Today we’d like to introduce you to Sharisse Coulter.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
For as long as I can remember I have loved stories. Reading them, writing them, hearing and watching them. But I grew up in a pragmatic household that encouraged excellence in school and sports, going to college, and getting a real job. I did pretty well in school and sports, went to college and grad school in Paris and Australia, but I never quite got around to the “real” job part.
Instead, I married a musician and helped manage his career and tours and then started shooting photos and music videos for him. The marriage ended but the career stuck. From there I started working with other local and then nationally touring artists and discovered a whole new form of storytelling. I love the challenge of interpreting music through imagery, and it ended up giving me the confidence to pursue a career in creativity. I now shoot photos for artists, families, individuals, and businesses, create album artwork, book covers, and film and direct music videos, among others.
It wasn’t until after I had my son (and subsequent identity crisis) that I fully committed to writing, however. In the sleep deprivation of early motherhood, I felt my identity slipping away—only being referred to as someone’s wife and someone else’s mom. I realized that wasn’t okay with me. Writing was an important part of who I was as an autonomous human being, and since no one else could create that space for me, I had to either prioritize that facet of myself or risk losing myself entirely.
Since then I have published two novels and am currently editing my third, which will hopefully come out later this year. It never goes as quickly as I’d like, but I keep moving forward. Or so I try to remind myself regularly.
Please tell us about your art.
I am a photographer, director, videographer and author.
Photography and filmmaking are my way of helping others tell their stories. Whether it’s a family portrait, a visual interpretation of a musician’s sound for their album cover, a writer’s voice for a book cover, or a music video that embodies the narrative of the song, I see them as conduits for people to share what is meaningful to them. I love getting to be a part of that process.
My degrees are in anthropology and, while I don’t work in the field, I find people endlessly captivating. Everyone has a story to tell, and I enjoy the challenge of capturing those moments and ideas for them and getting to reflect that back for them to see and remember.
I think most of us hear a negative voice inside our heads that can be hard to silence, particularly when we are feeling vulnerable. So in a way, my creativity is all in the service of reflecting what I find beautiful and interesting back to the subject themselves. Not because they need an ego boost, but because the objective reflection reveals to them the view the rest of us see and appreciate already.
My novels are all different stories, but ultimately they are each about empowering women. I like to write female heroines who have to save themselves. They can have romance as well, but no man steps in to save the day for them.
It started with me needing to feel empowered in my own life and, as I started to share, realizing that I was not alone. There is an enormous tribe of self-doubting and simultaneously badass women who could stand to see themselves as the heroes of their own stories. I write what I need to hear or vent and I hope that by sharing I am able to inspire others to be and embrace their authentic selves.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
Success is a tricky thing to define for anyone, but especially for artists. We are often expected to love what we do so much that we’d do it for nothing and be happy. While there is some truth to that, it turns out our landlords tend to prefer cash. So for me, success is being able to make a living doing something I truly enjoy that affords me enough free time to refill the well of creativity and fuels my personal joy.
That said, my ambition is to dismantle the patriarchy.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Some of my work can be found on my website: sharissecoulter.com and on my social media pages. My first two books ROCK MY WORLD and THE BIG IF can be purchased online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and KOBO.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sharissecoulter.com
- Email: mail@sharissecoulter.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/sharissecoulter
- Facebook: facebook.com/sharissecoulter
- Twitter: twitter.com/sharissecoulter
- Other: sharissecoulter.wordpress.com
Image Credit:
Sharisse Coulter, Sean Cassidy
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