Pain is a jealous God. Initially, a lit match and easily blown out. No problem. Disrespected, it flares, setting everything precious on fire, wickedly insisting on surrender. Everything is colored by pain. Nothing will be the same.
Fire is elemental fuel, at once mesmerizing, fluid and ephemeral. A comfort on a cold night and feared when unconfined. So sits anger. Harnessed, it propels growth and creativity but left untended destroys with slow burning embers or explosive eruptions. A tended belly fire is a soothing wildness pressing on perfection and demanding emotional expansion.
2003: Woman in Red, a Self-Portrait copyright Marika Reinke
A direct gaze distorts the truth as if it’s made of sand. To see differently expectations, photographs, mirrors, assumptions, categories, must be set aside. She emerged blind-sideways from the experiment and unwrapped a thousand other possible “me”s. Unpolished, but a strong catalyst and inspiration guiding me towards new artistic adventure and identity.
The first painting I proudly framed and hung on my living room wall, after I put the paint from photographs away.
Opposites are not linear, but circular. At the extreme of one sits its opposite, always in contact with one another in a dance, not isolation. If the opposite of love is fear then the opposite of suffering is inspiration. A garden personifies inspiration. It is creation, beauty, growth where once stood loss, suffering and death while carefully and lovingly tended. You could not have one without the other.
watercolor 9″ x 12″
Buy Here
Currently all my prints will be ready to ship no later than November 24th, 2014. All orders will be shipped in 1-3 days with standard shipping included in the price. Please contact me directly at [email protected]for other shipping options or if you need to ship internationally in which case there will be an additional charge.
Original Painting: $225
Personalized Limited Edition Print (of 25) : $40 What’s special about a limited edition print? Click on my Print Options
The year of trying to get pregnant drew longer until I began to wonder if something was wrong with me. I wished I could see inside myself and withdraw some understanding. Was I wounded? Broken? Was this karma? I held my belly; inhale, exhale, energy, light, healing, and please, some sight and insight. Nothing came. So I painted. What emerged glowed with health and beauty – a wondrous soul-catcher.
2014: A Wedding Vow After 12 Years copyright Marika Reinke
Twelve years is a formidable time. Upon review, our vows act as a magnifying glass. They are strangely prophetic while painful and joyful. Reflecting on the time passed, the words reach much deeper, beyond my heart and to my belly. A long road has been traveled between twelve years and two souls, not just in time and distance but in personal growth.
During our vows we read Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet XVII that ends:
“so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep”
Twelve years and our souls still merge, but do not be fooled into thinking the process is as easy, peaceful, and soothing as falling asleep. When red meets blue, they don’t just merge, but blend, fight, splatter, create structure and chaos, puncture, glow, constantly shift, recreate, learn, and reconstitute. Ultimately, the process is a form of beauty, but it is a process not a state.
My husband said this painting looked almost celestial. When I told him what it represented he said “Why? Because it is bloody and exploding everywhere?”
What little kid doesn’t like to be spun around by the ankles then laid in the grass to observe the sky swimming by? I laughed until my belly hurt then leapt up and begged my father to do it again. The sky was forever transformed by the sensation and the pure joy of it marked my childhood memories.
It took me a year to conceive my first daughter. The year of waiting was a tough test of my character. I tried to maintain my hope and composure but often it felt impossible, frustrating and painful. During that time, I developed a completely different relationship with my body, one in which my mind and body were at odds. Each month the baby didn’t come, my desire grew stronger as did the awareness that I was at the whim of forces much larger than myself. This is an expression of the simplicity of desire and ultimately a meditation to ease my mind.
Watercolor 10 x 14
Buy Here
Currently all my prints will be ready to ship no later than November 24th, 2014. All orders will be shipped in 1-3 days with standard shipping included in the price. Please contact me directly at [email protected]for other shipping options or if you need to ship internationally in which case there will be an additional charge.
Original Painting: $225
Personalized Limited Edition Print (of 25) : $45 What’s special about a limited edition print? Click on my Print Options
2014: Three Friendships Lost copyright Marika Reinke
Between 2008-2010 I slowly lost three important friendships. One burst open in an angry fight. The other simmered out after a timid attempt at conflict resolution belied by righteousness. The final one slipped into distance and silence. In each instance, I was not ready for the friendship to end but powerless to stop it. Blinded by misunderstood perspectives, three people I had fallen in love with let me go. My heartache and biting pain knew the truth; I did not give them what they needed. Sometimes I cannot give, sometimes I expect others to give, sometimes I need telepathy and other times solitude. I love them and they are beautiful people.
Personalized Limited Edition Print (of 25) : $70 What’s special about a limited edition print? Click on my Print Options 
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