Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Night is more richly colored

Moikka! Today I share my project for Art Daily Cafe (link) with this month’s theme of ”Night Dreaming, Day Dreaming”. You can see the theme post here (link). The piece was also influenced by a Christmas present I got, in more than one way. That’s quite common to my process. I have the “big theme” to give the spark and then something other finesses the project by setting a type, a color or a detail to it.

When I started to think about the monthly theme, I started leaning towards the night. If I could decide my daily schedule, I’d love to stay up really late and sleep in during the morning and day. But with two kids and a full-time job, that’s not an option at the moment. But still I feel more like a night person than a day person. I love how landscape is totally different during night time, how peaceful it usually is and how I can create and work without any disruptions. I love the blue shades of winter nights and the moon gleaming and the really light summer nights with blackbirds singing. They bring back memories.

Also something that connects to night is one of my favorite operas, the Magic Flute. It has a special place in my heart as I’ve seen quite a few versions and also made dresses to two while I was working at Finnish National Opera. I find the fairytale like plot light and amusing and enjoy the music. I guess it’s not a surprise that the crystal-clear notes, like cold, sparkling stars of the Queen of the Night’s aria speak to me. As a child, before getting a synopsis or more over, a libretto, into my hands, I thought the Queen is singing something beautiful about the night or at least isn’t talking about wrath, murder and disowning her own daughter.

That all being told, I chose to do a collage piece of my Queen of the Night. The idea of the collage came from the present I got which hold a memo game of collaged pieces. I was intrigued while going through the cards by how many different ways there was to make collages, how many styles. Some of them were like story book illustrations, some could be found in fashion magazines, some fun, some thought-provoking and so forth. So, I grabbed some adds and cut out a lady, some objects, lovely pieces of indigo colored backgrounds and elements and then two eyes out of a wrapping paper that hold a copy of “Alice in Wonderland” illustrated by Salvador Dali inside.

Before adding my cut-out elements to the journal, I added some black gesso and sparkly acrylic paint to the page. Very appropriately the name of the paint was “Night Sky”. Then I used Soft Matte Gel as my adhesive and adhered the collage elements in place. I added some stamping here and there using the “Dream Without Fear” set and then doodled some stars using paint markers.

While I was then finishing the page with a quote by Vincent van Gogh, my husband said that I looked like a blackmailer, cutting letters out of the stickers. I actually would have loved to use whole words more but unfortunately those weren’t among the stickers. Naturally I could have chosen another quote, but the words of the Dutch artist spoke to me. “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”

My tips and sources of inspiration this month include listening your favorite piece of music and turning that into something creative. It can just be painting without a more profound meaning or a try to turn those notes into a picture for all to see. If you are not familiar with the aria I’m referring to, here’s a link to one of the many versions in YouTube (link). The other tip is to look art. See the materials the artist used, see the brush strokes or the lack of them, the colors, the textures, the motifs… As I quoted Vincent in my piece, try “The Starry Night” (1889) or “Café Terrace at Night” (1888) for example. They both have amazing colors, vivid brush strokes and great atmosphere.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing all the best to you!