Ria Nirwana's Home

The process of discovering yourself artistically can be joyous, frustrating, invigorating, and downright depressing - all at the same time. And at some point in that journey, you could easily fall into the dangerous pattern of creating what others expected you to create - which was 'stuff ' to be packaged and sold off the shelf. You gear your creative process to, "Will this sold out at the store?"

Reading that line, written by one of my idol artist, Rebecca Sower, almost made me cry. She couldn't be more true. And I feel exactly like the way she said now. I can feel it when I am making art or just making stuff. Making stuff is fine, but somehow, it's just the stuff that others expected me to create. And in the end, it only payed off with the amount I received, not by the satisfaction in my heart. And that, when the anxiety begin.

So, here I am, at the beginning of the road of 'becoming an artist' once again. Really try to stay true to the desire in my heart. As for me, becoming an artist means : becoming a story teller of your life, becoming a true voice, and becoming an opener of doors.....

You can check on my 2007 New Year Resolution here , 2008 here and 2009 here. (May be just to make sure whether I successfully fulfilled all of them or not...... *wink*)

Hope you made yours too, and keep it.

Posted by Ria at 4:58 AM | Permalink | Comments

My happy place used to be inside my mind. I can go inside that happy place whenever I want, even only about ten minutes to write some journal of the day, or to paint for three hours straight (if the kids were not stumbled upon my paint and brushes that I put on our living room floor.)

A stock of pens, pencils, markers, gel-pens that a girl must have.

My daily journal sits here for awhile after being taken pictured to be published few days ago. And a bucket of papers behind it is my throw-in-here papers and ephemera that I find daily, brochure from stores or from a journey, tickets, postcards, letters, 'anything good to keep' things (in my point of view, of course), so I easily dig in the bucket when I need those things.
To the corner of my table, I can find this.....
And to the other corner behind my table, I have this one. A functional corner where I can wash my brushes, paint and hands immediately.
with the functional buckets (not to mention cute.....oh, I love this once I saw it at IKEA) to store all my painting-related-things. Move to the side of it....one of my white rack where I can display things.
Zoom in to these two shelves below.......here you can see just how many photos that I already printed out and ready to scrap. Yeah, they are hugely a lot, I know. But as a non-truster-of-hard-disc-that-can-get-crashed-anytime, I think I am safe with these (for awhile).
On the upper shelf are all the mini albums that I made so far......
and the jars of happiness buttons (oh, that's just the way I call them, because I think they are certainly happy to be put together in one place after such a long time)
The next is my other white rack, this one filled with boxes which are filled with things too.
Told you before that I love nonfunctional things which to make me smile are their only job to do. Back to the functional business......here on the upper of my wooden cupboard, I store my scrapbooking papers...... And inside the cupboard......

(you really want to see?)
I know I will never get it tidy and perfectly in order, so here they are just the way it is now and will be.

My stocks of embellishment and mini albums...and things.....

albums....and more things...... fabrics.....and still more things....... Now, close down all the cupboard doors....I think I really want to show you this.....this portable drawers that I found in a hardware store, which, I know, used by hair-dressers, but I believe will be functional for a scrapbooker too. Don't believe me? Come and see it for yourself! ( I love the fact that I can drag it near my table when I am scrapping and put it away after I finished. Simply fabulous.)
Inside the drawers are these.....first....I put together all my borders or long form left over scrap... second drawer.....stamps and inks......
third drawer....left over tiny scraps papers or any tiny things.....
fourth drawer.....strings, embroidery floss, threads....
fifth drawer.....metal things : brads, eyelets, spare blades, or other metal embellishment... sixth drawer ......clear stamps....(which clearly will not be enough in here anymore later).... seventh and eights drawer......ribbons and fibers....lots of them.... That's all what inside eight drawers.....

You still will find this nonfunctional-but-I-can't-resist things like this at my corner..... Well.

Inside my mind and here. I'll make my first art in here later today.

Posted by Ria at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments

Welcome to our new home, my friends....

You may want to sit down in our living room....

Next to the living room is our dining room... And if you want to chill out in Bandung's real cozy weather.....sit here outside, at our terrace, best at night time..... And in the morning.....this is the view to the garden from my studio.....
Our koi pond which brings many delight and relaxing time for us and the guests..... Thirsty? Wait...I will get you some water from the kitchen....... And after you rest for a while.....I'll take you upstairs to continue, okay?

Come on up! My favorite spot in the house is this.....our library and cozy sofa to take naps...... A sneak peek to the main bedroom...... And next to it, Adam's room..... Yeah, sure, Nadea also get her dream bedroom..... which she gladly arranges almost every day.......

And we are going down again now, sorry, I forget to tell you that the kids have their own play room a.k.a study room next to my studio....here it is........That's it, friends.....such a tiring tour of the house, don't you think?

Not clear enough?

I'll zoom it for you.... I assume you will have to wait too.

Posted by Ria at 3:07 AM | Permalink | Comments