing, uh, that was kind of suppressed or just not really acknowledged, you know, cuz it's not, it's not suitable, it's not packageable, it's not commercial in this patriarchal capitalist society that we have loved

You know, all these like money gurus and abundance and, almost a shame around wealth consciousness. This is something we opened the program with this book that really inspired me, called Happy Pocket Full of Money.

I start the art program off with this right away because I want of share these resources that I've tapped into every single year. and what really shifted the way I show up in the world, the way I take risk in my art business.

It's so interesting, these traumas that have resurfaced and all this healing and this sort of beautiful but

sensitive trend of inner child healing and trauma wounds and these things that have come up for us to look at. one of the things that think comes up right is this desire to be seen, this desire to be visible. I think sometimes we step into things and painting has definitely been this sort of weird portal, this initiation for a lot of artists.

Kate Shepherd: From where I sit, it really seems like you have a calling to be in service. to people, and art seems to be the vehicle.

But it's about something deeper.

Amira Rahim: Oh yeah, for sure.

Kate Shepherd: I, if I said to you, listen, you have to use like one sentence to say what it is that's trying to happen through you. Like what is the most important thing to you? What is, why are you here? What is your purpose? What is this all pointing to?

It's not about painting or finding

your voice and those things are, are skills that you have, that you, but what is it that's trying to happen through you in this lifetime

Amira Rahim: Yeah, I, I think it's just being, you know, I think for, I can only speak to my own understanding of what I'm supposed to do in the world, but you know, it's definitely a calling, definitely layered and it chose to express itself through the form of art, and now I'm coaching and mentoring, but there is this underlying theme of connection, I think, sort of being this lone wolf, this really awkward person growing up, like not having this firm sense of identity and looking at that again, like in my mid thirties and being like, Ew, who wants to have that problem?

Right? Like their whole sections, I'm sure in the D S I M around people that don't have a firm solid ego or. , this unwavering identity. I have gone through many different experiences where I sort of took on identities through religion, through my mom , uh, from being honest, my parents, you know, and their lived experience just being, a black girl growing up in Newark, New Jersey, which I don't recommend

but, you know, it was my home and it was, the, the madness that birthed a lot of great art.

there's a lot of amazing talent. Queen Latifa, Whitney Houston, all Lauren Hill, they're all natives to Newark, New Jersey, you know, so at an early age there was just this understanding of like, yes, we're in the inner city, we're in this urban melting pot where. where, there's new immigrants and Latinos and there was this huge Polish community and the African American population just has so much history, like in the streets and almost this nostalgia growing up. I remember feeling of my, my parents in the sixties and seventies and this real sense of urgency.

a friend of mine, she was just saying how, uh, you know, she was looking at Gary v's content, you know, Gary v he's, he's from New Jersey and he's, you know, she was just saying, oh, Amira, I get it. I get why you're so hard on yourself and kind of like always. know, like in this grind mode, like sometimes you don't really realize like, oh, I don't, I don't have to do this the hard way.

There are like four other easy ways that I'm completely ignoring. Right? . But she was like, oh, it's cuz you're from New York, New Jersey, you know? And it's just in the air. It's just in the air

Kate Shepherd: The greatness like that absolute greatness is just in the air and living up to that. Is that what you mean?

Amira Rahim: I think. Yeah, I think it's just this urge to prove yourself, right? It's like you've been, first of all, it's just such a big place and maybe people from small towns feel that way too. But yeah, it's, it's the sense of I gotta live up to the greatness that came before me.

The people that. Every obstacle thrown against them. Right. Like before they even see the age of 20 years old and they've gone down in history as legends,

Kate Shepherd: I wonder, as you're saying this, what's coming up for me is like not. So you recognize the thing in the outer world that is inside of you, otherwise you,

wouldn't recognize it, right?

And so that, that greatness that you saw, you wouldn't have even known how to see it if that wasn't in you. And so it was almost like that light that you saw kind of

Amira Rahim: Mm-hmm.

Kate Shepherd: out of yourself and was the thing that made you, and that urgency was like that part of yourself needing to

Amira Rahim: Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Yeah.

Kate Shepherd: be, be expressed. And I feel like that's happening. You know, when I look out over any, any community or any neighborhood or any population of people anywhere, I realize like that's what's happening there. And there's this, there's, and why I started Creative Genius who asked me this earlier on be before we hit record.

Amira Rahim: Mm-hmm.

Kate Shepherd: it's, it's because we, we have become disconnected from that infinite intelligence that's moving through everything,

Amira Rahim: Yep. Everything. Yeah.

Kate Shepherd: in our known universe, it's the seahorse,

Amira Rahim: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Kate Shepherd: Like what is helping a chair? No, what is telling the molecules of a chair to stay in that shape right now? Like there is an intelligence at play here

that is animating our whole entire universe, and we have cut ourselves off from it.

Amira Rahim: Yes.

Yes.

Kate Shepherd: me, I, as for short form, I call that creativity, that intelligence that's animated in the universe. I call that creativity. It's a gut instinct. It's intuition. It's, you know, all, all of these things. Inspiration. And we cut ourselves off from it because we feel somehow like we're not, we, there's no way we could be as magnificent as that.

Amira Rahim: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm.

Kate Shepherd: over here and we put it over there. And then before long, everything starts to glitch because now we're not offering our gifts that intelligence can't move through us the way it's intended to move

through us. And we can't, I can't be in service to you because I'm cutting myself off and you can't receive the gift that I was supposed to give you.

And then which then makes you wanna give the gift to the next expert and the whole thing, right? Like the whole thing. And that's where, and capitalism and like that, all of those things are a function of, and so that's why I started the show it's clear to me that you are somebody who has this urgency, , has this understanding of what it can be like to express that gift.

What was it like for you in the early days before you, like when you were thinking about becoming a lawyer or you were doing other things and you hadn't quite found it, or you hadn't found your way, or you hadn't found your voice as an artist, what was that? Was that a hard time for you? What was it like to birth that facet of yourself?

Amira Rahim: Yeah, it was, it was hard because I, I had to come to terms with the fact that I did need to participate in capitalism , but my degree is in sociology, and so I was really enmeshed in learning social theory. We, we spent a lot of time actually doing comparative readings and essays on capitalism versus Marxism and looking at different social structures and the implications that they've had, especially in the United.

And certain, you know, pockets and disenfranchised communities. I had just came back from Brazil and my worldview was like cracked open and I was trying to decide between going to law school and becoming a professor, specifically for social, social research.

That was something I was really passionate about. I feel like that gave me a huge advantage when it came to finding my style as an artist. Cuz I applied a lot of those. . Yeah. I don't even know what to call them, but I guess the methodology I applied that to, how do I find my voice as an artist?

the first year I was just sort of flailing around trying everything I could. But at that time, the daily painters, I don't know if they're still popular, but they were super popular. You know, they were like the, the stars of the, the painting world because they were making money, I think was a husband wife couple that created the Daily Paintings workshop, uh, website. And, you know, it was a big deal to be able to sell your work on that platform. And I was trained. I took classes in high school.

early age in oil paints and in college I was pursuing my studio art minor. And so I was always taking classes from a very traditional perspective. Representational art, oil, painting, when I decided to take that risk and figure out who the heck am I as an artist.

, I could barely get a job as a secretary, so ended up being a school teacher for a few years and private schools, and eventually I just was like, I, I, I couldn't deal with the teaching.

It was so draining. , teachers should be getting paid minimum, a hundred thousand dollars

Kate Shepherd: Yeah. I think a lot of people listening to this right now are in a prolonged, and maybe I'm projecting my own experience, but are in a prolonged process of trying to find their

voice. So they go back to the canvas every day and they're like, is it this

is it, this is it.

You know, I painted a painting the other day that it was probably the freest I've ever been and I'm in love with this piece

and I, I'm talking to her every day

Amira Rahim: Amazing.

Kate Shepherd: she showed me so many things and, but then I went back to the studio the next day and like that was gone. Like that ability to be that free and, and not care was gone.

I think a lot of us are struggling like coming in and out of

that and I've heard people say like, there was a moment.

So I'm fascinated to hear about those,

cuz mine is very like, it feels like a long, drawn out, painful,

Amira Rahim: Well, that moment I speak of is just a moment where I realized, it was a very existential feeling of like, you do have this gift, you do have this ability to.

but you're not using it. You're doing it in the closet. You're not posting it online. You're giving it away for free. And I knew it was because I wasn't painting consistently and I didn't know what to paint. Right. There's that big conundrum. What do I paint? You know? And so going from oils and representation to now as a prolific abstract artist, it was a series of letting go.

But like you said, you can let go, how do you find yourself again? Anyone could go wild one night and have a blast with all the energy or whatever they're tapping into and create a storm on a canvas. through reverse engineering the process, I realized there were some things that I was doing consistently That opened up a way for me to teach it to others without feeling like I would sacrifice my own voice.

I really recommend that artists post their art online , no matter how saturated me feel or how uncomfortable it may seem because you need that feedback. ? So in the beginning, maybe a hundred out of a hundred paintings, a few of them at it and feel like were complete trash.

And then I got closer and closer and that I like a, a batting average. Eventually that proportion gets smaller and smaller. know, I had a collector in, in California she saw a painting I posted on my Instagram chased me down to, to collect it. A couple thousand dollars barely dry off the easel. But I was so enmeshed in the teaching that those moments no longer surprise me.

It was just like, you know, it was just like a labor of love. I knew I needed to raise my prices, but you know, that's another story. I just was so happy to have that experience with the canvas to document it.

And you know, like you said, now you're back in the studio trying to figure out, well, where did that go? Where did that joy go? Where did that energy go? How do I tap back into that flow? And it really is a, a zone, a place maybe for some people, a frequency, but it really feels like this, this pond, this ocean, this lake, a river, a stream of consciousness that you're able to tap into that you're, you can paint from a place of no fear, right?

It's, you have no fear in those moments. what I did was just create a set of parameters, looking at a load of abstract art online and using my research background to distill this down and to categories, And then seeing how those categories were showing up in my own work, whether intentionally or unintentionally, because a lot of times artists they do have styles, right?

They do have a voice, they don't know what they're doing because it may not be super apparent to them

Kate Shepherd: right? I think that's where a lot of us get caught up, right, is like, we've, we've dipped our toe into that

river or that lake. I love that image that you gave us. and it feels amazing and you feel free, and then you're like, oh, this is it.

And then you go to, you go to find that river again on the next hike through the woods, and where the heck did it go?

So how, how do you consistently go there in your own

Amira Rahim: Yeah. Yeah. , I call it isolating your influences. So you have to first look at everything that you're inspired by and then group them using the same principles that you find in traditional art. What I found with that was really lacking in the abstract space, and I don't know if most of your viewers are abstract painters or identify as intuitive artists, what I found was lacking was these principles, these foundations, almost these rules, for lack of a better word, being applied in the intuitive space.

Like at that time when I came out, there were a few show stoppers on social media, some of them had photography backgrounds, some of them were professional graphic designers previously. And one of them, she made a, a brand around this idea of, I have no idea what I'm doing every step of the way.

And it's completely intuitive. And so when, people went to go learn from her, you would see that exact process, right? And because people were identifying with her process and her end result, they miss out on what are the elements of her composition that's standing out online?

What are the colors that she's using? and her color palette may be really personal to her, right? But you can take maybe little gems from right. Austin Cleon talks about this idea of stealing like an artist. So you may love this artist's color palette and that that's something that really helped me seeing like, wow, I love the way this artist, this particular color palette.

That's the sensations, right? These are the things that I believe. color's so personal. I'm looking at this canvas I just worked on the other day. It's just a feeling.

You can look at these color palettes and say, okay, well I love the way the art, this artist uses these color palettes. And I always say, no one owns a color palette. Right. Except, uh, Tiffany Blue. I did learn that that was trademarked,

Kate Shepherd: a, one of my reminders for myself is freedom by limitation.

You know, when I was a little girl, one of the biggest criticism I had from my own mother was, you're interested in too many things.

You're never gonna be successful at any

of them because you just love too many things. And I grew up with a lot of shame around that, cuz I was like, oh God, you're right. I should try to reel myself in. And, and I can't, I can't, , I watercolor and I acrylic and I, but I knit and I weave and I do sculpture.

It's just, there's no one thing and that's actually been painful for me. Like when you, when you have, when you, when you, if you said to me, Kate, you could do anything you want today in the whole wide world, what do you want?

I'm just gonna sit on the floor and have a huge meltdown cuz how could I possibly choose? So there is freedom and limitation, right? Yeah.

But what's the balance because I, I think a lot of people listening to this are going, well actually I'm trying to find my voice. I don't wanna go and find a formula that works for somebody

else.

I really, really wanna find my voice. But what I'm hearing you say is there's a way of using a formula to help you cut out the noise maybe of ev

all the possibilities out in the world to help you find what's trying to be said through you. Is

Amira Rahim: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love, I love what's coming through in this conversation you know, just from hearing the way you phrased that, what I believe the biggest challenge that artists are facing, that we all face, you're trying to create a words are so powerful. I sort of shifted saying, finding your style to finding your voice, because I realized that's actually what was coming up. You know, people are really, they have something to say and it's very painful when you cannot speak up. Right? it's very, very important for all of us.

Particularly women, because that's where our power comes from. That power to speak is what every artist is doing. We're just doing it with color and with paint. when you're a representational artists, you have a form, you have a subject matter, and you can really find comfort and lean into that.

But you gotta be good. know, you gotta be damn good to not look like what's been done for the last couple hundred years. I had all the training and I knew how to draw since I was a kid, when it came time for me to hit the studio and find my voice as a a painter, I just wasn't good enough. of my favorite like styles were the, the Russian impressionist painters, and I was sort of holding myself to that standard, right? there's probably three or four artists right now that you can think of, the, off the top of your head that you are intentionally or unintentionally measuring every single canvas that you create up to their standard.

And I realized, I was like, you know what? I will never be as good. And that's the good thing, you know?

Kate Shepherd: , I've had to come to a place now where I use my curiosity and interest as a barometer for what I should be doing, because when I

try to make a decision with about how I spend my time from my rational mind, my whole life, just kind of like implodes on itself, cuz my rational

mind, as sweet as it is, and as well intentioned as it is trying to help me get stuff done, it has no idea how to follow my heart.

Like it has no idea how to, and my brain and my heart are such a trustworthy. Source. And so for me, when I hear you thinking the admiration you have or these painters and you're not good enough, I don't know if that's, if I would actually agree with you that you weren't good as good or good enough. I feel like what I'm hearing you say is you didn't have an undying interest to because to become that. Cuz of course you could've anybody could've. It's practice. It's all it's practice and practice and pr. If you keep practicing anything, you can become, you can put yourself into that category. But you, something else was whispering to

Amira Rahim: Yeah, there's something, there's something greater, there's something easier, there's something more intuitive that always rises to the top, you have to make a decision. I'm either gonna be really good at something because I practiced and practiced it, and I'm a second rate version of all my,

inspirations

or I'm gonna create a body of work, a k a language. You're literally creating a language. The artists that are prolific, they're prolific because they're not thinking of how to create a sentence. At that point. We're just speaking just how we're doing right now. When you start to paint and you're at that level of, complete flow, like.

essentially being able to paint with your eyes closed, it's because you don't have to think about it anymore.

Kate Shepherd: How do you, how do you do that?

How do you, I see that you do that.

Amira Rahim: yeah.

Kate Shepherd: do you do

that? Amira?

Amira Rahim: Yeah,

Kate Shepherd: to know

Amira Rahim: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it takes, it takes some time for me to explain it all. . That's why I had to put all that, you know, into systemize it. Right. And I, I laugh because now I could take a step back and look and say, oh, I have a curriculum that sounds so fancy.

I say a good painting is exactly like a good song. When people come to me and they're fi trying to figure out what mirror, well, how do I, you know, get color harmony going, how do I have a composition? What they're seeing is this ability to compose music, right? If we look at every single color as a note, and like you said, create constraints to our friends, Mozart, Beethoven, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, like, and any other modern musicians, they all use the same constraints, right?

But they were able to produce an infinite amount, right? That infinite intelligence to the point where they could have lifetime. So what was it, Michel 73 or 80 something. I'm still learning. And you see these artists that we love that have passed on that said it would take, you know, lifetimes for them to get all those paintings out.

Kate Shepherd: Oh

Amira Rahim: That's the urgency, right? And then there are artists on the sidelines that's like, . Like, damn, like, , what, what am I, what am I not doing?

Kate Shepherd: So, okay. For the person who's sitting on the sideline, who's listening to this right now going hand up, that's me. I'm on the sidelines. I also hear that I feel the urgency she's talking about in me. What's something, what's one thing

that you think they could start to do today that could shift the needle for

them?



Amira Rahim: It's a very easy process. One week is all it takes. Go online and I want you to save, create a Pinterest board or a Saachi folder, however, it would take for you to organize. But I want you to look at every single painting that you feel like you would like to make, right?

Like the paintings were like, this is impressive. Put this all in a pool, and then ask yourself. out of all these paintings, right? You maybe put 'em in categories or narrow it down to your top 20. What do I notice I like and don't like when it comes to their color usage? What do I notice I like and don't like when it comes to their texture?

How are they applying? The paint that I like is so nuanced, but for the artists that, you know, I could look at the work behind you and, and see and say, oh, okay, well she may really be drawn to these muted color palettes, but she also has a, a huge water element in her work and she likes this flow, this drip.

You know, so look at other artists that do that. And then you start to discover the, the, the things that they're doing that maybe you haven't thought of. But you have to be really careful.

Don't try to look at the paintings in its totality. If you have five or six artists that, you know, you look at their princes board, take their names out of it, put all the paintings in one place where they're all mixed up and you're looking at it and you're able to see, oh, I, I really like the way the, the texture is used here.

Or their lack of texture, or, I really like, I remember there was this artist, I don't know if I should say her neighbor or not, but there was this artist every single time we would launch better the art school and the new cohort would come through. Artists would literally, I, I felt like they wanted me to stop everything I was doing and teach them how to paint like this particular.

And I was like, I had to do a whole call on her, uh, on her work I don't want people to get lost in the, in the,

Kate Shepherd: Mm-hmm.

Amira Rahim: uh, I don't know

Kate Shepherd: Well, what I hear you saying is that it's about

communication, right? We're trying to, we're trying to communicate with this ineffable entity, this intelligence that, that this undeniable thing. Some people call it God, some people call it creativity. Whatever we, whatever we call it, we're trying to hear and be seen and bask in the love of that.

Like really that's what we're trying to do with our lives and art or music or whatever creative endeavor you have is a physical. vehicle that that thing can use to communicate with us. Cuz it doesn't speak language the way we speak language with words. It speaks in another language. It speaks in the language of desire and gut instinct and so what, what you're describing when you're looking at all of these different artists and all their work and trying to see what the common themes are, it's almost like you're trying to interpret what messages this thing is trying to give you about what it wants to do through

Amira Rahim: It's, it's not that. . It's not that romanticized for me. And I think when it gets, I think if it gets to that point, you know, you're, you're sitting there begging on the floor. This could take hours, this could take years for that muse to, to bestow upon you, you know, this, this nebulous style that you're not gonna be known for it.

For me, it's much more mechanical, , and when I say studying language, we ca we have tools to study language, right? Linguists, they have actual mechanics around the way language was created over time. You can hear Spanish, you can hear, uh, French, Italian, Portuguese, and, and hear the Latin, the romance languages.

We can hear a German or a Dutch or something and see. And so the same thing happens in abstract art. There are certain. Things that have inevitably been done. Right? And if you're a representational artist, you know, when I say values, check your values. You know what that means? You know when someone says your focal point, your edges, like not hair edges, but like abstract.

I didn't see people look like looking at these things. And, and truthfully, I didn't know because I was so caught up in, and the energy, right? That energy that affects you, it, it does affect you and you have to get it out. But when you have that bandwidth to be able to take a step back, and I'm very fortunate that I was trained traditionally to be able to make those judgment calls and say, oh, this is what happened here.

So the real freedom that you find when you have your voice, when you have your language, when you have this style, is that you are able to look back at your own work the same way you go through that process. Looking at these influences on Pinterest or Instagram or whatever, you're able to do that in your own process and say, oh, like this is why this painting sold.

This is why this painting woke me up at three in the morning to complete it. This is why I can't go to sleep at night. I'm laying next to my husband and all I could think about is waking up in the morning and going to, to the studio to finish this painting. This is why, because there's certain things that are starting to be answered.

You're solving problems. And so for me, you know, as, as much as I love that, you know, the juicy feminine and the in the healing, there's still a very real intelligence that is also, I believe, quite feminine and methodical, you know, and I think. what got me in trouble in the beginning, especially cuz I was sort of calling out these like acrylic pours and these, these artists that, you know, we're, you're, you're getting by with this idea of, oh, your paintings just happened, you ha you have no control over what's coming out and it, it may be cute, right?

It's like a baby gu Google Gaga or maybe the baby even starts to make pretty songs with the baby language. But

you're missing out on the control that you can have once you figure out what you're doing intuitively and on purpose sometimes that happens by trying to copy other painters. And then you realize, dang, no matter how much I try to copy this artist, I keep doing this one thing wrong. And that one thing that you're doing wrong, that's the thing you should be doing.

So for me, there was an artist that she found my blog at. This was before I had a shop, I would just blog. And this is what I saw the other daily painters doing. You know, it was a very like, oh, I don't wanna ask for the sale. You know, I don't wanna be too pushy. I'm gonna write an entire essay for every painting I put out and here's the link to buy it.

You know, it's very slow and uh, but it, I believe that is an important stage, you know, cuz you, you start to develop right that language around your art. And she visited my blog, and I'm sitting there, at this point I would take, I was taking photographs and I was zooming in on the compositions and angles and things like that.

And I would go to the studio, put this on the canvas, and. Do all this work for like weeks trying to get my work to look in this ala prima format. And I was trying everything I could, painting people, painting landscapes, painting fruit, you name it. And she went to my block, she left a comment and the only thing she said was, I really like your sense of color.

And that was it, you know? And like I felt some type of way, you know how, you know how when you, I don't know, like I felt like, I felt like that's it , like, you know, I, that's all that it felt so basic. It felt so amateur because this is a woman, I can't even remember her name, but she's a much older painter and she was teaching like almost like this new form of cubism and it was so detailed and she just, you know, had that confidence that comes with knowing what the heck you're doing and doing it for decades.

and I just wanted her to say, you are an excellent painter. I love your brushwork. Oh, the composition. And I wanted her to see how eloquent I was with my materials, right. With the brushes themselves. Because when you're, when you're first starting out, this painting, you're holding onto that brush like a pencil, you know, every bit of your movement is calculated.

And so when she left with just saying, oh, you're good at color , I felt like, I felt like she was saying, good job. You know, you finished the third grade or something. Second grade, barely. And so it's, I, I kind of sat on that information and then like months later, I just, by this point I was sat up with painting and I was looking at all these artists when Pinterest selling what I thought was bananas.

I was like, what? Like it was easy peasy compared to. . The stuff I, I was learning, I was like, how are these artists getting away with that? You know? There's no form. There's no like, it's like, like you said, it's like these accidents, these, these musics, these things. I'm like, oh my God, how are they getting away with that painting?

Up until that point was so painful. But I remember what that artist said and she essentially helped me find my style because this was the thing that no matter what, if it was a good painting or a bad painting, she let me know. What stands out to me is your use of color. And so what I try to get artists to see is there's something you're doing right now and that you can monetize, that you can package and you can brand.

It may be a sense of color, it may not be, it may be your competition. Right. For the artists that I mentioned earlier were art, every painter that came to me was fangirling over. Her color palettes were very, very simple. Some of the times they were monochromatic. . And I really recommend artists, you know, if you're struggling, especially with color, and definitely with composition, just work in a few colors, limit yourself to one or two colors, you know?

And her color palettes were very, very predictable. She would do hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of paintings with the same types of colors. And it worked because interior designers knew what to expect from her. But what stood out to this particular painter is that she was a professional photographer beforehand.

So when I started trying to figure out how to find my style, I started studying photography. I literally enrolled in a graphic design class And you know, I was learning what the heck do these graphic designers know about composition? What do they know about space and how to make a image, a bite size image that you.

Put on a smartphone that makes someone click an app or something. How can I translate this into a painting? Because it was very clear to me the second I go on Pinterest, these paintings were, did not take long to make, but they caught your attention and you didn't have to go to the museum to see why it caught your attention.

And then you look at like a painting behind you, for instance.

We're so big, it's so chunky. That's that catharsis that you really can't get sometimes when you're forcing

yourself to do a technique that you really don't wanna do.

Kate Shepherd: Yeah.

Absolutely. I'm sure there are people listening to this right now who are going, I just think there's no way I could find, I could, no, I, there's no way I could build an audience for myself.

It's too saturated. There's too many people on Instagram. How would I find an audience? How is I, I don't think I could ever even sell my work. That ship has sailed. It's too late. There's enough art in the world.

Amira Rahim: Yeah, well

Kate Shepherd: those things. What do you say to somebody, a student, when they come to you with those kind of objections?

Amira Rahim: yeah. I'm just laughing cuz I was saying this on Facebook a couple years ago. I was like, . You're never gonna wake up one day and say, Hey, remember that time I wanted to be an artist? . Glad that's over . whether you're 65, 35, I could bet, you know, , it's not gonna go away.

It's not

gonna go away. So you gotta take it head on.

Kate Shepherd: . So it's never gonna go away. So what though? What if you're really struggling with getting it out? It's never going away, but it's also not taking you to the place you want it to take you, or

Amira Rahim: Is it the sales or is it the showing up part? Because those are two different things, you know? is it? Why am I not showing up online? Why have I lost interest? Or why are people not buying my work?

There is a, there is a, a real burnout that I think isn't talked about enough even if you're doing what you love. especially in those beginning stages, it's a lot of false starts and you lose your momentum.

This is why I don't, you know, don't want to beat a dead horse, but finding your style is, is vital. We just had a little training the other day and, and an artist asked me, Amira, well how do I know about my artist commercial? How will, how will I know when it's commercial? And it's a really good question, right?

Do I even want my art to be commercial? What does that mean? Cuz up until this point, we weren't really using that type of terminology, you know, almost, it was taboo to have that in the same sentence. So I said, you'll know it's commercial because you're gonna keep making it.

You're gonna wanna keep making it. you're gonna struggle with it. and people are gonna ask to buy it.

You do have to ask for the sale though, right? So you do have to create an environment where people know that you are selling your work. And that was a really pivotal moment for me as a painter, when I decided, okay, I'm not only gonna share this online, but I'm gonna let people know, Hey, message me if you want to purchase this.

This is for sale . Like, like literally like that. Cuz that takes that in and of itself. Whew. It takes a lot of guts to get to that point, you know, cuz it takes so much type of validation leading up to that where you're like, and I had to, I had to tell myself too, you know, I was thinking about this, right?

Like, at what point do you even get to say I'm an artist? At what point do you even get to say I'm the real deal? And then I, cuz you're, you're judging your work constantly and you're living with the thing. It's not even something you

Kate Shepherd: Well, and there's so many things For me, the, the art sales is so fraught with so much,

Like there's the, there's well, like the letting go of pieces that I really love.

Like here I've made this amazing piece now and I'm in love with it. I mean, so now I don't wanna sell it. That's crazy. Like

Amira Rahim: Yes. And that attachment, it comes from that. That fear of, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this again. And even if I do, I don't even know what happened. I can't remember. Right. I can't remember why I put the yellow there. Because you don't remember how that language came. Right. You just know you liked how it sound sounds so, so now we have to figure out what's taking place.

How do we create these markers that you can kind of have these track boxes? And when you say, okay, well as long as my painting and I, I like to tell artists to do this as long as my paintings check these four boxes, and you get to decide what those boxes are. Right. , you get to decide if, if every single painting of mine has a, a splash of this or if it has this amount of layers, or you get to decide.

But try to keep those in your mind. And this is why we get attached. We don't wanna sell our work because we don't wanna forget what those things are. And that's perfectly natural. That's perfectly normal, right? That energy, that living, breathing canvas, it needs to stay with you a little while longer.

right? And this is why you want to work in a series. So when you get those paintings that you land on, and I'm looking at it like I'm talking to myself like a mirror, okay, you gotta go make 10 more of these paintings. Cuz I've been feeling that in my own work, and it was very hard to say that online. Hey, yeah.

Uh, I've been scared to share my art online with 80,000 followers. I've been scared to put my art up for sale because I'm too afraid that it's gonna leave me, it's gonna go away, and there's no amount of money that's gonna replace what it took for me to get to that point, right? It's no amount

Kate Shepherd: Yeah,

Amira Rahim: gonna replace the, the mental hurdles, the memory, right?

The, the, the muscle memory that I acquired, the, the energy that I had to let go, you know, it's like getting a massage. Like all that guck, all that stuff that had to pour out of, into your bloodstream and now it somehow it shows up into this beautiful painting, right? There's no amount of money that's gonna replace.

What just took place in that studio for you? . So how,

so? How do you repeat that 10 times over? You know, you have to decide, okay, well these are the things that I love about these paintings and this is when your canvases, they start to talk to each other. That's how I put it. When you're working in a series, your painting starts to talk to each other.

So you're able to love one part of this piece and it goes onto the next conversation. It's just like how writers say, you know, the chapters, certain chapters write themselves or certain characters, they, they ended up, you know, they thought it was gonna be one way, but they actually have something different to say.

You know, so for us as painters, you do gotta go a little bit crazy to enough to, to have a connection with the color yellow and say, well, you know, I like the way I'm gonna put the yellow into these five other paintings here. , especially with abstract, it is so important to crop, and you can do this again first starting out with the artist that you admire and say, I really love , that right corner of so-and-so's painting, let me go blow that up and see what happens if I put that on a 30 by 40 canvas and then it may suck, but there might be one part of that canvas that you really love.

Now I want you to go take that and duplicate it. It's like telephone. And then go do that, and do that and do that. Now you have a language. Now you're starting to talk, right? And you wanna get to that point where you have so many canvases that the batting average starts to get smaller and smaller, where you can say, oh, one out of three of my paintings, I know why I want to share this online.

I know what the heck is going on. And every step of the way, you know, you need to be posting it online. and eventually you need to get the courage to ask for a sale because the people who are buying your art now, they're gonna be looking at you five years from now, 10 years from now, they're gonna see the progress.

They're gonna be happy that they purchased your work when you were selling it for $200 or $300, and now there's another zero on the end of it. You know,

you gotta have that courage to put it out there.

Kate Shepherd: So is this, I'm, I'm guessing that this is some of what you go through when you do better than art school. You wanna tell us a little bit about better than art school? Or like what, like if somebody was sitting here going, I love Amira so much from listening to this conversation. I wanna do something with her.

I want her to teach me. , what is the best way for somebody to, to plug into what you are teaching.

Amira Rahim: Yeah. There's two parts to the way I'm, uh, offering these experiences now, I'm starting to do regular sort of bite size trainings and people got a lot out of, it wasn't expensive, and we were able to talk about art business, monetization, distribution, and really, like, I, I had to create a pyramid, a diagram, and I, I realized just from taking a step back and seeing how my own art business has shaped and form, and I'm, I'm sure for other artists that decided to go to the commercial route, what that model looks like.

You know, having the foundation of my art style being at the bottom. And for many of us, we think, we think that's all it takes. You know, we, we think that's all we want, and. . The beauty about that is, for the most part, that's true. All I wanted was to have a full-time income with my art. So when my yearly income goal of making $60,000, right?

More than I could get in an office, doing that in my pajamas and having fun and getting paid to learn. You know, cuz you're only gonna get better at your job. It's like that joke when people say, you know, you have 20 years experience, but really you have one year experience doing the same thing 20 times for us, right?

For us as painters, we actually get better and better over time. And so, you know, it, it behooves you to get paid. Basically. You're paying for your own art degree, your own college degree, and I just wanted that goal, whatever that number was. You couldn't have told me that years later that number would be generated from me passively through licensing.

I wouldn't have known that, but. , it's happening for myself and for other artists that worked through this curriculum and found that confidence, that ease to show up. But the foundation is the style. What comes after that is the commercial distribution. How you create a shop that allows you to have print on demand or prints and um, regular collections and all these different ways.

There's a merit of ways that artists can sell different things and there's certain decisions you have to make around, you know, the perceived value of your art, which I think is really important. And then at the top of that, then your purpose starts to come through and you start to see, oh, well actually, yeah, when I was a kid, I did want to be a lawyer and I did wanna connect and I want to, I felt this need to serve and now it's showing up through my art business, but it's still me.

Right? So it's seeing artists that, that are able to use their, their vehicle in a way to. give back to a community or start their own community, share their faith, or just be seen I just see so many artists blossom

Kate Shepherd: but all of that rests on the foundation that you're talking about building, which I think is, I think it's, I'm so, thank you for saying that because I think so many people are just like, well, if I just find my voice, everything will fall into place. And actually no, like there is, like you're, I love, I like so much of, I feel like what you're sharing with us is about

Mastery Master. Like, it's like master. Lang this language that's trying to speak to you, mastering what it is that the, um, that your eye is seeing in all of the people you

admire because it's trying to tell you about what it wants to create. And, and then ma creating a container for that

and mastering it and then that, and then not stopping there, learning about how to now operationalize that in it.

Like

I think I and I love the contrast between us in a little bit of a way, cuz I do get to tend to be like very romantic. And I was talking to this woman the other day who's, she's super, like, she developed this amazing app and it just sold for millions and millions of

dollars. And she's like a super businesswoman.

She's this amazing, amazing, I admire her so much in friend of mine and I, we were, I was talking to her about like, some of the struggles I have with like, growing into my own success and where is this gonna end? Like letting it happen on its own time. And she was like,

No,

no, no. no, no. ,we're not letting this happen on our

own time.

Amira Rahim: right. That's right.

Kate Shepherd: that is a, that's a, that's a, co, that's a, what's the word I'm looking for? Like, it's an excuse. it's an excuse for me to, to be like in my flowy

Amira Rahim: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it starts the atrophy, you know?

Kate Shepherd: Well, there is some truth to allowing

and surrendering and letting go, but I think I had kind of gone too far into the other way of like, well, it'll just, I don't have to.

I'm not, I'm not an active participant in my life. I'm gonna

just

Amira Rahim: I feel you.

Kate Shepherd: it. Right. And I, and what I'm, so, I love about your, the medicine you're giving us today is like, yes, you, there's a voice and there's a flow, and there's this metaphysical thing and there's a, and you have an active voice in this and

an active role in this, and you need to show up and steward it

Amira Rahim: Oh yeah, yeah. I had to just go through this exact same. What's funny about this is all, this is now in another spiral, which is running a coaching program and realizing this love and passion that I have for market and connection. Now I get to coach artists on this. , people were asked for years. Oh, like Amira, you know, I don't wanna learn how you pay. I got my own style. But when you do release a Shopify course or you know, when you do, do a marketing thing, sign me up I had a guy email me and he was just like, you know, said, you know, I've been following your art for years and I thought you were a good painter, but I had no idea what you know about business.

I'm like, damn. Like you say you're good at marketing, but how good at marketing are you Amira if like people don't know these things And I think it's cuz we're afraid to say them. Right? We're afraid to show up. and,

Kate Shepherd: Or we're so good at them that we think everybody has that

in them and we don't realize it's a gift worth sharing. And so we don't talk about it. We're like, oh, everyone's doing this. And then you start to hear from people like, wait a minute, how come that's working so well for you? And you're like, well, cause I do this, this, and this.

And like, what? That sounds like a magic trick. And then you realize, oh, okay, I, this is another gift that I have. And I feel like it's all, like, when I look at your story from here, it's kind of like the art took you down this path to help you hone your voice, of course with your art and, but then maybe to lead you to here like it all, it's all taking you somewhere the whole time.

It's been taking

Amira Rahim: I surrender now like a lot more than I did a few years ago. I surrender because I did call in a certain level of abundance for myself years ago, and it was because I tapped into my style and I realized like, holy shit, I'm gonna be a millionaire because of all these different income streams I could think of with my art.

And every single one of us has that ability, I was so focused on the way it was gonna. and now I am in this place of surrendering and looking at what feels good. Can I accept that this is something I really, really love, but it doesn't have to take up all of my energy. You know, I love coaching and is so intuitive and I get to do it

Kate Shepherd: You get to, you get to do something that feels

good to You

Amira Rahim: Yeah. And that's important. And I, I didn't allow myself to really tap into that for a long time. And I suffered. I suffered mentally and a lot of it was self, you know, self-administered . I was very, you know, I went from starving artists, or not starving artists. I went from torture artist to tortured, you know, coach the wounded healer.

All that stuff I had to go through. And I'm still going through so much shadow to see, you know, what are you afraid of? ? Why do you feel like if the universe delivered abundance to you in this way, it couldn't do that for you in another way.

Kate Shepherd: Oh, I love that

question.

Amira Rahim: Yeah.

Kate Shepherd: I can't believe we're where we are with

time. Like, I feel like I could talk to you forever. I wanna ask you, I wanna, okay, I wanna tell you something and I wanna ask you two more things. One thing is I do a little prayer at the beginning of every conversation before I even get on the phone with you. And I have this . It's a wooden heart shaped carved bowl, and in it are my little angel cards. And I close my eyes and I feel that I, I f I ground myself and I feel that feeling of love, right? Of the, why am I doing this? Why, who am I trying to serve? I'm not having this conversation with you today for just you or just me.

Like this is in service to creativity itself and all the people who have been disconnected from it and the love affair that can happen , when we have a reunion with it. And so I say, let me hear what needs to be heard so that I can say what needs to be said so that what needs to be said can be said again and can be heard.

Like, can we be in this loop together so that, so, and, and guide me to say those things and hear those things. And then I pick a word from the

deck

Amira Rahim: crying. Sorry, I just

Kate Shepherd: I put.

Amira Rahim: it's allowing me to wipe these tears for the medicine you delivered to me today. .

Kate Shepherd: Oh, well that's the beauty, right? Is that it's like if I came at this like I wanna start a podcast and get really famous and whatever, like it's gonna have a really different energy. Like I in editing when I, because I'm doing all of this myself right now and in editing later when I go over this conver, cuz it happens every time I have tears streaming down my

cheeks. Because my prayer that I've been, my, my my, my real prayer wasn't to become a good artist or to become a good

this or to be, it was to be in

service. Like, use me, I'm an instrument. I don't know how you want to use me. Use me please. And I would cry like years went by and I couldn't find out house. But, and so when I, when I, like, it's a very special moment right before I'm about to sit down with

you cuz like it's a, a prayer was answered.

Like this conversation to me was a prayer that was answered. And so thank you for being in that. Radiant magic with me. And um, the word I pulled out was adventure. And I just love that cuz I feel like what we're on as we're trying to find our voice and as we're trying to find our way and find our way to expressing our gifts and do all these

things, it is, we have to remember that it is ultimately the energy of it is adventure.

That's all that's

Amira Rahim: Yes. Yes. My word for this year is agency . Yeah.

And you gotta be careful when you pick those words,

Kate Shepherd: Yeah,

Amira Rahim: It's like, yeah, it's definitely, it's a challenge. , yeah.

Kate Shepherd: Um, so I wanted to tell you about the word for today's show, and then I wanted to ask you, do you have any questions for me? Like, is there something that we, that you had that, a thought that you had during our conversation today where you're like, I wanna go back to that for a second, or I wanna ask her something. you

Amira Rahim: just wanna know, you know, cause I, I, before this, I didn't know that you were a painter. I didn't know that you were an abstract artist and that you have a love for it as well. Cuz, you know, sometimes you just find podcasts. But, um, so I just wanna know from this hour we spent, what's gonna change for you in your art practice?

Like, are you gonna do things differently? Like, I'm a little, I'm a little scared to ask the question, but I just, I'm just like, wow. Like, how are you gonna show up differently? Like, what's gonna shift for you in the next, you know, year.

Kate Shepherd: I love that question. Thank you for asking me that. When you were talking about, um, being a little bit more sort of formulaic with the approach to finding your voice, that really resonated with me. and I found myself going like, I wanna, I wanna do your course. I wanna learn how to, I wanna do the thing that you've been te because I don't do that.

I, I tend to be very like, flowy and waiting and for it to come. And when the muse comes to me, I'll be there. And, you know, that's not a very efficient way of using this energy that I think is trying to move through me. And so I think the one thing I'll do differently is to approach it with a little bit more rigor.

You know, that's outside of my comfort zone. I'm very comfortable being flowy and waiting and, but I think the rigor to me is like a little bit, and I have a whole bunch of story about it, and I, maybe I could look into why I have all that story about rigor and like,

Amira Rahim: Yeah, that'll be part two, right? Part two,

Kate Shepherd: yeah. even just what I'll do today practically is I'll start a Pinterest folder for myself where I'll do the thing, I'll do the homework that you gave us and I'll let you know, well, maybe I can have you back and I can let you know,

Amira Rahim: Yeah.

Yeah. I would love for you to go through the program and, you know, we can talk about this, I guess finding a way to make it an adventure.

Kate Shepherd: Yeah. I love that challenge of the

Amira Rahim: yes, yes. It's an adventure. Thank you so much for.

Kate Shepherd: Oh, thank

Amira Rahim: me on here, like this is really cool.

Kate Shepherd: I'm gonna put the links to all of your, you can tell me what links to put on, and we'll make sure that that goes in the show notes. Um, and then the final question I have for you is the billboard question. And I ask this at the end of every episode. If you had a billboard that was blank and you knew that every person in the world who had this urgency that you're talking about, this yearning to express and to become and to create, but for whatever reason and for all the reasons that we know about capitalism and cre, like all the, all the things that stop us from the limiting beliefs that we have around what creativity is and self-worth and all the, all the stuff that needs to be healed, they just think, I don't, not me, I don't have that in me, but if you knew that they were gonna read this billboard and it was gonna land in their heart and crack something open, what would you put on that bill?

Amira Rahim: Is this the word home for me? You know, paint your home, your art, it's your home. So whatever is home to you, it will show up in your work abstract or not. So yeah, just challenge everyone to bring it on home. , paint home. Make your home

Kate Shepherd: a beautiful human being. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you.

Amira Rahim: Thanks Kate. You too, .

Kate Shepherd: if you take one thing from this episode today. I hope it's the inspiration to begin to cultivate a language. Around your own creativity. That you can get to know how it moves through you. And to begin to express it consistently. So that you can be intuitive. On purpose.