LIFE

When we are kids, even the smallest and simpliest things are like big adventures... But what happens when we grow up? Why does all this disappear and everything become so serious? Why do we become busy and stressed, complaining about everything and forgetting to enjoy the little moments that count the most? Why we forget to be happy?

Everyone chooses one's own path. I chose to smile at the bus stop when it was dark, cold and snowing. I chose to go stand in the heavy rain after weeks of heat. I chose to learn from the mistakes I have done and the storms I have gone through. I chose to be happy. 

Life is a tricky thing, though. You never know what is gonna happen tomorrow and you never know when the next storm is coming. However, you can always enjoy the moment now. You can always be a little child in ur heart...


From these thoughts I created the collection I wrote about earlier in the summer. It took lots of time and effort but finally finished it. I enjoyed every moment of this process - hopefully it shows. Here it is:

VACATION!

It's been wayyyyyyyyy too long time since my last post. DAM. 5 months! However, I do have a good explanation. I been extremely busy this whole winter, spring and summer (so far) with school stuff, exams and research project. Positive thing is, though, that I also advanced lots in my studies. Graduation is much closer again!

Now I feel so free. I won't have to studystudystudy 100% until the end of august and I am sooooo excited about this! I will finally have time to do some paintings! And I already have many many ideas... I did do one painting already in april or so when managed to get one day off from everything else. Perhaps it's describing how I felt sometimes during the spring: trapped in my small room with the books and papers...... 

Or not. I really had lots of fun, too, even though for sure it was tough. About the manymany ideas then.... I will start working on a quite big project in the coming days. It will be kind of an art exhibition project, a collection of paintings but it wont be on walls in some space for certain amount of time. It's bit different. It will be some 20 paintings with one big theme and all of them will be size A4. They will be done on canvas but they will be put in a folder that I will be carrying around then like models do with their portfolios. I will also post the collection here in my blog.

But why this? I been dreaming of doing this kind of bigger collection of paintings with one theme for long time already but always there has been two problems: time and space. This summer I then decided that I WILL HAVE TIME but the place was still causing me some worries. I already do have paintings in a coffee place but I didn't think this collection would fit there. So I got this idea of portfolio. I already did have a portfolio that had pictures of my paintings but those photos never catch the colours in original way. Moreover, the photos always lose bit of the emotion that is caught in the painting. So I decided to have a portfolio with original paintings. This I will then carry with me when I travel and meet people so that as many interested people as possible will get to see the paintings. I don't know how all this is gonna work out but I for sure am excited about it.

My room - DIYs

In my previous post I described a dream makeover to the appartment I live in now but didn't mention anything abt the current design - only said it changes a lot since the people change regularly, too. Moreover, didn't wanna post pictures or so from the space I share with my roomies. It is their home, too - not only mine. However, I can and will share pictures from my room. I thought I should show how interior design and my ideas show in real. I'm not of course able to do makeovers or anything like that in real but little tiny things are fun, too and might change the look of room completely. I love to do little DIY projects! 

In the bag I've hidden my hair products and hairdryer....

Like you could already see in the makeover and for sure can see in my room, I looooooooooooooooove black and white. With different kind of shapes and patterns, the space stays still interesting even though it doesn't have lots of colour.

In my most recent, bit bigger DIY project I only needed white and black paper, postcards, scissors, tape, pens and patience. I love to travel but this didn't show yet lots in my room. So, I got an idea to add this somehow to this project. On the sides I put postcards I've bought from the places I've visited and the names of these cities I wrote behind the different objects. On first one, there is a text "I love". Overall, the whole project took bit more than my usual projects but not longer than couple of hours. And in my opinion, those hours were well spent.

Before. This light blue didn't quite go with the rest of the room....

After. And like you can see, I also love bags and purses...........

My usual DIY projects are more like painting some shoe boxes or giving some objects new purposes. For example in the next picture you can see a lot of my little projects. First, there is a black n white box with white dots - this used to be a pink shoe box. Second, one part of the desk is painted black. It used to be covered with lots of paint marks: from yellow to blue, green to red. It did NOT look good. The fabric with stars is a pillow case, btw! I didn't need it anymore but instead of throwing it away, gave it a new purpose. I do that a lot. Third, the garbage can had some disney pictures on it and this didn't really represent my style anymore..... Didn't wanna use money on a new one so took nice plastic bag, taped it nicely and voilà!

There are also many little boxes and stuff that I've just painted. One time, for example, just got an idea to use toilet rolls. Painted them (surprise surprise) black and white, glued together and used as "storage" for little light things like paperclips. However, paint isn't only thing I use. Another place where I've used pillow case for different purpose is on little "nightstand". Is made of wood and is same light blue as the DIY project I introduced earlier (both are self made.....). However, on this one paper would've been more difficult and again had a nice pillow case that I didn't need anymore....

So, this is how my room looks like NOW. It changes all the time as I get new ideas every week. I am quite happy with it now, though, so might be it stays like this for a while now. Moreover, won't have lots of time for some weeks as studying will keep me very busy. However, I will keep posting some DIY projects later on and share my ideas....

Dreamland

What to do when your creativiness and passion is against you? 

I live in a student appartment where changing the light bulb is the biggest change you're allowed to do. Before that I lived at my grandma's who hated every little change I made in the house. (Ok, I admit. At that age all the changes were not that "sophisticated".) So, I just gave up at some point. Moreover, I'm a student with no extra money in the pocket so I wouldn't even be able to make any changes now or buy some nice stuff to make the appartment look better. But still all the time I have this creativiness and passion pushing me to do something. Some time ago I found a solution to my frustration that was getting stronger and stronger. I travelled to a dreamland.

I started imagining makeovers to houses and appartments that were familiar to me: the ones me, my relatives and friends have lived in. First I drew only layouts on paper but then I downloaded a simple program, Google SketchUp, and did some 3D models out of the layouts. However, this program is 1. free 2. not designed for interior design so the pictures aren't very good. If I had put more time on them, they would've looked a bit better but I didn't see any point in that. I already spent quite a lot of time and like this, they already do give some kind of a picture of what has been going on in my head. Hopefully soon I will get a better program.

My first project was the appartment I live in now: student appartment with three bedrooms, big kitchen, loo, bathroom and balcony. The appartment is around 75m² (807 Sq Ft) and my room which is the first one from entrance is around 14m² (150 Sq Ft). I didn't add any furniture because the appartment changes all the time when new roomies come and go. I am the only one who tends to stay.

My makeover is made for me and my boyfriend or then to some other couple with similar taste. Only one bedroom remained. The one in the middle became a living room and my room is turned into a workroom (or office/library) where I can paint and do all my little creative projects. Kitchen is changed quite a lot and bathroom is made bigger. I also changed the place of balcony door to create more clear lines and dining area. The floors are mostly laminate flooring but in kitchen there are tiles (bigger than in the picture) that go with the colour of the laminate. The walls are white or close to white but in bedroom and living room there is one feature wall in each. In kitchen one wall is black: it is painted with school board paint so you can write menus of the week or some good recipes on it. This is something I absolutely love and want in my future home one day!

Kitchen. I wanted to keep an open kitchen but still make it more seperate: wanted one big space stand as two distinct ones but at the same time didn't wanna lose the spaciousness either. So, I changed the order a bit. Also colours and material of the counter top are changed and there are more appliances: a freezer and a dishwasher, also the fridge is bigger.

Bedroom. I like black and white but in the bedroom I wanted to have light and warm colours so I chose different shades of beige to go with the white. I also wanted to have a gas fireplace and something I've dreamed of since I was little. It's this little place in front of window: a soft bench where you can read and drink coffee or something or look outside, my own dreaming and thinking place. In bedroom there's also storage and a door to bathroom.

Living room. I removed the door and created a window (without glass). This makes the room feel more spacious and also if we have friends over and I'm cooking, I'm still able to chat with them. The curtains have bit "bling", sequins to make it more interesting.

Work room/office. Nowadays I always struggle with not having enough space on desk so of course here I put a very long desk. I also removed the little window which didn't really seem to have any function and put a board where you can have all important little papers and notes. There's also a little couch and lots of storage in the room. Above the couch there are photos in black frames. I saw a picture of the couch a long time ago in some magazine but there it was yellow. I loved the design and shape of the couch so much that drew it myself. Did it with colours that go better with my style and I absolutely love it. 

 

Bathroom and loo. I put dark blue/grey tiles to floor and grey tiles to walls in both. In bathroom I changed the shower curtains to a shower door and added a washer/dryer combo. I removed the sink to keep the room functional and not too stuffed. In loo I only changed the place of towels and put a round mirror.

Balcony. I put glass all over the balcony because it is very windy at times and in the winter there is snow. I also put curtains (bamboo or so) to add privacy since there is a busy street on that side of the building. There is a bamboo matt and nice furniture as well.

Hallway. I added storage to the entrance where you can put coats and shoes and stuff like that. Now it is a big mess especially in the winter with big coats. The doors of the closet are mirrors to make it more spacious. The big round rug between dining area and living room joins the two rooms together. The round shape actually is all over the appartment: round rugs in bathroom, loo and hallway and round mirror in the loo. This unifies the appartment and makes it a coherent whole. (Of course there are other stuff, too, that make it coherent: colours and other shapes for example.)

When I finished the makeover and showed it to my boyfriend, I started thinking. Am I really that boring? The appartment is BLACK AND WHITE. Where's all the colour? But this is so me and I love this kind of design. With little details and items, the appartment becomes more personal and not boring at all - in my opinion of course. Others love colour, I love black and white. At least in this appartment. I have done other makeovers as well but those I will post later. Maybe then you will see a bit colour, too.

jojo art - my story

I have always loved drawing and painting but almost all my life it has only been this little tiny hobby, like painting christmas cards or so, something that I don't do very often. However, everything changed last year.

I started painting bit more seriously around November last year when I hurt my knee and was forced to spend weeks inside my appartment. One day I found myself looking at Leonid Afremov's paintings online and I just got so inspired. I should've stayed in bed but the need to paint just got greater and greater. A couple of days later I had finished two paintings already.

In Paris. This is my version (and mirror image) of Leonid Afremov's painting.

Young couple.

After those I did some presents for people I know and my mom started spreading the word. And the photos of my paintings. Soon I found myself getting more and more orders. More than I had time to do.

In the jungle.

Young couple # 2  (I wasn't very creative with names then...)

Wolf.

At summer cottage.

Deer.

Mist.

In february, 2010, I said NO to others and concentrated on me and my needs. I did a painting that was very important and special for me that time.

Alone. This was by far the biggest painting I had done, 60 x 80 cm.

Painting is my way to deal with difficult times and go through my feelings. It is also my ”hiding place”, way to escape school stuff and all the stress. When I paint, I'm like in completely different world. This also shows, at least according to my boyfriend. He always says I look so concentrated and like I give my all to the painting. And I think he's right in a way. I do put piece of me to every painting. I give my all. 

Together.

 HOPE

Misery.

Poverty.

Darkness.

These three I painted after going through lots of pictures of children living in bad conditions - in misery, poverty and darkness - but still they had smile on their faces and hope in their eyes.

During summer I painted and drew lots of portraits of people that do not exist. I have never been good at this so wanted to get bit practise. My aim was to show different kind of feelings and tell a story. I didn't name these because wanted everyone to create their own stories without getting affected by me.

Nowadays I do get orders every now and then, I have some paintings at a coffee place and at times I "paint for myself". But I don't know where I'm going. Or if I'm going. I am extremely busy with my school and hardly have time for anything else but somehow I manage to get some painting done anyways (it truly is a miracle). Painting is very important to me but time will show, I guess, if it becomes to play a bigger part in my life or if it stays the same. One thing is sure, though. It won't go away. Painting is in me - in my heart and my soul. Forever.

I do.