Aš ir mano katė / I And My Cat
aliejus, drobė 50 x 70 cm / oil on canvas, 50 x 70 cm
Every man is an artist, but only an artist knows it. I absolutely agree. Furthermore, I am trying to convey this perspective to those around me. For instance, learning a language could also be a creative process. Such perspective makes us relax and ignite curiosity, and these two help us learn and feel more comfortable. ame ir tampame žingeidūs, o tai padeda mokytis ir geriau jaustis.
I have been drawing and writing (fairy tales, poems and stories) from an early age. The artist Oleg Karavajev was my teacher of visual arts and especially painting. Thanks to him I fell in love with impressionism and was empowered to daringly express myself in vivid colours.
I wrote a book ''I and My Cat'' (LT) in 2007. The book is an allegory of a journey within, a journey of self-actualization. It is comprised of 9 fairy tales illustrating different stages of self-actualization. Basically, the cat stands for the soul meanwhile the I represents the ego. Thus the whole book is a dialogue between these two parts of an individual.
Du pasauliai / Two Worlds
oil on canvas, 60 x 60 cm / aliejus, drobė 60 x 60 cm
Močiutės sodas / Grandma's Garden
aliejus, drobė 60 x 90 cm / oil on canvas 60 x 90 cm
Namo / On My Way Home
aliejus, drobė 60 x 80 cm / oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
Naujasis amžius / The New Age
aliejus, drobė 60 x 90 cm / oil on canvas 60 x 90 cm
As you may have already noticed, my works are saturated with bright colours. On the one hand, it depends on my personality. On the other hand, it is defined by the source they come from. The plots that are reflected in my works come from the other world, the world of dreams and visions.
The picture ''I and my cat'' can be found on the cover of my book. I really love cats and I did have a kitten while writing the book, but it is more than that. A cat is a symbol of the soul. We can see two cats in the painting, one of which is looking at the Moon (the subconscious). Another one, the rational one, is looking at the spectator, the tangible world of matter. Thus we observe the dialogue between the ego and the soul, and the book tells a story of the journey within. The milestones of the journey are fairy tales. Each fairy tale has its own painting which cannot be found in the book (you will see my mandalas instead). The painting ''On My Way Home'' illustrates the last fairy tale of the nine about coming back home. The subject matter of it is coming back to yourself and this is how I portrayed the inner garden of my soul.
The painting ''Grandma's Garden'' truly is the garden of my grandma which I often see in my dreams. My grandma Domicelė had a garden and I used to spend a great deal of time there. My grandma was a generous, warm person and had this incredible ability to enjoy life. I believe she was my source of inspiration when it comes to dancing on my own and enjoying it thoroughly. I feel a strong connection to those who passed away and I often meet them in my dreams. The tulips that I saw in my dream were so vivid and playful I could not but paint them on canvas.
The picture ''The New Age'' illustrates an important shift in my life. I had this dream of the light blue Moon. In my work, the Moon is held by a woman who is guarded by a wolf. Several weeks later I went to a bookshop to discover a book that literally changed my life. It was called The Space of Love by Vladimir Megre. That was the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series. The books we have read inspired my husband and I to look for a place and community outside of the city and start living in nature. We've been living in our kin's domain for years now.