My jungle is not green, Nor any quiet color. My jungle is not silent, Because she squeaks and yawns unlike an ordered universe. My jungle is not still, Its movement flows in winds and rivers. My jungle blooms, and swallows, sighs in heaves, it splatters and disconnects and re-puzzles. She does not know she is a mystery. She is my jungle.
Watercolor 12” x 16”
Marika Reinke 2016
$150
-SOLD
Currently installed at Sage Brush Art Studio, Brasilito Costa Rica
These are beautiful one-of-a-kind original watercolor painting necklaces. They sparkle, a luscious punch of style, like jewels but crafted with iridescent, gold, silver and vivid luxurious pigments. Practically, they are durably sealed to outlast Costa Rican heat and water (please don't put them in the laundry though!). Ultimately, they are meaningful gifts that seal friendship, memories, love and self.
This Wise Little Slothhas taught me to follow my path, play in the soulful, pay attention to signs, have faith in my craft and always stay true to myself. This moment is almost always joyful. Leave space for joy, there is no use forcing it, it will come.
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.
Purging and simplifying a family and home of over a dozen years is a daunting task. Sifting through the massive pile of stuff hidden in the secret pockets of this old house has been both an adventure into timeless memories and a horror story. Old letters and photographs aside, we have just plain accumulated a lot of used and useless stuff. Until last week, this pile of forgotten things was one of the remaining obstacles separating us from the impending adventure to Costa Rica.
And then we sold or gave half of our stuff away at a massive family Moving Sale of epic proportions. I felt a shudder of relief as it left our house never to return.
Ironically, our house does not feel empty. Sure, the unused are gone; open most cabinets and closets and they are almost bare. But daily items still litter our dining room, coffee table and studio in a comfortable clutter.
Now that the stuffed psychic burden has lifted, I can turn to the box of framed original paintings that have flummoxed me. I will take some, I will store some. But the truth is, I’d much rather leave them in your loving hands and sell them to you.
I’m discounting original paintings and scarves at great deals! I’ll pay for shipping for the originals (without frame). If you live in the Seattle area, I’ll deliver to you with the frame. Payment plans and bulk discounts are available.
All paintings come with a certificate of authenticity and a story card
Contact me at [email protected]to purchase a painting or scarf or schedule a studio visit to check out everything available including prints and pendants.
The specter of climate change is an underlying disquiet. What unusual weather we are having is small talk, a subtle code and acknowledgement. There is change emerging around a corner too sharp to see around.
The question is not if it is a hoax or who caused it. The real questions: What will humans do about the impending change? Can we adapt? Will we fail or thrive as a species?
I do not know.
The Earth is healing. She’ll be fine. She may throw us off like unwelcome parasites to make room for her rebirth. But this world will re-emerge, glowing, growing and beautiful.
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.
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.
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.
Costa Rica Heat from Marika Reinke Original SOLD Limited Edition Print $45 – takes up to a week to ship. I will order and customize in silver, gold and iridescent paint. Pack of 10 5″ x 7″ Art Cards: $35 – takes up to 2 weeks to order and ship
The Magic Tree painting starts with a couple of lively sisters, 5 and 8, that love to climb trees and a mom that loves everything these girls teach her. When the family had their kitchen remodeled they all decided they wanted a painting. And of course the girls insisted it had to be a tree.
I am honored to be recruited for the project.
I visited their house, took pictures of their kitchen, noted the colors, absorbed preferences and listened to mom talk about trees, her kids and climbing. The assignment was a tree. I honestly didn’t know what it would look like when I left. But I had some ideas.
I sat down to sketch them out. A magic tree emerged, with a climber, to capture those magical moments and memories the family will always have of their climbers.
Magic Tree Sketch
For reasons that can only be attributed to my manic painting behavior, I only had sketch paper available, all other boards were being used. When this sketch emerged on regular paper I knew it was what I wanted. I tried to paint over the sketch so that mom could get an idea of colors.
Painted Tree sketch
The colors are not what I intended. It is amazing how the colors just don’t match when painted on regular paper and you simply can’t work the color the same way to bring them out – the paper will disintegrate first.
Lesson learned: Always use watercolor paper when sketching an idea for a client.
Despite this, mom liked the composition, but not the colors. To clarify this key point before I started painting, I mocked up a color palette on watercolor paper and a detail of the painting to share with her.
color paletteDetail
I like the detail so much, I might just finish the painting soon, now that things are settling down.
With these three mock ups in place, mom was confident and gave me the go ahead to begin the 24″ x 18″ painting.
Mom let me post the progress on facebook and I kept her updated on progress. It took two weeks to finish, mostly because I was also trying to prep for my studio party. This painting would have taken about a week otherwise.
As I posted these on social media, there were some interesting comments about leaving the climber as a negative space, including from my husband. This posed the question as to whether I should paint the climber or not. I had deliberately left the climber to the end to make sure I got a good balance of shading and color for it.
I asked mom what she thought, and she debated, but we agreed to paint it.
I wanted to paint it. I’m keenly aware that as a painting emerges there is a fear of f**king it up when it is coming along so nicely. There is a balance in that space and it takes a lot of thinking, reasoning and faith to not let the fear control the artistic decisions. I knew some subtle shading would add depth, and made the climber look like a child-like symbol instead of a ghost (in my mind). But it was a difficult space to be in at the end of the painting. Mostly, I had to believe in myself and my vision, not always easy. Mom really believed in my instincts and I’m grateful for that.
In the end, I’m pleased. More importantly, the family is pleased. When they came to pick up the painting, both girls were sure the climber was them. Exactly. Don’t many of us identify with the climber? The parents commented how much better it looked in person (it really does).
And the painting looks even more amazing in the kitchen.
magic tree in kitchen
And my first run of prints is gone, a couple sold before I finished the painting and the last two sold at my studio party. A wonderful success.
If you would like to learn more about my commission process and prices, you can visit my Commissions & Services page for an overview or contact me directly.
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Limited Edition customized prints (of 25) are now available for $65. Contact me directly for purchasing information.
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