Meet Artist Ada
As an Afro-Latina woman, orphan and former foster child, Ada’s first experience with creativity was largely as a writer. Writing poetry helped Ada make meaning of her early childhood trauma which included the loss of her family, language, and culture as well as the displacement she experienced growing up in foster care. Since Ada’s early school experience with art didn’t encourage coloring outside the lines, she grew up not believing herself to be artistic.
Despite this discouragement, Ada’s first flirtation with the Muse began in her teens, as a jealousy she secretly harbored towards artists during visits to the museums with her foster parents who were courting their own Muse.
Having aged out of foster care and being on her own at 17, without the privilege of support that so many of her peers had, Ada realized that getting an education was a way of going beyond race, class, and her childhood traumas. After completing both her Master and Doctorate in Social Psychology. Ada unknowingly defied the statistical outcomes which most children face who are raised in foster care. Having established her psychology career, Ada’s creative drives returned to the visual arts as it did for many people, during the pandemic. Utilizing the forced solitude of the times, Ada faced her fear of Art and began a rewarding relationship with the Muse and her art.
Today, in addition to creating her own art, Ada is a Human Potential Educator and Consultant in her own private practice in the Greater Philadelphia area. Working with artists of various mediums. Ada supports them in reclaiming and sustaining a relationship with their own nature and creative process. As an awareness, nature based, process oriented practitioner, Ada’s work facilitates and requires a relationship to her imagination and innate artistic affinity. It is this avocation; each day, to answer the call of the Muse, to become an artist and to live daily her artistic nature, that is her greatest joy and challenge.
A statement from Ada…
My call to art began early on in my life, but as more of a wish than fulfillment. The art education I received growing up discouraged any dreams of me becoming an artist.
So, I focused on creative and academic writing which, for a number of years, satisfied my Muse. Despite my best efforts to hide, even from myself, my secret wish to be an artist, the Muse didn’t stop calling. It began stalking me and no amount of distraction, denial, or devotion to my fear of inadequacy would deter my stalker. My surrender to the Muse finally came in the form of living the advice I’d typically give to all my clients, artists included.
Staying close to and believing in my experiences as a way to live my artistic nature is why I began creating art, as well as how and why I remain devoted to each creative endeavor. In its worst moments, being an artist means surrendering into the presence of Mystery and by extension, my spirit. At its best, it means I approach the Mystery with curiosity, humility, and gratitude, all borne of suffering that anyone who pursues their dreams knows intimately. My personal experience with the Muse is an evolution of awareness. It is a reunion of body with spirit, shadow, and light, meaning making with purpose. Making my art is an opportunity to enfranchise the experiences which, often are for me, unspeakable or defy any kind of literal conveyance. While I’m not a trained artist, I am trained in following my nature and for me, that is what it means to me to be an artist.
Artist Interview – Ada
We have the privilege of talking with Dr. Ada Rios-Rivera in this exclusive interview. Join us as we explore the intersection of creativity and psychology, uncovering the profound influences that shape Ada’s work.
“What was your most challenging piece and why?”
As an artist with no formal training, it’s not just a singular art piece I find to be challenging. It’s the learning curves I encounter as I’m trying to figure out how to execute the image that I’ve imagined, which I find most challenging. Additionally, identifying as an artist capable of creating the concept is also a growing edge for me. And, it is also this lack of belief in my abilities which presents an opportunity for me to be in more conscious relationship with my Muse.
Whenever I sense this angst, my self-doubts can also serve as a reminder that the calling is, itself evidence of me being an artist. It’s also an invitation for me to take responsibility for the learning which my particular calling asks of me. This daily inner work is what helps me nurture and sustain the belief of actualizing my vision into art. Beyond the meaning and purpose, I ascribe to my art, making art and becoming identified with being an artist is a continual alchemical process that facilitates my evolution as an artist.
“Who is your favorite iconic artist?”
I couldn’t name just one visual artist and I’d also have to include literary, artists. Frida Kahlo, Marc Chagall, & Jean Michel Basquiat have been the visual artists who’ve most influenced me with their mastery of surrealism, the abstract and an elemental primitive style to express their visions. Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks are among the literary artists whose writings have moved my feelings thoughts to images and inspired me to integrate the literary art form with the visual arts.
“Is making public art or making art in public spaces important to you as an artist?”
Making my art for the public is important to me, and, it’s also the biggest challenge I’ve yet to face. As an introvert and someone newly identified with being an artist, making my art public is a huge step outside of my comfort zone. It requires that I fully embody my identity as an artist and believe in my art as worthy and relevant to the collective.
“What project are you currently working on?”
I have several pieces that are in the process of being created which are longer-term pieces because they’re an expression of my own individuation process and evolution. It’s important to me to have my art around me while I’m in the process of creating them as a way of maintaining an open dialogue between myself, the muse and the art itself. It’s during these times when my call to make art and in fact, to be the art becomes most clear as a collaborative process.
“How much do psychological theories factor into your work?”
A great deal. I think anyone who’s in dialogue with and creatively engaged in the imaginal realm will encounter both the light and shadow aspects of who they are and are not.
Whatever awareness or meaning-making construct one ascribes to, it’s value for self-understanding is that it has the potential to help you discover your own nature. When we’re working with awareness and mindfully engaged with the Muse, art has the creative power to explore, represent, express, provoke, and enfranchise the experiences of the individual and collective psychology.
“What message are you trying to convey in your work?”
Every part of my life’s journey to date has been a process in learning to believe in my nature in all its diversity. While that diversity has many expressions, one constant has guided me throughout; my absolute belief in following my nature. In a world that conditions us to be followers of everything that disconnects us from ourselves, listening to one’s inner knowing is not only a courageous act, but is itself an art form.
Relative to me becoming an artist, this has meant that I didn’t arrive at artmaking in a traditional way. So, when you look at my work you won’t see a mastery of artistic elements which most artists who’ve been classically trained, have learned. Instead, my work reflects what happens when a wounded healer steps into the fiery abyss of her wounds to save her own life. Both a conscious and unconscious alchemical shape shifting, my art speaks to the metamorphosis of who I was, who I am, and into who I’m always in the process of becoming.
So, while I’m not a trained artist, I am an artist at becoming untrained.
My hope for those who make art and for those who appreciate the art we make, is that art will help bring you back to your elemental nature. And, I hope that once you’ve met your inner knowing, those experiences become the ground note you’re both willing to live and die for.
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Ada’s story is so compelling. Her art pieces tells such a deep story. I am so happy she is a featured artist and can continue to inspire others through her work.
Ada –
One who has followed and watched your work through a few decades I am thrilled to see it come to a benchmark of an accomplishment and more importantly, an indication of healing and transformation. The distance you have covered from the inception of trauma and love in the beginning of your life to where you are now is phenomenal and an achievement and human perseverance, and endurance. I’m so very honored to know you and to have witnessed your metamorphosis.
Jane
Congratulations Ada!
It is with much pride, and with much heartfelt happiness that I extend kudos to you!
Your belief in your own nature, and your staying close to that nature, has brought to fruition, your dreaming, and your deep desire to be an Artist.
This belief sustains you, and it continually evolves you into the Artist that you are today.
You “model everyday”, for all of those that are in your life in various ways, how staying close to yourself, how believing in your own nature, and how believing in your own experiences, will bring you into the realm of having a more satisfying life that is uniquely one’s own.
Congratulations again & again & again !
I am so very proud of you !
Congratulations Ada proud of you.