“Dear Calgary Art Blog,
I would like to introduce myself to you and share a few ideas as well. My name is Daria. I am a twenty-some year old with love for art and struggling artists and all that is new and different. The biggest reason for my e-mail is my desire to share stories from people that had to face art as a way of coping with unemployment, recession, and hard times. I’d like to share stories about people like myself who in a last year and a half had to find something to do with their time and emotions. I feel that it is a beautiful thing that so many not only started to be more interested in art but also wanted to experience art as therapy. I cannot call myself a professional artist, yet I do enjoy an occasional watercolor, a random doodle, an abstract painting or a burst in photography.
Last Christmas I had to become more creative about gifts and cards, as I was hit with a hard reality of losing a job. I used my art not only as wonderful gifts, but also as a distraction from a hard light of my computer screen and constant resume writing. As a result I was pleased with the reactions I got from all those people who now how a chance to really enjoy something from me and my heart. As a result I would love to share my own stories, as well as those around me. Another strong example is of my own mother, also struck with the hardships of unemployment, within only six months went from holding a paint brush for the first time in her life to selling her oil paintings to friends and relatives.
My dream is to get people out of their shell, to introduce art to people and people to art… Calgary needs more diversity of that kind. In that process I hope to find my own self as an artist, as someone who might have a voice, an opinion, a vision. I have started a blog about work and about personal life (http://dariataikova.com) and even though both are only in a growing stage it is something that I would like to continue and to experiment with.”
