And the cactus blooms

I am an artist from Kaunas. Violeta Jarašiūnienė-ViJa Art. My love for art has been with me all my life, until I gradually tamed the canvas and paints. The first exhibition of my works took place in 2008 in Raseiniai district.The first exhibition in Raseiniai was held in the community centre of Betygala, and later in the Betygala Museum. My first attempts to paint were very timid and full of fear. So for about 10 years, art was just a leisure hobby. However, quarantine allowed me to rediscover myself. I realised that I couldn't live without art. This is how new exhibitions were slowly born: in Kaunas in 2021, in Vilnius in 2022, and in Raseiniai, Lukši in 2023 at the Zanavykiai Museum.

When I start painting, I never know what the colours of the painting will be, nor what the finale should look like. There should always be music in the background, which is how I feel the shades of the paint. The music helps the colours to come out and the chords dictate the rythm of the brush and the paint on the canvas. The colours blend into each other, as do our lives, our feelings. We want to feel harmony, tenderness and fullness. I like to touch the whole surface of the canvas, down to the smallest area.

Suddenly, images open up that cannot be explained or put into words. It's like the breath of a dream or a daydream. Like a fairy tale, a mystery. How good it is to be able to look at a painting with two eyes and see different things.It's like a coded secret. When the work is finished, I also create a story, a fairy tale or a poem for it. One painting is one book that I want to read many times. Because then you can discover new experiences. Often when we look at other people's work, we are looking for something undiscovered, special and important. We are looking for what we have not seen and do not know. We try to uncover the thoughts and secrets of others. What is encoded on the canvas? What is the veil of paint hiding and what message is the artist trying to convey to us?

Try to penetrate my paintings with your inner gaze, as if your life or your dreams were there. Discover your joys and pains in every detail. Imagine if you were the hero of a fairy tale, travelling through the depths of the paintings. I promise you will find the answers to your questions. Listen to your own heartbeat as you try to open the door of the castle that hides in the mist. What is behind that door? Maybe the sad past? Thank it, say goodbye, let it go and close that door, and sink the key into the depths of the sea and look at everything as if the waters of the whole world belong to you. Where would they take you now? To a colourful future, where there are so many flowers and juicy fruits of love. Lightly touch the angel's wing to know that it is protecting you. You are in a wonderful moment called a miracle. It is getting to know yourself.