Aurelija Bernataite/Tie2.lt
,,My paintings can be seen in the context of surrealism and magical realism. As the colours have faded, the paintings have also moved away from the real everyday world towards mythology. It was a dive into deeper waters.”
Ruta Matuleviciute – artist, film’s painter, and exhibitions curator who has organized numerous exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. A master’s student at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, she is currently studying in the United States.
Tell me about yourself, when did you make the decision to follow the path of an artist in your life, or was it a difficult decision to make?
I have always been interested in many things. Art, literature, music have been my daily routine. I am grateful to my mother who, from a very young age, took me and my sister and brother to classical music concerts, plays and art exhibitions. I vividly remember the very first concert when I understood the subtle beauty of the classics. I think the greatest influences on my decision to study art were the Bronius Jonušas Music School, the Jūratė Stauskaitė Art School, the literary works of Jurga Ivanauskaitė, Chinese landscape painting and Japanese Sumi-e, and the Flood" exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre, which I visited at least three times at the age of twelve. I chose to study painting as if it were the most natural and obvious thing to do. Every artist knows that after spending some time creating, we identify with the role of the artist, everything becomes a creative process, every step is accompanied by reflection leading to the work of art.
What motivates you to create?
Creating comes naturally to me. Drinking tea, going to the shop to buy oat milk, watering my grandmother’s giant aloe vera tree and cleaning the floor always feel like I am preparing to create or already in the process of creating. If I don’t have the conditions to paint for a long time, I start taking photographs, experimenting with photo and video material, writing. It doesn’t take any effort, on the contrary – if I didn’t create, I would start to feel sad, I would slowly sink into meaninglessness. When I was in high school, I used to walk through the old town of Vilnius on cold, dark mornings and dream about how wonderful it would be to be able to create every day instead of attending boring classes from morning till night.
What inspires you?
I am most inspired by nature, art and beauty. And anything that opens my perception to certain previously ununderstood connections about the world. In fact, inspiration can come at any time, in any environment and through any activity. The most important thing is to prepare the mind well to receive the inspiration. It is common practice to prepare the mind by familiarising oneself with as many cultural, scientific and philosophical contexts as possible. I also have a very powerful tool for this process – Transcendental Meditation. By combining daily deep rest in meditation with constant study of the world and the acquisition of knowledge, I am able to reach the deepest, previously unknown waters from which I draw inspiration.
What is your daily routine as an artist?
I try to have a stable daily routine. When my mind is busy constantly developing thoughts and ideas, I need a strong pillar to support it, otherwise I will overtake Elon Musk and reach Mars in my mind not in five or ten years, but in this moment. So I start every morning with meditation and coffee, a light breakfast, and then work until lunchtime. In my breaks, I read science and art news, and I always learn something. I make sure to include exhibitions and residency research. In the afternoon I meditate a second time and continue the same process into the evening.
What is your creative process?
Ideas usually come to me in the form of visual images that I see in my mind’s eye. Less often they are abstract concepts. Even more rarely – melodies. Then there is a long process of preparation for painting: I photograph, collage and otherwise digitally manipulate them. I don’t usually sketch on paper, unless I want to remember a particular composition I have thought of. The preparation for a painting takes longer than the painting itself. I like the ancient Chinese story of the emperor who commissioned a painting of a rooster. The artist promised to finish the painting in three years. Three years later, the emperor visited the artist’s house, and the artist took paper and brush and painted the rooster in ink in three minutes. The rooster on the paper seemed to be alive. The emperor became angry and accused the artist of mocking him. But the artist took the emperor to his house, which was full of paintings of a rooster. It took a lot of time and effort to prepare the painting so that the final result could be painted so easily in just a few minutes. I use technology to help me prepare the painting, and the painting itself is quick, with few but precise strokes.
What are your current interests, what literature have you been reading, what films have you been watching?
At the moment I am spending a lot of time learning how to work with software programs. This will, and is, expanding my range of creative tools. I am very interested in combining the traditional medium of painting with the digital. During this type of work I usually consume information in audio format: I listen to podcasts, interviews, audio books. I read about contemporary science, art and philosophy, as well as ancient civilisations and mythology. I have also been interested in the Vedas for several years, and have taken
online courses on ancient scriptures, Ayurveda, Vastu architecture, and Vedic astrology from Maharishi International University.
Why has blue been the dominant colour in your paintings in recent years? How did it come to be in your paintings, what does it symbolise?
During my studies I used blue as the first layer of paint in my paintings. Following the technique of the old masters, the painting is prepared for the colours by several monochromatic layers, which are used for the drawing and the chiaroscuro. I borrowed this technique and adapted it to my own work, but instead of the traditional earth tones I used blue, and instead of a very precise drawing I used shifting and shimmering abstractions, which gave the work an ephemeral and digital flavour. In this environment I used colour to introduce the figures of the painting. After a while, only the first blue layer remained in my paintings.
Please tell me about the subjects of your paintings.
My paintings can be seen in the context of surrealism and magical realism. As the colours have faded, the paintings have also moved away from the real everyday world towards mythology. It was a dive into deeper waters. There are very interesting fish and creatures swimming at the bottom of the ocean that have not yet been discovered by humans. All the images come out of themselves, I don’t have to look for them. While I am cooking the soup, a figure holding a snake suddenly appears in my mind and keeps coming back until I put it on the canvas. Although I always talk about the connection of these motifs with Lithuanian fairy tales, they don’t come directly from fairy tales. But it’s the same mythological level, where everything works a little differently from what we are used to. The laws of nature appear here in the form of stories, allegories and strange tales. These are not dreams or hallucinations. When ancient sages understood certain patterns, they passed them on to people in the form of stories, because stories are understood by
children and grandparents alike. They contain information that can be unlocked for everyone according to their understanding. The subjects of my paintings also create certain stories. The stories also develop in each painting, and as the collection grows, a mythology of its own develops.
What time of day do you like to create the most? Why is that?
I like the early morning. When everyone around me is still asleep, the first empty buses start running and the street lamps glow softly in the blue light of the dawn. This is the time for peace, coffee and preparation for creation. I like to paint best when the studio is lit by natural sunlight. That’s when I can see the shades best, my mind is sharpest and I can concentrate best.
Who are your favourite artists?
This year in Venice I saw the exhibition Liquid Light by Lita Albuquerque. It consisted of several paintings, glass and gold installations and a video work. I rarely see such weightlessness and light in her work, so these pieces left a very strong impression. It was uplifting and inspiring. This is the kind of work I like best from artists doing this kind of work. I love the immediacy of Anselm Kiefer’s work and David Lynch’s ability to convey the chaotic collective state of the present so vividly. I have long admired Chinese landscape ink painting. Its indistinguishable and very deep connection to ancient philosophical traditions elevates the artworks to the highest aesthetic and conceptual level.
How has both your work and your approach/creative/working process, its
characteristics/creative style changed over time?
As my understanding of both art and myself has grown, my natural inclinations and choices of subject matter have become clearer. Everything is becoming more certain. While knowledge is constantly growing, opinions are no longer influential. I am constantly trying out new approaches, technologies and methods. It is important to me that there is always a process of growth. Sometimes it’s scary because you have to give up certainty, but it always leads to profound insights. I don’t have many rules for my creative process, only the most important one has evolved: that is constant personal development and the sobriety of the mind to be able to grasp and communicate more and more fundamental, unifying ideas in a simpler way.
Explain what you do in 100 words or less.
Sometimes I am given a gift and for a moment I see the infinite beauty of nature and the way the world is made. This feeling erases everything around me, there is no more good or bad. This is the source of an enormous joy in life. This is where my work comes from and it is meant to be a link to the same limitless inspiration for others.
How would you define the artist’s role in society?
An artist is a person whose perception and all their senses are naturally designed to see, feel and understand connections that are not seen or not yet commonly experienced by the general public. Seeing them in this way enables us to show them to the world and create progress. This description also applies to any scientist.
What is the importance of art to society?
Art provides inspiration, creates progress and improves the environment. Society grows and develops its values in an aesthetic and intellectual environment. We will not come out of a dirty, greasy car mechanic’s workshop without getting dirty ourselves, no matter the designer suit we are wearing. When we get dirty, we get angry because the suit is hard to clean. If we visit a palace that has been built and decorated through a process that has required a great deal of intellectual and creative work, we will feel uplifted and inspired to create something uplifting ourselves.
What does your work say about you, how does it reflect you?
My work and the themes I choose are a direct reflection of who I am. They contain all my
experiences. Each piece is created by following an idea that has come to me effortlessly, an image that I have witnessed. I have always known that the world is bigger than what the press, encyclopaedias or even the most famous and influential philosophers describe. I have always sought access to a deeper understanding of it, trying to make connections with the fragmentary information that reaches me. Why can’t the structure of a cell have anything to do with Johnny rafting in the middle of a lake and the witch trying
to lure him in? (comment: this is a reference to a Lithuanian folktale) This question may sound like Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter’s. Why is a raven like a desk?", but it reminds me of the Buddhist koan, which, because it is absurd and therefore beyond the mind's grasp, inadvertently produces silence. It is
infinite, it contains neither evil nor good. From it comes peace. In silence there is joy and inspiration.
What advice do you have for artists who work hard, create, but don’t have confidence in themselves, donn’t dare to publicise their work (don’t participate in exhibitions/events, etc.)?
The usual answer to this question is that it’s not worth being a perfectionist and striving to create the perfect work. That it is common for everyone to be afraid of what is unusual and new, so you just have to take it and do it. This is true, but it can be expanded by mentioning some important steps on how to do it: It is important to keep up to date with art history and contemporary art. This will give you the knowledge and vocabulary you need to communicate in this field. With knowledge comes confidence. Once you have some confidence, you need to start sharing. Sharing can start with friends and expand to social media. Eventually, before you know it, talking about the work will lead to an opportunity to participate in or organise an exhibition. After that, another. After a while it becomes a natural process.