Painting

The many faces of an artist

At night, my very vivid dreams fuel the projects I have in my mind. I remember working on a piece of clay, all night, to make a sculpture… in my dreams. I woke up and ran to make the lady of my dreams before I would forget her. Too bad I didn’t even make a picture of her, as she sold immediately. So you see, I really am working all day and night.

I could be doing this forever without selling a thing. But don’t get me wrong, I do want to sell all of my art pieces. But if I didn’t sell them, would this whole urge to make art be worth it? Yes! Sustainable? No! My basement can only hold so many pieces.

Being a sustainable artist means that you will also be a business woman, a marketer, a salesperson, a writer, an accountant, an archivist, etc. I’ve been making short funny videos lately, how about adding musician to the mix?

(The painting above is available at the gallery Kunstraum Hopfgarten from Peter Ainberger. If you are interested in other paintings you see on my Instagram feed or my website, please contact me at art@atamayka.com)

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One sentence stories:
„… and so finally, he took the fish.“

My cousin will move from Turin-Italy to China at the beginning of 2017. It has gotten me thinking about the early stage in which you move to a new country.

My home country is Venezuela, but i‘ve had to adapt to the U.S.A., Spain and Austria. You have to not only understand a new language, but you also have to learn how to interpret a whole new set of body language signs.

Like when some cultures nod, in what we western people would understand a yes, to mean no.

Our intimate moments, deep within our heads, translate into mimics. These gestures are conditioned by cultural and social learning. And they are also read according to our cultural and social backgrounds.

For example, how many interpretations of the face above would we find?

Tiredness of living
Sadness (maybe because my cousin is leaving Europe 😉 )
Dissapointment
Trying to listen to what someone is saying in the background
Making a decision

I wonder what this face would suggest in Asia or Africa…
Are our cultures so different that we might interpret something totally different?

In my case, I was looking at this when I was drawing him…

So, this is my one sentence story:
„and so, he took the fish“

+ (Note: For inquiries, please contact me at art@atamayka.com) +

Merken

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Stories behind the paintings:
Human nature and new year’s resolutions

Is there anything left of our new year‘s resolutions now that January is over?
I finished this acrylic painting as well as the one below in January 2017, a few days ago; in a time where most of us look at the year we left behind and also look forward to new projects.

The “Let me get the bird part right” painting above, is a bit of me laughing at myself, at this human tendency to tackle things that are not so important instead of directing our efforts to the actual task at hand. Have you found yourself doing so?
I surely have. I started making daily drawings in Instagram in August 2016, but I didn’t touch the app until after I made a mini course about it, read interviews, spoke to some people about it, read a manual… ***laugh*** That’s me, afraid of social media. But you see, I didn’t even touch Instagram that whole year until I had done everything else.

In my country you say: You have to take the bull by the horns. I try to remember that when I want to tackle what’s essential.

With “Punch it out” I ask myself:
“To inform myself and find understanding or to react in blind fear?”
This is something we’re seeing so often nowadays in the world, fighting violence with violence and hate with hate. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said:

+ (Note: All paintings are available. For details, please contact me at art@atamayka.com) +

Merken

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While she was sleeping

No, this post is not about Sandra Bullock’s film “While you were sleeping”. I guess most of you don‘t know that I make my Daily Drawings while she is sleeping. „She“ is Mathilda, my 8 month old daughter. Since she started sitting, she developed a love for staying put peacefully besides me while I draw.
Lucky me! We sing along to music and it gives me enough time to finish some pieces.

If you see my drawings from August to October and compare them to the ones I make now, you will see they have gained color and complexity.
These are the wonders of having more time!

Here in Austria you get up to a two-year leave after pregnancy. So, I made a deal with myself. During this time I will make my daily drawings, on a napkin if I have to, whether I’m ill or haven’t slept in three days.
These drawings keep me sane and make me feel alive, even if like today, I would rather be in bed.

All my Daily Drawings are available. If you’re interested, please contact me per email at art*at*atamayka.com. Thanks for reading!

Merken

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Ceramic illustrations and color

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After taking my ceramic illustrations out of the kiln after their first firing (The process of my ceramic illustrations), I’m always eager to get hands on with the color part of the ceramic process.

For this group of small pieces of art I first washed them in a dark brown oxide which I then rubbed off so that the etched lines would remain dark and the rest of the ceramic canvas would stay light enough to add color.

Afterwards I painted the ceramic illustrations with underglazes. The process now is very much like a painter would produce his paintings, only that I use colors that will have to burn in order to see the final results.

I then finish some of the art pieces with a matt or glossy transparent glaze and fire them for a second time. Some other ceramic illustrations are fired for the second time without glazing. These last ones are painted afterwards with different colored glazes and are fired again for the third time.

It is real fun to mix and experiment with colors- oxides, underglazes, glazes, slips- without really accurately predicting what will actually come out of these ceramic illustrations; you can only predict after you’ve experimented an tested enough to know. Dark blue and green glazes are rose colored before firing, turquoise is grey and effect-colors are nothing compared to their looks after being fired.

There’s always this great feeling of expectation at the moment of opening the kiln which I share with the rest of the family.