A Q&A with our artist collaborator, Ila Rose.
Especially in dark times, creativity can be a balm — a way to access possibility, connect with beauty, and nurture something new. If you could use some creative inspiration this week, allow us to introduce you to our friend and collaborator, the artist Ila Rose.
Wild Coast Brew couldn't be what it is without Ila's artistic genius. We've admired her murals and other work all around Eugene, Oregon for years, and as soon as we had the idea to pair our hand-crafted tea blends with mythical archetypes in animal form, we knew she was the one we wanted to bring them to life via her paintings, which have always honored the rich symbolic connections between humans, creatures, and our shared earthly environments.
We asked Ila to answer a few questions about her creative practice, her daily routines, and the role of art in nurturing healthy communities. Enjoy her answers just below...
When and how did you start making art…and then making it your work?
I’ve been making art since I could put crayons on paper. I always had a “knack” for it, but I also believe that the validation we receive as children can help us to stay interested in something, Other kids told me I was “good” at it, so it was something I could do to feel good about myself. As I grew and my art evolved, it became a tool for exploring my inner and outer worlds.
Along the way, I worked part-time jobs alongside many challenging low-paying art jobs with clients who informed me that since art was “fun and easy” for me, maybe I could do them this “little favor.” When you do enough of those jobs you eventually realize, “wait a second, I work super hard and this is taking all of my personal art time…this is valuable.” Being an artist means teaching yourself every step of the way through hard lessons.
I wasn’t able to commit to a full-time art career until I was 30, living a short stint in San Diego. After I’d sold my first painting for over $1,000 and had been fired from my coffee stand job, I thought, “what the hell, why not?” The journey has been wild and rough and exciting and exhausting but, all-in-all, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to a “normal” job.
What inspires and/or motivates you to paint and create? What kinds of themes or aesthetics interest you?
I’m very much influenced by nature. I was raised to hone a deep respect for nature and an appreciation and understanding of our connections to it. I am also influenced by inequity and suffering. I see art as a tool for healing and social change. I like to say “art is medicine.”
Looking at art that moves you is like looking at a Rorschach test, one can reflect on themselves through their own reactions to what they are looking at — which is a great practice for life. Symbols are one of humanity's languages, and hold more in them than our history books. Making art is a way to tap into ourselves and our creative potential. All of this lends to my understanding that art is medicine. I am still working out the details of how to truly incorporate this into my work. But, actually, I kind of feel like these tea labels are one way…combining herbs and an archetypal symbolic animal wisdom/character, a tea-buyer can intuit which tea “feels” right. This is powerful. Art can help us remember our intuitive nature.
What role does community play in your artistic practice?
For starters, I paint murals. I believe street art is a way for a community to tell its story. Seeing art in one’s environment can inspire people's creative thought-processing, which is vital to healthy problem-solving. Public art is imperative for healing as a collective.
I am passionate about sharing with youth, and teaching — all ages. The story we’ve told ourselves about what is “good” or “bad” art is off-track. The point is that we practice creation, rather than destruction.
I desire to inspire creativity in those who believe they don’t have a “creative bone in my body.” You have an opposable thumb, don’t you? I hope to teach more workshops eventually. If art is medicine, it must be done not only with the self but within community.
What does an average day look like for you? What routines or rituals keep you grounded?
Oh lord, I wish I could be consistent enough to have a solid answer to this question. Here are the things I know for sure:
- I always have a warm beverage in the morning.
- I feed my cats and rabbit. Taking care of animals is grounding for me. I don’t know what I would do without them.
- I eat.
- I work on something.
- I procrastinate and beat myself up over my lack of routine and schedule, “not doing enough,” and picking up my phone too much.
- I eat.
- I work on something.
- I eat and sleep.
The truth is, it’s hard to be in charge of every aspect of my work and life. I ebb and flow through healthy routines and rituals and unhealthy ones; between shame and pride; between insecurity and confidence.
The best I know how to do is to accept whichever part of the wave I am riding, and continue to try my best.
What does the word “wild” mean to you?
Maybe, to me and in my life, “wild,” means living by my own rules. Not being tethered to forming my identity around something that doesn’t resonate true in my heart. Not working toward someone else’s concept of “success,” even if it is scary and hard.
Wild is seeing how nature moves in me. How I embody the cycle of birth, death, compost and seed again.
Wild means understanding there is no way to be something other than exactly what I am now. An acorn isn’t trying to sprout a frog (although an acorn-tadpole is a good idea for a painting…).
Basically, to me, “wild” means we each play a unique role in a web of life that can’t be dictated for us. The only way to really know is to listen deeply inside of ourselves and follow the thread.
