Loving The Process

So, I have participated in those 2 free year long art journal projects every day so far: pondering the prompts, selecting images, shooting pics, gluing, painting, brayering, layering, doodling, writing, interacting in the respective Facebook groups, and, generally, having much fun. :)

Yesterday, I even stumbled upon this great material about the therapeutic benefits of art journaling.

This is, how my covers and first spreads look for now.

(Sorry for the funny direction of the last one, but blogger wouldn't flip it back :D

As far, as I know me and my style, I'm pretty sure most of them aren't finished yet. And I'm taking my time, as I really love to be in this process again. :)

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to any of these sites

Paint Party Friday

Creative Every Day

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

My First Ralire Experience

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a couple of new posts on Facebook by Milliande Demetriu, that led me to her new blog Random Linear Remnants, where she shares her study.

Being a thinker and explorer myself, I wanted to dive into the posts on that blog right away. But it was too late for that.

Today, although, I had a new translation project to work at, I couldn't help, but read them all in my first break. :)

I really love marks and patterns, that appear random and organic, so those posts really resonated with me and triggered quite some pondering in me.

Especially, about the marks left by human beings and the potential of their randomness.

• Conscious drawing must be one of the most controlled ways of mark making per se.

• Drawings by small children and people with particular brain damage often are very random.

• The brain is controlling the drawing process by coordinating the motion of the hand through the eyes.

• There are ways to loosen up the drawing process, f.e., to close ones eyes, to take some alcohol or some other substance dampening the control centers of the brain.

• Although, there are laws and regularities behind seemingly chaotic natural lines and patterns, they must differ pretty much form the ones created by a fully developed control center of a human brain. :)

I even tried to "draw" a couple of sound patterns inspired by Milliande's latest post.

Thoughts that emerged from that experience:

The lines seem to resemble the motion of the object creating the sound. When I closed my eyes, it was much easier to merge with the sound and the motion of its source, but it was hard to stay in the frame of the 2 D surface.

You know I always love to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Knitting Galore Still Going On

On Sunday, I started to knit something for the first time in my life. And after 5 decades of knitting, believe me, there is not much left in that category. :)

Needed a couple of days to figure out the best design, yarn and technology for the purpose and the anticipated user.

Yesterday, I posted this image in various places on Facebook to let my friends guess, what it would be. It was so much fun! :D

Now, it's finished. And if your guess was a sleeve for a laptop, you were right!

My youngest son got a high end laptop as a stimulating present from one of his aunts for his studies as a multimedia designer he started in September.

The device needs to be transported back and forth between the school and our home outside the town by public transportation without drawing too much attention to it.

So it needs to be protected. Now, it has its own sleeve. My son and I, both love, how it turned out! YAY!

I even used a special technology to knit and finish it up in one piece to avoid any seams.

Now, my daughter wants such a sleeve for her laptop as well, only in a different color. :) So, stay tuned, peeps!

(Sorry for the different hues of blue in the images! It's really tricky to get them straight with as less day light as we have here lately.)

I really might stay with knitting for a while now, at least for the days (weeks, months) with less natural light here in the North.

I really love to knit for the time being, and there is one very pleasant additional side effect: if I create, while listening to or watching something, it works as an antidote to emotional eating :)

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to any of these sites

Creative Every Day

A Piece A Week

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Knitting Galore

Translation projects, a couple of courses, and a respiratory virus with complications didn't leave me much time nor energy for creative endeavors. But I still managed to create at least a bit every day for the last week.

For the time being, it's knitting, that keeps my body occupied enough, so I don't start eating while watching my favorite TV shows at night. :)

A couple of days ago, I finished these mid season mittens for my daughter.

Now, I'm knitting a triangular lace scarf from an angora/acrylic mix yarn in white and fall colors. Stay tuned, if you want to see it finished! ;)

To see more inspiring creativity jump over to any of these sites

Creative Every Day

A Piece A Week

And you know I'm always happy to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

Quiet Summer

As some of you might have noticed, I have neglected my blog for quite some time. What can I say? This summer has not been very creative for me to say the least.

For now, some beads and stones have occupied my studio table to take a bath in sun and moon light, while I figure out the right design for a custom necklace.

There are 3 paintings waiting to be continued and, eventually, finished (the image shows 2 of them). I really hope to get back to them after I finish a big translation project I'm working at right now.

How about you? How was this summer for you so far? Have you created something? Have you taken any courses?

You know I always love to hear from you, right?

Please, feel free to leave a comment here or contact me at ritajc(at)inbox(dot)lv

My Creative Space - A Breakthrough

Last week, I was really busy with translation jobs until Monday afternoon, but, then, Tuesday happened, and made me take a pretty sharp turn back to my path as visual artist. For the last couple of months, I was pondering, how to use all my gifts and experience the best way to serve and fulfill my life's purpose in the next future. I have always known I am an artist, but I have so many other talents and such a rich human experience, that I could never stay "just" with the art. There are so many other things I have learned and shared with others and really enjoyed the process. I haven't even attended any art schools or courses off-line. So, for the past couple of weeks, I was even considering to give up on trying to develop myself as a selling artist and to start something new as a speaker, teacher, and facilitator. But, like I said, Tuesday happened :)

Firstly, I woke up knowing, what to do with 3 paintings I had been agonizing over for months.

This one could be finished.

It's hard to believe these are some of the phases it went through in the process :)

Secondly, my both youngest kids are showing interest in attending an art school for the last couple of weeks. So we gathered some information about the one next to us and, on Tuesday, I brought my son to what we thought would be a preparatory course for the entrance exams. It turned out to be an evening studio open to everybody. I felt a strong connection to the artist/art teacher Guntis Otaņķis right away, so I stayed as well :) Everybody was working at something different. As we had never met and he had never seen any of my works, Guntis gave me the task to draw some flowers "to see, if you are an impressionist, expressionist, romantic or something else". I sketched them, and, then, IT happened.  He said: "You are most definitely an artist."  And this must have been the first time I REALLY BELIEVED IT. (My eyes still get teary every time I think back to THAT MOMENT...) After 2 hours in a wonderful creative atmosphere the sheet looks like this.

It's far from a finished drawing, but that has never been the point of it, right? Guntis expects me back with my paints next time. I feel like the Universe has finally given me the answer to all the questions I struggled to find for 5 decades because of all the different talents and gifts I have. Or had I just refused to believe, what I have always known? Anyway, every piece seems to fall in place right now and I'm just over the moon! Everything feels so easy! Even my son is happy he can do this together with me, although he isn't even sure he wants to enter the art school next summer. And my daughter can't wait to join us :) It feels huge, almost unbelievable, but no doubt to be the right thing for the next future. I might still end up not earning most of my income selling my art, but I'm sure my place is in that evening studio at least for one more time :)

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

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My Creative Space

Last week, I had only a couple of small translation jobs. Money is tough and might get even tougher, if I don't get more work very soon. And my body decided to play naughty and jumped into a fibromyalgic flare as well. The constant pain and foggy brain makes me tired, but it's bearable.

Even more than that, talks about printing and gel plates in some of the art groups I'm in, and, especially, some videos about it inspired me to create some lovely paper sheets (20 to be precise) using monotyping for the first time ever and a couple of other techniques on top of the print. These are some of my favorites so far, but I haven't stopped working even on them :)

I really love the process (especially, the unpredictability of each print) and the fact, that I can use just what I have and get results I really like. Most of the sheets are pages from my kids' old school work books and I do the printing on my kitchen table (round 90 cm in diameter) just covering it up with some pretty thick plastic sheet. :) And creating series comes all natural with it as well, as there is always too much paint for just one sheet of paper :)

The creative juices are flowing even more at ease after I stumbled upon really inspiring and down-to-earth videos by the American artist Skye Taylor. This is the one I like the most so far.

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

Or even join us for A Piece A Week or Creative Every Day

My Creative Space

Last week has been pretty productive in  my studio. The cold is gone, and, on some days, we can even see the sun. It feels like spring, and that always gives me heaps of creative energy.

I continued my research on Wabi Sabi in a more practical direction: did some more experiments with coffee...

And, one snowy morning, I took the camera with me, when I went out with the dog. To take shots holding our crazy girl on a leash was quite a task and, pretty soon, it started snowing too heavy and I had to pack in the camera not to damage it, but I managed to get some shots I really liked. You have seen them probably on Facebook already. This is one of them (by the way: I live in the house to the left in the background).

Visit this album to see more.

Another thing was to get rid of the cheery bright colors in some of my paintings, that I just couldn't stand any more. Do you remember images I showed you here about a month ago? Must have been sidetracked by all the bright and cheery paintings and art journal pages I see in the art groups. But my muse brought me back to my senses. :)

Just one example.

After these phases I thought the painting could be finished, but, somehow, I didn't like it (sorry for the blurry image, it was taken with the smartphone).

As soon, as I realized, it's the bright colors I don't like, I took some old flower wrap paper, brown and white acrylics, and black ink, and moved on.

Might still do some tweaking here and there (struggled a load with the left upper corner), but my muse is happy again.  At least, for now. :)

And some more of my colorful WIPs have got a brown-black-grey-ish layer on top of the cheery stuff as well. :)

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

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My Creative Space

During the last week, I haven't created much.
First of all, because it has been really dark in my studio. It's all covered, grey and rainy outside, and the never ending twilight always weights down my creative activities.
But I have completed something this week: 4 papier-mache apples and their boxes for a good cause. When I worked the last layers on them in the dark studio, I had to think about the artists centuries ago, who created their masterpieces before electricity became available. :)

These are some of the phases they went through.

By the end, my hands were all golden :)

Secondly, the CAPI course with Milliande and some of the artist groups I'm in on Facebook have flung up impulses for intense inside work and research, mostly, about my place in the (art)world. There are thousands of artists using the same brands of art supplies and substrates. There seems not to be a chance, that I could get to them in a serious amount ever. I'm gradually ceasing to feel like I'm lacking something essential to create significant art. Instead, I'm pondering and researching, what resources I have and what ways are open for me. It even starts to be a privilege not to have too many of them, as there are less options to be weighted. :) As the motto for my latest research, could serve the words Daisetz T. Suzuki uses to define the Wabi Sabi in arts: "an active aesthetical appreciation of poverty", of a quasi (material) poverty, that is an actual (spiritual) abundance and blessing. For instance, I lately found a new use for my abandoned art journals: I'm using them as a kind of art grimoire, i.e., I'm trying out new ways of using all kinds of stuff in my art in them, even food. :) And fricken loving it!!! :)

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired!

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My Creative Space

Last week has been very rich on stuff to ponder.

First, Milliande invited us to do some pondering about our Body of Work in the CAPI course. I had never heard of it, so I did some research and stumbled upon this article, that gave me quite a shock. "Generally speaking, people don't want to know how versatile you are! With very few excerptions, I think you have to specialize for a long time before you can allow yourself the luxury of versatility." says Martha Marshall. It gave me some really heavy stuff to ponder, as I always found series of art works boring as a creator and as a viewer as well. My conclusion so far: a series of cohesive art works is kind of one work in many (at least a dozen) pieces. And I discovered some small series among my creations already created without ever thinking about it. Another participant from the CAPI course showed us this article, that helped me even more to see the point in creating in series. So I have my pondering cap on and am ready to create more in series from now on :)

Another object to ponder emerged, when I started a new intuitive painting and discovered not for the first time, that I really like the first layer and am not sure, if and how much I should add to it.

This happens again and again, and not only once I've liked the end result after many layers less than the first ones. Maybe I should start looking for ways to sell my "backgrounds"? Discussing this in my favourite art groups and doing dome research, the theme of a focal point emerged as well, and this article by Dianne Mize helped me to move forward. So I started to add to the painting, but was doing it carefully not to loose, what I had. After the second layer it looked nice, but gave me a somewhat shallow and incomplete feeling.

That day, I stumbled upon the 7 Painting Tips by Daniel Edmondson and they helped me to be brave and push forward. After 3 days of intense painting-scrubbing off-painting, the "Blooms of the Night" as I call it could be overall finished.

I still see some spots, that need a little tweaking, but I really like the result and am happy I didn't stop earlier. I'm not sure, if this will help me with my next creation, but one thing I'll probably do never again. The pretty large piece (27x70 cm) of corrugated card board I used as the surface is all deformed and was really hard to handle in my tiny painting space of about 3 square meters, as I couldn't hang it on the wall.

Sorry for the many words in my strange English, but all that pondering was an important part of my last week's creative process. Sorry for the still shaky quality of the images as well. The card reader sent by a dear Facebook friend all the way from the US arrived (YAY!), but I haven't figured out yet, how to make it work with at least one of our computers.

To see more creative spaces visit this site and be inspired

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A PIECE A WEEK - JANUARY 22 - 28

Are you up to a A PIECE A WEEK?

Let's inspire each other! Add your name and the link to the post on your blog about your piece for the respective week to the link pool below. Please, only posts about your experience with this challenge and one post from person/blog per week! And don't forget to tag your respective posts with apieceaweek, so your blog visitors can see all those posts at once.

I'm still struggling with the badge code, so, if you would like to add it to your blog to spread the inspiration, please, feel free to save the image from my side bar to your computer, and to add it to your side bar with this link: http://alatvianrita.blogspot.com/search/label/apieceaweek

Everybody is welcome,

but only with posts related to this challenge, please!

Would you like to connect with other participants on a daily basis?

Feel free to join our closed groups on Facebook and Flickr !

My Creative Space

Last week, I didn't paint nor draw much. There is only one face as an experiment on a really light paper.

And another one might have been started on a repurposed game board, but who knows, what it turns out to be :)

To aee more creative spaces, visit this site and be inspired

My Creative Space - Paintings

Today, I almost forgot to post the resume of my creative week. Could be because of the huge renovation going on in the apartment right below ours and making my day much more loud and chaotic....

Anyhow, the "Spirit of Water Lily"  is finished, i.e., I have put it away to stop fiddling on it :)

A "Magic Jug" is painted on the repurposed chocolate box from last week

You can see some phases of my process here.

Another painting has got its first couple of layers...

... and looks like this for now.

And I'm thinking pretty much about the way I create and discussing it with my friends on Facebook :)

Two ideas:
1. a painting is never finished completely, you can add something to it even after 10 years,
2. you should like your creation after each session of working on it :)

To see more creative spaces, jump over to this site and be inspired!