I’ve been feeling so thankful, I want to thank you. Seriously. I’ve had over 100 sales and reached some incredible sales goals in just 8 months. I’m grateful for a network that has supported me through a huge life transition. I’d love to give all of you something, but unfortunately I haven’t hit it that big yet. But I am going to hold a drawing and the grand prize is a $100 gift certificate for any of my stores.
I send an email about twice a week with new work, posts, events, services and special deals for email list subscribers.
Win a grand prize $100 Gift Certificate redeemable for any prints, cards, original watercolors, scarves, pendants, stickers, t-shirts, bags, pillows, clothing and more:
Second and third place winners will receive a surprise in-stock treat!
Join Marika’s email list and enter to win before July 10th, 2015 to participate in this drawing. Drawing will take place on July 10th, 2015. The gift certificate must be redeemed by August 15th, 2015.
A huge thank you to a wonderful network. I’ve reached over 100 sales! It can only be believable!
I will not share you personal information with others and this information will remain private.
I dislike the word “disabled” and the word “disorder” is just as bad. These words focus on the many ways someone is not <some “normal” trait> which can be fairly translated as not mediocre. Words like “disabled” and “disorder” reveal weepingly dysfunctional thinking. Sadly, they are hurtful. Yet they are institutional terms we pretend are stripped of emotional impact.
Why focus on “not”? Why not reveal the strengths and nuance? Why not celebrate not mediocre?
So it is with dyslexia which at root means having difficulty reading. Many of you likely believe that it means someone who has difficulty keeping words still on the page.
What is not well known is that this common assumption is not always true and more interesting is this difficulty keeping a word still on page is a symptom of a fascinating, beautiful, amazing talent.
Research has emerged that dyslexics are particularly advantaged in a bouquet of abilities and one of them is three dimensional spatial reasoning. A high percentage of architects, engineers, artists are dyslexic (Leonardo DiVinci was all three and dyslexic). They are genius visual thinkers.
The problem: a word on a page is two-dimensional and highly symbolic. A dyslexic intuitively seeks to understand the word by picking it up with his/her mind, turning it around, understanding it on a contextual three-dimensional level. This strategy works in almost any other context but symbols on paper. And this strength, that will help a dyslexic excel in construction, sculpture, problem solving, visual reasoning, creativity, management, advanced mathematical concepts and even planning will only send them down the path of failure at a traditional school.
Disabled is not the word I would use to describe a dyslexic. Perhaps it suits the education system better. It is certainly not a just system.
Those strengths are not assessed in school but in the real world, watch out. A dyslexic will score 30% higher on a creativity test than a “normal” person. 35% of entrepreneurs are dyslexic. Some of the most creative thinkers and leaders are dyslexic; Einstein, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, Winston Churchill, Ann Rice and John Irving. A blind sample of the population, regardless of gender or culture reveals that up to 20% of the population is dyslexic. (See Reading List below.)
My son is dyslexic.
This also means he is a right-brain visual thinker with weak neural circuitry to his left brain language processing center. He is six and in kindergarten. It is a research-bound fact that if he is taught with a functional multi-sensory explicit phonics-based teaching approach now, he has a high chance to learn to read just as well if not better than his peers. Currently, schools tend to eschew this method because the assumption is it isn’t fun, familiar or popular though more children can learn to read and become better spellers with this method.
So, if your learning style isn’t fun, you are out of luck? And the “disorder” award goes to…?
Most importantly, a dyslexic mind is a Beautiful Mind.
A Beautiful Mind (c) Marika Reinke 2015Three 10″ x 7″ Watercolors (c) Marika Reinke
Achingly so.
It is a world of exploding visual imagery. It is a space of diffuse connections, creative problem solving, intuition, enhanced awareness and rapid analysis. But it is a wordless, though not silent, world. A dyslexic does not reason verbally. Words come later on, after the unfolding imagery has revealed sometimes astounding insight.
A Trapped Word
A Trapped Word (c) Marika Reinke 2015
It is difficult for a dyslexic to access the right word while speaking. The clutter of visual imagery, the diffuse connections stall the verbal processing and the neural connection just isn’t as tight as the images, sounds, emotions, patterns that are dancing in their thoughts. A word is trapped. It can not come loose. But don’t mistake this for a still mind, this mind is dancing in the jittery shadows, clutching its fluid jail bars and searching for a pattern to un-rip and let loose the word.
A Word Unraveling
A Word Unraveling (c) Marika Reinke 2015
This brain will always process words differently. Because a dyslexic’s strength is diffuse connections, every word is layered with an explosion of meaning. Not just synonyms, but pictures, experiences, sounds, patterns, physical feelings and emotions. The word unravels into an explosion of possibility and meanings. A mind capable of turning over so many possibilities means a deeper understanding of a single word. The trade off for a deeper understanding is speed, reading will often be slower, but comprehension is so much richer.
An Intuitive Leap
An Intuitive Leap (c) Marika Reinke 2015
Because the gift of dyslexia includes a rich internal visual reasoning capacity, a dyslexic will often come to amazing intuitive conclusions that reveal a rich and complete understanding as well as astounding creativity. These insight can appear like flukes, because to us this mind can’t seem to properly verbalize or read a simple word like “it”. But they are not flukes. They are the result of complex and rapid processing undefinable by words. They are the result of a thinking system unrestrained by the limits of symbolic and analytical language.
My Son and I
My son continues to inspire me. I’m so thankful to have identified this early. More importantly, I’m grateful for what he teaches me about the brain, creativity, intuition, problem solving and teaching. And Love.
The OriginalA Beautiful Mind is available for sale as a triptych (all three): $350 Prints of All Three: $75 A Single Print of one of the three: $35 5″ x 7″ Cards are available to order. Pack of 10: $35. Please specify if you want the triptych or a single image.
Are you looking for inspiration? A little down to earth reflection and renewal? Want to stay current on what’s new and what to expect from Marika? My emails are food for thought packaged with color, soul and humor.
I did it again. Art in the Park! The second time was nothing of the feat that I accomplished the first time. It was soooo much easier my husband and I wondered what the big deal was the first time around.
So what made it easier?
1. I improved my work flow. I quit talking about it and I actually did this. I now have a list of everything I must complete when I finish a painting, receive prints or create pendants. This include logging inventory, creating certificates of authenticity and marketing notes. It isn’t a long list but it isn’t painting and I generally don’t want to do it. I really dislike doing it in bulk leading up to an art fair more.
2. I changed my work spaces. My laptop lives in the dining room now. My paints live in the studio. I finish the grunt work then enter the creative space guilt free and glowing with freedom. This has made me so much more effective.
3. I’m packed up. I have labeled boxes of supplies. A box of fabrics, a box for stands, a box for prints and signs, a box for scarves, a box for hanging supplies, a box for originals in frames. I have a file system for certificates, storycards, display mapping and change. I have an improved display for pendants that I can literally take off the wall and take anywhere.
4. I’m stocked up. I have a ready stock of bags, boxes, storycards and marketing materials. Now all I have to do is order them when I run out.
5. I have a sturdy setup. It is windy by the lake. And it was windier the second time. The first time, I had to take down my scarf display when the wind wrecked it. This time, I watched a centerpiece painting face plant on the gravel when the wind hit it. Ouch. Another wall of prints collapsed in a gust. Jewelry displays flew across the path or crumbled.
My canopy shook (a lot) but nothing fell. I didn’t have to change anything thanks to sturdy walls built by my husband and a 4 x 4 we used to anchor the display on the wall-less side. Plus, don’t forget the canopy weights and have duct tape around just in case. I didn’t use it but I would always bring it.
What would I change next time?
I sold some originals between fairs which meant I had to rearrange the configuration of paintings on my walls. I also reconfigured tables and displays. Because we didn’t have time to practice beforehand, this slowed down setup. We are going to add more hooks to the top of the panels so that reconfiguration isn’t problematic and bring lots of hanging wire. Even without sales, I’ll have some new paintings to display and that will cause another reconfiguration.
Take A Peak
My daughter learned how to use iMovie at school. This inspired me to make this little one minute movie of the adventure that is prepping and setting up for an art fair. Please enjoy. Take a look at those awesome walls by my husband and improved pendant display.
Are you looking for inspiration? A little down to earth reflection and renewal? Want to stay current on what’s new and what to expect from Marika? That is what this mailing list is all about. Some food for thought packaged with color, soul and humor.
Steven Pressfield’s book “The War or Art” has been on my to read list for a few months. Reviews are powerful and even transformational.
You know those days when you just can’t pick up a paintbrush? Can’t focus? Wonder why the hell you choose such a difficult career path? And you think just about anything else would be easier than this thing that would let your soul sing?
So you start to run down that “easier” rabbit hole?
This is Resistance. Ultimately a destructive force, the yin to our creative yang and your biggest enemy.
I’m not far through this book and it is unlocking a lot of meaning for me. It is a book to savor, highlight and reflect upon.
I already highly recommend it for anyone struggling to find themselves in any art or transformational endeavor or those of us just living… and living… and living.
But here’s a challenge: define Beauty. And why does it matter?
I intuit Beauty is important to the human experience. I’m sure some happiness researcher has done a study that shows Beauty is important to cultivating happiness. And geesh, happiness is so important these days that scientists study it. The magic happiness pill makes lots of money.
Beauty is healing too. And Beauty is more.
Here is a story
I’ve started to sell a little on Etsy. A customer approached me in a conversation about a print Fertility. She has been having a hard time conceiving and she wanted a piece of art that would help her imagine conceiving but also a healthy reproductive system. She wanted to know what my thought process was going into this painting.
Fertility (c) Marika Reinke
It took me a year to conceive my daughter. I relate to this struggle. It was one of my most difficult times.
Here is my response.
I painted this when I was having a hard time conceiving as well. It is such an exhaustingly emotional and baffling time. I didn’t know what was wrong or if there was something wrong. It was just hard and trying and gut wrenching. As you know. I was learning a different relationship with my body. I didn’t have full control of it. I was powerless in a way I never expected.
With this painting I was trying to imagine what my body looked like from within. I was learning to love me as I was. That it could be beautiful, not a scientific drawing, an x-Ray or broken somehow. It was and is amazing.
So it is a painting of a beautiful womb, artistically experienced (not scientifically rendered) from the heart. There are ovaries, and layers of red, shapes of the feminine ovals, circles and hearts. It is a place of love and power as it is. It is a place of potential.
There are suggestions of implantation. Yes. At the time that was my dream. But not a reality.
The blues are deeply soothing and mark and frame the womb. They bring power and contrast to the subject. They are organic shapes to suggest movement, other organs and life. I love that you see feathers! Yes!
Personally, I love the colors in this painting.
For my limited edition prints, I will hand highlight and embellish the painting with iridescent paints, silver or gold. If you have an idea you would like me to embed in the painting when I do this, I’d be honored to mark it that way for you as well. I embellish them when the order comes in. If you decided to purchase it, just send me a message and I can do this. They are high quality prints on watercolor paper and take this paint beautifully.
My hope is that it would help give you some peace and self-love in a difficult time and it would be meaningful for you as well.
In all, we exchanged 37 messages. By the 6th or 7th exchange she purchased a print. For the next dozen or so, we exchanged messages on how to hand embellish the print. This customer took full ownership of her print, directing me to mix a 1:1 ratio of gold and silver and very specifically directing me to the places she wanted highlighted. Here is the result:
Fertility highlighted (c) Marika Reinke
I loved the exchange. We collaborated and connected. As we communicated, I learned about her and her trying time. I have deep empathy and hope for her. I hope that she loves herself and through her process she becomes a mother.
Equally, the process made us both vulnerable. I had hopes this print would bring her peace and support. She had hope this print would touch her and bring her beauty, healing, peace in an emotionally exhausting time.
I mailed the print and we waited, holding our breath that our hopes would be realized.
Here is the beginning of her 5 star review. I say we succeeded:
“When I saw my painting I could not restrain tears of joy and hope that filled me up. Thank you, Marika, for a beautiful custom work! …”Read more here (In my opinion, it’s a good read).
But also this is Beauty. Not just Art the Product, but the Whole Process. Beauty.
Spring has been busy and granted me incredible learning opportunities with many mishaps and a few victories. I’m very grateful for every success and I’m learning all about the joys and perils of accepting rejection too.
Lesson for all: Keep knocking on doors, some will open.
I’m expecting a summer full of the same. Let the roller coaster continue.
I’ve released my second newsletter, coming to your mailbox soon (or already). Take a peak here:
Truth: An artist comprehends no separation between art and life.
But recently I learned that I subconsciously regard aspects of my art as separate.
I have told myself this: Writing is not painting. But writing is most definitely art.
In this way…
When I decided to take the leap of faith and become a painter, I let go of others’ judgment and my worry. You know, that little voice that wants to please and seeks praise? I threw that out the window. It does not help the artistic process. Truth: I have an unique artistic voice that is not for everyone and that is the nature of art.
My paintings touch people and some people profoundly. I focus on this. When I paint for someone or some theme, I do my best to put their skin on and see the world from their perspective. The painting should be profound for that person or theme. If it touches more people in the process, that is a lovely side effect.
Paintings are an expression that creates meaning, relationships, and ultimately expand our understanding of life. Mine will do that for a few or many. But not all. Ok. I accept this and let go of worry.
When I handed “A Healing Place 2” off to my client, she stood in her living room and announced that she was going to read the story card aloud to her daughter and husband.
“Ack!” I choked and covered my face. I had a mini-panic attack right there. I wanted to run.
It was a Moment of Truth. A Teachable Moment.
Here on this blog and in all my marketing attempts I have exposed (one aspect of) my artistic soul in a gallery of public paintings and processes. I have no panic attacks. It is a struggle but ultimately I trust myself here.
But in that moment I could not listen to someone pronounce my words. I wring heartache into writing. I did not want to hear it and be faced with a critique.
Some damage, huh?
Writing is a cracked and bleeding medium for me. This is a revelation. I have been manipulating words and hiding behind the painting, a coward. Writing and I have a long history, longer than painting, but before I knew how to protect myself from all the real, imagined and self critics. It is my first love saturated with juvenile expectations and painful miscomprehensions. It is riddled. A puzzle of meaning and pain.
I need to get over it. If there is something my painting can teach my writing, this is it.
A healing place in not a simple beautiful place. It is complicated with compact meaning. The tumult of injury, lingering pain, peace and healing. A place of innocence, a place before the world completely changed. A place to return and make sense, to pick up this life and re-puzzle it, but maybe…not… solve… it. A small hope to fit a little better. A place to relearn to love oneself as broken and complete simultaneously. A place of redefined beauty and ever-altered perspective.
Watercolor 24″ x 18″
Story
This painting was a commission for a client who deeply loves and connects with Arches, Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. She deals with chronic pain with a cheerful disposition and laughter. These parks were the last long vacation she had before she discovered the root of her long term pain, which has since not been resolved. These red, red, walls are packed with meaning.
And in hanging this on her wall, I hope it brings her peace and my hope of some alleviated pain.
“Work-In-Progress: A Beautiful Mind” (c) Marika Reinke
Yesterday, the Seattle Schools District teachers walked out (as they should) to demand the money that was voted to be allocated to K-12 schools and has yet to appear. Please don’t get me started on this. I worked at a community college for long enough to understand the politics of this travesty. Political excuses aside, it is a travesty that the United States literally values its public education with a minimal budget, resources and outright condescension. Our under-funded school system may be the root of the demise of this country in the long run.
The point is that the kids were home all day.
Thankfully, we are reaching a parenting milestone and turning point. The kids are old enough to entertain themselves especially with the neighborhood kids over.
And I could work.
I love that I have a studio but it is located in a far away corner of the house. For all their independence, I feel better being able to hear my kids chattering, thumping and screaming. I just can’t do that in my studio.
So I brought my laptop into the dining room and dedicated the day to getting sh*t done. Literally, the stuff on my list I really don’t want to do – the dreggy, non-creative, linear, detail oriented shi*t. This is what grading is to teaching. Generally, yucky. And though many of these items have been on the list forever, I have not been able to focus on it. My records are a mess, my mailing list is scattered everywhere, my website is not cohesive and makes no sense for e-commerce. I have no idea what I’ve posted anywhere.
Usually, when I sit down to address this problem, I space out and forget what I’m doing.
But not yesterday.
Yesterday, I got sh*t done. I got a lot of it done. More than I have in a long time. I felt so productive it was like I was back at my old job, cranking out the high volume grading and lesson plans.
And the difference? The dining room. Or more specifically, not being in my studio.
My studio, is my haven; my place to forget words, hear my heart, listen to pictures, lose time. It is a place where I don’t look at where I am, but what is inside. It is a place that lures me. My most recent work-in-progresses whisper at me, they work at me subliminally. When I’m still, I’m working in my studio. When I’m staring at my database, I’m working on a painting.
When I painted this, I based it off a picture of a galaxy I have pinned on my “Color Schemes” Pinterest board. I wanted pinks, rich purples, blues and some white blasts of light but not a literal translation of the photo. The final doesn’t look like the galaxy, it was never my intent to end there, only to start there.
As I worked on it, I added the white gouache to the wet colors and watched the white expand and speckle the painting. It was amazing. It looked almost exactly like the galaxy, but I didn’t do it, the water did it (I swear it!).
There is mystery everywhere but also order. I love chaos theory.
This necklace is a reminder that living in that mystery, accepting the chaotic order and creativity of the universe and being inspired and engaged there is a worthy life purpose.
This one has been sold. But I’ve listed a couple others left over from my Art in the Park debut on my Etsy shop for $40 plus free shipping.
CONTACT ME
I will collaborate with you to make a personalized custom pendant for $50. They are a great gift with a special message. I also personally make pendants from any of my paintings for $40. Send me a message for details.
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