Tag: watercolor for sale

Studio Party Countdown

This is a lot of work, a lot of mistakes, learning and a little bit of duct tape and cardboard to pull it all together.

Not only is it a lot of work making it look like this.

But it is a lot of work getting myself organized like I’ve never been organized as an artist before.

Usually, I handle details like certificates of authenticity and storycards, personalization, custom prints with silver and gold embelishments and payment as they role in. Getting an art booth ready requires you be prepared for anything. I prefer to be over-prepared but I confess I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants.

If anything, this project has propelled me into a commitment level and preparation level I was too insecure to handle.  Now, I’m committed. The fear of not being prepared has committed me.  That makes me laugh.

I’m seriously changing my workflow so I don’t have to do so much all at once. Ever. Again.

I’m almost done.
My Goal by this Saturday at 6 pm: A good system in place so my husband can help me at the party while I drink wine.

And hang out with some friends I haven’t seen for awhile. These people are awesome. I don’t want to miss them.

Notice the feathers? Those are my daughter’s addition. As she has watched this art booth emerge, her excitement has mounted as has her “help”.

Every now and then I look up and breath a bit and think “holy cow, I created all of this.” And then I look at my To-Do List and I’m back at it.

There isn’t a way this would have happened without my husband, who is awesome help, wicked talented, and amazingly supportive. This party is going to have the best wine because of him. And he, unlike me, hasn’t broken a single frame. I’ve got him 2 to 0 on that score.

And now, I’m going back to that To-Do List. Hope to see you soon.

A Light Embrace (c) Marika Reinke 2015

A Light Embraced

This painting is inspired by a friendship and her vision. To know her, is to know someone embedded in a journey with peace, not just of her own but to those most suffering. And in her journey, her deep strength unseen, her soothing calm beneath the surface. She carefully tends to herself as she rushes to tend yours. Her ability to do this is awe-inspiring.

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My Mammogram (c) Marika Reinke 2015

A Rite of Passage

We should celebrate baseline mammograms like a birthday, anniversary or graduation.

Mammograms usher in a new era.  Let’s make it official and celebrate. In this era, I take the bodies of my friends and loved ones who age with me side by side.  A party is necessary.

Technically, I “do not have a history of breast or ovarian cancer” in my family.  This is routine.

But, I have a history of cancer; ovarian, breast or otherwise.

  • I remember the colleague who passed away from breast cancer within a year of our first meeting.  Shockingly quickly.
  • I sting when I think of a younger acquaintance whose breast cancer returned just yesterday.
  • My heart aches for a beloved colleague as she forges her legacy in the face of stage 4 cancer.
  • At 49, my father died of gall bladder cancer. With this birthday I have entered the decade in which he passed.  This does not escape me.
  • And others…

I have a history of cancer.  I own this history.  

This is what I speak of when I say a mammogram is sign of turning 40.  Aging brings the continual pile of stories and we are wise to listen.

So when the technician pointed at her screen and said, “Here, come and look at this.”  I held my boiling feelings in check. She was painfully inscrutable.

I looked and thought how achingly beautiful.   

That was my breast with lovely web-like trestles, like palm prints, keeping history.  That was my opaque muscle cradling it.  That was my story; my puberty, my first bra, my sexuality, the humble pride, my first love, the assault and guilt, the sun bathing, my cleavage, the tight-or-loose shirt, swollen from pregnancy, aching from breastfeeding, my milk-giving children’s body, cradling them then slowly turning away and now my own but never the same.  And now to be examined indefinitely.

We should celebrate a baseline mammogram because left unto themselves, they sting and stench of aging and forgetting.

But if we listen, they tell our stories and we are all wise to listen.

My Mammogram (c) Marika Reinke 2015
My Mammogram sketch (c) Marika Reinke 2015 

I should mention, the technician wanted to show me my pectoral muscle which extends significantly longer than average and revealed my “tremendous upper body strength.” Another story in the mammogram.

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Goodbye Adrian (c) Marika Reinke 2015

Goodbye Adrian: A Story of Miscarriage (Jan 2015)

Goodbye Adrian: A Story of Miscarriage (c) Marika Reinke 2015
Goodbye Adrian: A Story of Miscarriage (c) Marika Reinke 2015

Through the echoes of death, love, blood, fear and sad slow tears we rode this goodbye learning that being lost in the unknowable, uncontrollable, unimaginable only brings wordless awe for the mystery of life.

All things happen for incomprehensible reasons. Souls were meant to meet. This soul needed a fleeting chance to feel our love and a name to be complete.

watercolor 16″ x 12″ 

about My Miscarriage

In 2008, I miscarried.  I sensed something was wrong and an early  7 week ultrasound proved the pregnancy was not viable.  Adrian had not developed past 5 weeks.  We grieved; our already-named baby, our hopes, our plans for our kids and our imaginary family.

I waited for the miscarriage to happen naturally.

Week by week went by and nothing happened.  I still felt pregnant, I was nauseous and irritable.  My confused body still wanted to tend to the Adrian’s lifeless form.  I felt weak, tired and sad in my waiting.  It was a time of intense numbness and many tears.

After 4 weeks, I began to miscarry and it went terribly wrong.  The bleeding was too heavy.  At the ER waiting room it went from somewhat concerning to intense and scary.  I passed out.  A black, cold, viscous faint that sucked my life force and took away my capacity to think.  I lost far too much blood.

I was revived and received an emergency D & C.  When I woke from the operation, I was enveloped in a deep sadness.  Adrian almost took me with him. I felt stuck and empty from the violent parting.  My capacity to create life had almost taken my own life.  

Untitled Chaos (c) Marika Reinke 2008
Untitled Chaos (c) Marika Reinke 2008 –  I painted after I miscarried 2008.

It is not a coincidence that I became pregnant with my son the same month that Adrian would have been born.  It was our last goodbye and parting blessing.

Miscarriage is a silent and common grief many women bare.  At least 10% – 35% pregnancies are estimated to end preemptively.

FEATURED

This painting was featured on the cover of the German magazine raum&zeit May 2016 issue.

http://www.raum-und-zeit.com/shop/lieferbare-raum-zeit/raum-zeit-nr.-201.html

 BUY HERE

Original Available: $500

Prints Available: $75

Email me for details.

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Tied in Knots (c) Marika Reinke 2015

Tied in Knots

Tied in Knots (c) Marika Reinke 2015
Tied in Knots (c) Marika Reinke 2015

habits are an impenetrable bind

Watercolor 8″ x 5″ 

Buy Here

But Tied in Knots Here

 Original Painting: $55 with frame

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Seashell Collectionn (c) Marika Reinke 2015

Seashell Collection

Seashell Collectionn (c) Marika Reinke 2015
Seashell Collection (c) Marika Reinke 2015

Jewels tempting tiny hands.

A code mosaic.

Secret art lockets conveying underwater messages.

watercolor 8″ x 5″

 

Contact me

[email protected]

E-MAIL LIST

Join my E-mail List Here to get current news of events and special deals. I respect your privacy and will not share this information with others.