A creative scatterbrain on the go

...this is me right now... and I cannot stop it...

I honestly have no idea how I currently am supposed to handle myself :D

I am a mess right now! A big, fat, huge, creative, chaotic mess. All over the place! I started tons of different artistic and creative projects and I keep on starting new ones, without finishing the old ones.

It is insane. And I don’t really know what to do about it. Or maybe I am not supposed to do anything about it?

Maybe that is the way creativity works?

Maybe I need to explode & go crazy & just do what my mind comes up with?

Or what my meditation-self is telling me to try?

Or my inspiration that got sparked yells at me to do?

I really reached a point where I just have to laugh at this ridiculousness of mine. I am currently thinking to tell my inner crazy-person to restrict herself to ONE creative project, at least for a week, and then I can switch. Maybe that helps.

At the same time, I love to be able to do different things, all at once & switch between them. I can get lost in just creating and being in that flow of creation, painting, cutting, glueing, drawing, illustrating…

And mind me saying: all this usually happens in the evenings and on the weekends, because I still work on doing scientific illustrations for clients and technical editing for a scientific journal.

Well, sometimes, when I need a creative break, I paint something small inbetween, or glue a couple of things together, or put gesso on a painting ground I decided to paint on…

… and if I am honest, these activities bring me the most joy! Even more joy than doing scientific illustrations… and especially because I know that creating things with my hands is the purest & best antidote against all the tech & AI-crazyness that is out there right now. I will keep on refusing this technology in the space of art & creatin as long as I can. I promise that!

All these projects & doing these creations feels like my inner creative soul & little Daria are trying to take up more & more space, like they are exploding out of me and trying to find any second to be present and make me create stuffs, feel joy & play.

It feels much much better than sitting in front of a screen or illustrating on a digital surface.

As all this is such a big part of what I do right now in my life, I decided to write about it and process it, as usual. And then send it out into the world, to all of you. Because in the end, maybe it helps you? Somehow? To see that we all can create beauty in the world!

Maybe one of my crazy ideas or inspirations sparks something inside of you? Who knows what this chaos is worth for :D

So here we go, I will now share pictures and explanations of all my creative projects going on recently, in no specific order:

1. Watercolor paper glued on woodpanel:

Mixed media on watercolor paper, glued on sanded & grounded wood panel.

I LOVE the structure of watercolor paper and obviously, I also love abstract art & colors. But somehow I was missing a better base for my watercolor pieces.

So I decided to go to Bauhaus & try to find a proper base. Found a woodpanel & asked them to cut it in smaller pieces & took them home.

Then I used my sanding machine to sand them all, then I grounded them with Gesso, added glue on them, glued the watercolor paintings on top, turned them around & pressed them with a heavy book over night et voila: I have a watercolor painting on a strong, solid base! I still have five to go ;). Then I will put them online for selling, but in case you are interested already, let me know :)

2. Painting into books

Painted books. A random swedish book from the second hand store and: the good old Campbell. Whoever studied biology knows ;)

What a sacrilege… I used to treat books like holy things. But with time I realized they need to be used & instead of letting my biology bibles wither around, I decided to paint them and like that, honor their existence.

3. ACEOs (Art Cards Editions & Originals)

Second try to make ACEOs and I actually finished this series!

I saw this on TikTok and thought: “WHY have I never come across this?!” I LOVE tiny art! Always have! My family used to make fun of me about this.

So I decided to make a bunch of ACEOs, one set I even finished, the second one is on its way, as I re-painted the cards:

Second try of creating ACEOs, those were supposed to be cell organelles… painted over them to make something abstract & play with colors.

4. Sketchbook paintings

Most recent sketchbook page, including collage pieces. Any my circle cut-outs.

I manage to regularly paint & sketch into my sketchbook. I use it as play-time and trying out different things. This is my most recent spread, where I added collage pieces & circle cut-outs I use for the next crazy idea:

5. Hole-punching & creating circles

How to describe this the best… hole-punch crazyness & re-assembly into cute circles.

I have absolutely no idea how to describe that, nor do I know what this is or will be fore. All I know is that I love to hole-punch my old paintings, collect these tiny, bend circles & create those beautiful & cute glued round bigger circles. This is just so meditative, I can only recommend it :)

6. Large acrylics on woodpanel

40x40cm paintings on wood panel, one is a commission I got stuck with, the others are the throw-away panels.

I have a comission that I am supposed to paint. I got stuck with it, because it does not look like the reference I paint it from. I did that one with watercolor & markers & now, acrylics on canvas just dont crate teh same effects… I got frustrated, until I saw a video of a Golden product that makes acrylic paint flow like watercolor! I got it & will soon be able to continue on the piece. The other two are paintings I crated as throw-away panels along the commission :)

7. Painting stones

Painting stones… or one at least, the others are prepared already…

I love stones.Always have collected them. Not just gemstones & crystals, but also these types of stones! And painting them is A LOT of fun, have done several presents painting them with flowers & as you can see here, just one is done. Bu tat least the stones are ready to be painted ;)

8. Fabric on paper & coloring it

Fabric glued on sketchbook & paper to make something from it.

I saw this net-like curtain in the second hand store & thought: “I need to get it & cut it in pieces, glue it on paper or wood panel, get awesome structures & paint on it. Here you see the initial try-out in my sketchbook.

9. Artist cards I made a while ago

Artist cards sitting on my kitchen counter to be distributed…

These are technically done, all of them… yet they still sit on my kitchen counter, cos I forget or dont dare to spread them… They have kind sentences written on them & a link to my webpage & I already spread them around for people to find & make their day. Once I even got an IG DM because someone found it & scanned the QR code & put the effort to message me! Made my day!

10. Card-deck sketchbook

Most recent crazyness: a carddeck sketchbook I made. LOVE it!

I saw this on TikTok and had to try it, immediately! And of course: I love it! Its a perfect take-away format & I feel absolutely not precious about it ,as its not high-quality material, just a card-deck. So I feel much more free to paint in it!

Okay, that was it for today. I really hope this email is not too large, got a warning, but it dissapeared :D

I wish you an amazing week & lots of creativity! If not in form of art, then creative thoughts, actions, decisions, meals cooked or time spend feeling as the amazing creation that you are!

Love,
Daria