Sometimes, even the best-laid plans don’t quite work out.
Technical difficulties prevented me from recording my podcast conversation with Rivka, which was disappointing because I really wanted to share her story with you. But when I read through her answers to my questions, I knew I couldn’t let the conversation disappear into the digital ether.
So, instead of a podcast episode, I’m bringing you Rivka’s story here on the blog.
Rivka generously wrote out her answers to my questions, and I’ve chosen to let her words speak for themselves. What follows is a fascinating look at a woman who knew she was an artist almost from the moment she could talk—and who has spent her life refusing to put creativity into a box.
Her story takes us from childhood art lessons and a very unconventional “Barbie” to teaching, animation, art education, and a lifelong fascination with what it really means to be an artist.
There are stories about Sister Mary Corita Kent, Rivka’s Aunt Betty, and even an artist who, in Rivka’s words, continues to paint through her.
Most of all, there is a powerful message running through everything Rivka shares:
We are all creators. And sometimes the biggest thing standing between us and our creativity is ourselves.
So, while this conversation didn’t happen quite the way we planned, I’m delighted that Rivka’s remarkable voice can still be heard.
Here is her story:
THE ARTIST WAS THERE FROM THE BEGINNING
Did you always have art in your life?
In my earliest memories, my dad’s art collection heavily influenced me; it covered the walls from ceiling to floor in every room, including the bathrooms.
He loved to take the pieces off the wall, talk about them with me, and try to teach me about the artists.
My father never gave me child-type presents for my birthdays. He always gave me fine Art.
When I was about seven years old, I begged my parents for a make-up Barbie head doll.
It was all rage back then.
But of course…
My dad came home with an 18th-century life-size marble head statue bust of a woman
and said, “Here’s your Barbie makeup doll.”
My parents kept it on the mantle in the living room, and I would dress her up with beautiful pieces of cloth and accessories.
I never was around anything but fine Art my whole life, and just assumed that everybody else had the same experience.
My entry into massage therapy started at a very young age as well. I was born with rheumatoid arthritis, and by the time I was three years old, I could hardly open my hands.
My dad would massage my hands and tell me that I needed to keep my fingers busy, and that’s when he told me I needed to start practicing Massage.
We had a lot of people coming in and out of our house all the time, so whenever someone visited, I would offer them a massage…I charged them a nickel for a back rub and $ 0.10 for The Works!
I nickeled and dimed every chance I could and told people I was working toward the goal of paying for my college education…And people would give me good tips!
I’ve known for as long as I can remember that I’m not going to let anybody help me be successful. I was going to do it all by myself so I could take credit for what I’ve accomplished.
I had a bank account by the time I was 4 1/2 years old. I deposited my first five dollars of earnings, and it kept growing and growing. That’s how I learned to manage money…and to plan and save for my career goal in the far distant future.
I learned my greatest lesson from the story about the Tortoise and the Hare….Life is about persistence, not instant gratification.
When I was 14…with the help of my lawyer…I registered my art business called “Rivka Designs so I could sell my artwork at local fairs and events legally.
I learned not to be dependent. I wanted to create a life on my own. I moved out of my parents’ house when I was 17 and got my own apartment/art studio.
I don’t ever remember, not considering myself an artist…And…if I was going to be an art teacher, then it had to be fun… not like a job….And being a Massage Therapist was how I kept my hands healthy and my Childhood rheumatoid arthritis at bay.
I knew I had a choice in life…And I took it to the extreme….My earliest goal was: Don’t waste my valuable time! Do it perfectly…or don’t do it at all.
SISTER MARY CORITA KENT AND THE POWER OF MAKING 100 DRAWINGS
One of the most fascinating stories from your childhood involves Sister Mary Corita Kent. Did you really want to become a nun?
Sister Mary Corita Kent was famously known for her introductory art class assignment…She had her students at Immaculate Heart College make 100 rapid-fire drawings of a single image found in a magazine.** The Purpose of the Assignment was to Bypass Overthinking…**
Sister Corita knew that after a small number of drawings, students would grow impatient, tired, and stop trying to make every single piece “perfect”… This overwhelming introduction art assignment helped her students **Overcome Fear by **Creating a massive volume of pieces…forcing them to move past their fear of making mistakes. This intense challenge promoted a Freeing of Creative Expression! And it exhausted the conscious, limited mind… allowing her students to unlock fresh, unexpected ways of seeing and creating.
I fell in love with her creative Philosophy of continuously working on a single subject matter…which would eventually lead to the breakthrough of creative possibilities.
It was at that moment, when I was 4 years old, sitting alone in my mother’s bedroom with chickenpox and watching the PBS program about her passion, that I instantly decided I wanted to be exactly like her!
AUNT BETTY, KYLE, AND THE ARTISTS WHO PAINT THROUGH HER
Your Aunt Betty was another powerful influence. An artist and art educator, Betty created what Rivka describes as the first abstract design coloring book published by Price, Stern and Sloan in 1956. How has Aunt Betty influenced your work?
My Aunt Betty was a huge inspiration for me. She was an artist and an art educator and showed at the Houston Museum of Art. She also created the very first abstract design coloring book published by Price, Stern and Sloan in 1956. She created seven books that are still on sale today. I’ve been coloring in her books since the day I could pick up a pencil or crayon, and even before I could stay in the lines.
I took that process very seriously and tried to advance my coloring style with unique ways of using my medium. I was a working artist for as long as I can remember.
Before she died…I told her that if she wanted to continue painting…that I would be her wrist and she could paint whatever she wanted and use me as a tool for her own investigation.
Eventually I picked up her style and became extremely self-conscious about the whole thing because…I was painting in my Aunt Betty’s style. I called her four children…and told them that Aunt Betty is becoming very obvious through my newest works…and I felt embarrassed that I was copying her style. I told them
it was just coming out of me really fluidly, and I didn’t know what to do.
They told me, “Rivka, you’re the only person who could truly take on her style, so we give you permission to continue.” And from that moment forward, I just say to myself…OK! Bring it on, Aunt Betty! Because of her inspiration, I wholeheartedly believe it is truly her holding my wrist. I began painting freely in her style, not knowing what I would do when I picked up my paintbrush.
Sometimes I wonder whether it’s her or it’s me coming up with ideas.
Her coloring books and paintings have inspired me to celebrate my creativity in my own work, in the “pop art abstract surrealistic environmental landscape” style, ever since.
Recently, one of my most amazing art students, who eventually became an art teacher, passed away. I could tell he was not ready to go. He was an avid painter and an incredible Art Teacher…and one night right after he passed I told him….”Kyle, if you want to join me and paint through me…
I would be more than happy to host you in my body, but you have to share the space with my aunt Betty.”
“But…it will be OK…because you are an illustrator realist…and she was an abstract surrealist…and I am a color theorist…so we can work together and make amazing things…and he took me up on the offer…and that’s what’s been going on at this moment right now! I am painting in my Aunt Betty style with Kyle’s influence of realism and illustrative genius…
Sometimes…I think…Am I a total fraud? But I do always give them the credit… because that is how I work.
I consider myself a bit of a channel from the other side of wherever we go from over here. I am so honored and humbled in their shadows that they trust me enough to paint for them. My most recent painting that I’m working on is called…
“Pink Paradigm Shift”… it is Kyle’s first painting with me, and my entire style has gained a momentum that I never even thought was available to me.
So in a way I have these two crazy amazing artists working together using me as their painting tool. I am never really quite sure when it’s just my work or when it’s their work, but I can tell you one thing….I never have enough time to do what I want to paint.
My brain is filled all the time with ideas…Sometimes I think they’re my own….I give myself the space to do what I want in all of the different mediums that I do….Yet….sometimes I think…
Is it me or is it them?
THE TEACHER WHO WAS ALSO AN ARTIST
Rivka was teaching art almost as soon as she could gather other children around her. By elementary school, she was teaching neighborhood kids, and by 11 she had become an artist-in-residence.
What did teaching give you that making art alone couldn’t?
I was determined to become a famous artist…. But my father was worried and told me… that maybe I should start thinking about becoming an art teacher…just in case I don’t make it as an artist! That was the first time anybody doubted my talent.
I was very goal-driven and knew that if I wanted to support myself and pay for the college education I needed, I had to earn an income, so I became obsessed with becoming an art teacher.
I think that was my mother’s doing because she always wanted to know what I was going to be when I grew up. She guided me through the entire process of supporting my career goals by giving me art supplies and time and space to do whatever I wanted… which included… becoming the neighborhood art teacher for all the children when we were just kids…My mom truly believed in me. She never gave me boundaries….so I never knew there was any.
On my fourth birthday, my grandpa made me a real chalkboard…like in a school classroom, and I would draw on it every day…
When I started getting to know the kids in my neighborhood…I would have them come over, and we would play Art school.
I would be the teacher, and I would come up with fun, mind-stimulating projects… so basically… I have been teaching since I was just a kid… thinking it was just playtime. I didn’t know that there was anything else more fun to do than that….Playing school with all of my friends…it was their favorite game to play with me!
I found it satisfying, and everyone always had fun in my art class, which was in my parents’ playroom! This youthful experience gave me confidence that I could help people become their own inner artist.
ARTIST OR EDUCATOR? WHY NOT BOTH?
Do you see being an artist and an educator as two distinct identities?
No, they’re both completely different individual identities.
But one thing about my art educator process is that I always do the projects with my students… so they can see me as an artist… working on the same projects within the parameters I assigned them.
I allowed my students to move beyond those parameters if they so choose to. I always give them permission and the opportunity to go beyond the project assignments. Sometimes I would find myself being inspired by my students ideas that I would asked them…Oh!… I think I wanna try that as well!
So… when I paint or do the project with them…I was sending the message out that…
if I’m willing to take time to do it…then it must be something that is beyond just the grade.
I share my artistic brain and how I think about things with them…and they can see and emulate the concept that they, too, are artists on the same playground!
They are given the complete freedom to move into their own ideas…so I am basically just helping them, by working with them as an artist, on a classroom assignment.
We all grow together at our own pace… and that’s why every one of my classes feels like a working studio, where we’re all creative minds trying to figure out the answer…that truly emulates…with our individual creative responses to the same problem.
One of the things my students worry about is…how are you going to grade me against an artist that’s further along than me? I will never do well in your class. And…then they start immediately not believing in themselves…limiting themselves to what they’ve learned to be by society standards.
Then… I tell my students….that in math you are given a problem and there is one answer…but in art you given a problem with an open parameter…at the level that you come to it with…So…in actuality….there are as many answers as there are students…
Therefore…there is no wrong answer!
Of course, some answers might be more aesthetic than others. And some are more expounding than others… but nonetheless, they are all correct answers.
I give them no limitations when they want to go into a further individualized direction..and I believe…that the combination of “the concept” of a student in an “art classroom” atmosphere…
Knowing from the very first day…
that I consider them as actual working artists…makes the separation…inseparable.
My classrooms are like giant Studios! Where…sometimes they are the inspirer…and sometimes I am the inspirer. But…most of the time…it’s more like camp…where I’m the head counselor…And they are campers, experiencing what they need to discover for themselves…in that time-limited capsule of the classroom period…Before the bell rings.
CREATIVITY IS A CHOICE
Is being creative a choice?
Everything you do…every moment…is a creative choice…From what toothbrush you decide to use and how you decide to comb your hair…To what you choose to wear.
I also remind them that pretty much everything that they choose from…was created by an artist…the making of the product you get to choose from… which is a choice.
From your silverware, to your shoes, to the containers of your makeup and personal products, to the car you choose to drive, to the movies and TV….to watch, to the way you find gratification in your daily adventure…. you must decide. Each one of these choices is an artistic endeavor.
There is no difference between the human experience and the Artist experience….We are all Artists…Do not doubt yourself…Choose wisely…Or not…
You create your experience
And…if you’re creating your experience….Then you are a creator…Which in turn…
Is an artist.
THE UNEXPECTED CREATIVE CAREER
Rivka’s career has taken her in countless creative directions—from painting T-shirts and having her work travel to every continent to working on animation projects including Teddy Ruxpin, Muppet Babies, Ghostbusters, and Super Mario.
Did you have a master plan for all of this?
That’s an easy and short answer:
Opportunity.
And what keeps pulling her toward making something new?
This too is an easy answer:
Getting up in the morning!
THE FIRST TIME RIVKA KNEW SHE WAS A PROFESSIONAL ARTIST
When did you become a professional artist?
When I was about three years old, I discovered Noxzema, a white cream my mom used on our sunburns.
One day, I decided to put Noxzema all over the bottom half of our brown refrigerator, and then I started finger-painting a design on it…
My mother came in and saw it,
And I was so proud of it …and she asked me… “Who did this on the refrigerator?”…she seemed kind of upset….so I told her…
I think Daddy did it! …and she believed me…and said: “I’m going to have to give him a talking-to!”
And…that was the very first time I lied about being an artist.
After that day, I was enrolled in Art school with the famous Eva Roberts. She headed the design department at California University at Long Beach. She was also the head of the design department at CalArts. She always expected absolute perfection from me, even though I was young.
Finally, I was old enough to go to Saturday art school…So… for my entire youth, I was enrolled in Art school…It kept me out of trouble and inspired me to stay on my path as an aspiring artist…
Because I became a professional artist so young…I never thought I was anything else.
I didn’t get my father’s approval to be a professional artist until he was 83 years old. That is when he finally realized that I truly am an accomplished Artist… and then he passed away…It brought closure to that book of doubting myself.
CREATIVITY WITHOUT LIMITS
Rivka was also the youngest member of a committee that helped develop California art education standards, working with the Getty and California colleges and universities.
What did that experience teach you about the power of art to create change?
Well, being the youngest on that committee and working with The Getty and the California colleges and universities made me realize it’s not about how old you are or what achievements you have accomplished to make a difference in young people’s preconceived concept of the artist and the “non-artist”
As of now… because of this work we did….an art educator can change the concept of why art is so important to human growth in the public school structure system.
Giving art educators this professional chance to share the human condition of creativity…during the most influential parts of young people’s lives….actually helps society, giving the students the key to being able to pull up the magic that they all have into their daily lives…and… in every aspect of their waking and sleeping moments.
I loved being part of bringing forth the state recognition and the understanding that the subject of Art…” is a discipline”… and defining the understanding that the subject of art is not something that is unworthy or unnecessary to know… or dedicated to just a small percentage of society.
It belongs to everyone!
YOU ARE YOUR OWN LIMITATOR
Rivka’s book, There Is No Limit… You Are Your Own Limitator, explores one of the biggest obstacles to creativity: the limitations we place on ourselves. How did this book evolve?
Well, basically… the typical human response we all say is….I can’t do it!
As an art educator…
My students will often come up to me and say, “I don’t know why I’m in this class. I can’t even draw a stick figure”.
And my answer always is…
I’m going to teach you how to make the perfect stick figure…It’s all about choice… and A stick figure has two choices….
to move or to be stagnant. Being an animator gave me a lot of skills…And one of them is how to make stick figures move…It just takes one circle and 15 lines to make an animated stick figure that appears to have life, emotion, attitude, and movement!
When somebody realizes that the stick figure is the basis for all structural human components and movements…they begin to understand they have the obvious secret tools…in their back pocket.
And that knowledge-paradigm blockage is now erased… so the limitation is lifted.
I feel we, as human beings, always think we can’t do something because of the “invisible thing” that lets us compare ourselves to others and tasks….So we block our own creative power.
Just recently…
I felt like I was limiting myself with a new painting that I’m working on right now!
I wanted to draw a tiger as part of the composition… but I’ve never actually tried to draw a tiger… and I put this “imaginary thought” in my pathway that triggered fear of not being good enough.
It happens to the best of us…
“I’ve never drawn a tiger and I don’t think I can do it”.
Then I went out to look at how other people drew tigers, and I thought…I can’t do it like that!… And then I realized…I don’t really want to do it like that.
So sometimes your own mind messes with your capabilities and possibilities, and trying to be like someone else is a huge burden on the creative component of ease of true authenticity.
Unless you’re actually trying to learn techniques and mediums from other masters…
It seems futile for your own truth and authenticity.
THE ARTIST WHO REFUSES TO STOP
Rivka has lived through many chapters in her creative career. She has also experienced exhaustion, creative blocks, and moments when she wanted to walk away from being an artist. Do you ever get stuck?
Sometimes…
I do get stuck and blocked…
mostly from exhaustion
and trying to make other people happy…And when that happens…I have learned to recognize and understand the lazy habit that I have found comfort in…which is…telling myself…I don’t want to be an artist anymore!
More than once…
I have put on my Facebook page that I am no longer an artist.
It’s like a personal internal tantrum… and…I have learned to recognize it, and not adhere to the deflated, depleted, devastating, old, habitual crutch of my internal voice.
I just can’t do it anymore!
It almost feels like suicide!
But I have learned…That if you just relax and do something without expecting it to be a masterpiece….relinquishing you from having to do something perfect….Such as meditation doodles….you can give your brain and your mind complete relaxation…. and chalk it up to
Working solely on your skills with no end game.
It always eventually comes around within a few months
or maybe more than your truth
is impossible to extinguish…
I have so many ideas
and ways of producing my personal themes that it becomes overwhelming…I have thousands of ideas rushing through my brain…but I only have two hands and one small window of time each day.
But…Just working with one theme…Like sister Mary Carita Kent taught her students to do… take one thing…and do it 100 times in different ways…reminds me to just mellow out!… And that’s how I continue on the road of my passion.
It doesn’t matter what job I’ve been doing….what animated cartoon I’ve been working on….what children’s book I’ve been asked to create…what classroom I’ve been asked to fulfill….It doesn’t matter what beach I’m sitting on with my sketchbook… what it really comes down to is the truth that…I have an insatiable desire to produce art.
I don’t have to feel like it has to be sold….And if it sells….
Well, that’s the consolation prize…Doing it for somebody else puts a lot of pressure on an artist, because then there are requirements, boundaries, and time limitations.
So I’m just gonna have to say, to answer this question would be:
How do you commit suicide?
You can be alive and still dead inside…but there’s something inside my most internal humanistic breath….that makes me get up most every day and want to create what is constantly roaming around in my mind.
WHAT RIVKA IS MAKING NOW
So what are you excited about making right now?
Making things that are not commissions!
Doing anything that I want…From linoleum block Printmaking…To meditative ink drawings…To experimenting with cyanotype and making them into cards….To continuing my mixed-media abstract TetraCorella sculptures…To working on my master series of paintings in the podscape environmental setting!
Also…to continue entering my art in shows that sparked my interest in my local community…With the future goal of creating a one-woman show at perhaps the Fresno Art Museum, or maybe the Houston Museum of Art…following in my Aunt Betty’s footsteps.
And one day… when “they” rewrite the history books of contemporary art…that I will be included.
But my greatest goal this year is dedicated to learning the “gimp” computer program…otherwise known as the GNU image Manipulation program….So that I can redesign…With current concepts of professionalism, the book I wrote, illustrated, and published in 1991 … titled “The Illustrated Haggada”.
SO, WHAT DOES BEING AN ARTIST MEAN TODAY?
For Rivka, the answer is remarkably concise:
Freedom to question documented artistic authority
A MESSAGE TO THE FOUR-YEAR-OLD ARTIST
Perhaps the most powerful question of the conversation is the final one:
If you could sit down with that four-year-old girl who already knew she was an artist, what would you tell her now?
No matter how much you say that you don’t want to be an artist… you were born on this planet to be a creator.
Don’t put up your fists and try to block the truth.
You don’t have to lock yourself into any box.
You can use any style and materials you want…you can sculpt…you can paint….you can draw….you can print….
You can do environmental pieces!
Don’t let anybody put you in a box and tell you that this is who you are… just do whatever you want.
And because of your complete and surrendered passion to the craft and your belief in the fact that creativity is the reason for your existence…you will die being an artist.
So…do as much as you can…don’t sleep too much…because there’s not enough time to do everything that I’m going to place in your brain.
And don’t be afraid, or a non-believer, that you will paint with your paintbrush for other people who have passed on before you…artist ancestors… who left before me…whether they were younger or older…please remember…They just didn’t have enough time.
Give them space and complete freedom in your mind, and the honor to use your hands and supplies as their own tools….
And know… there is more than
death after death.
As an artist, you will leave behind your legacy, which is very powerful to people…And knowing that they own a “Rivka Original”….Well, that is something to be proud of.
Don’t put your head down and say, ” Gee, thanks.” And… remember…you’re giving them the most personal piece of yourself…connecting with them on the most human connection level.
Don’t play into what society wants and plague your truth…
All they want you to do is use you and mass-produce your images for consumerist greed.
The Internet is a free-for-all, and Screenshots are real.
A false monetary image devalues the creative process…and the world will use you.
If an image is going to be made of your work… you do it yourself… you be your own supplier.
If somebody wants to know where your website is… you tell them that I am the only pathway you can get my work.
Get to know me…and I will give you an image…to remind you…of the magical fluid creation time… I spent painting that painting.
And realize, Rivka… that society likes to compartmentalize, categorize, summarize, and turn human beings into a valued commodity, like art history books and world timelines.
And… what is considered to be “A”… Michelangelo…Leonardo…or Picasso…Remember… they were humans “classified as Artists”… and not creators pouring their soul into their pieces.
And when you stand in front of a real artist’s original, you can actually feel the artist’s energy as you stand in the exact spot that they did!…. Also…Don’t be afraid to cry in a museum when you stand in front of their work… and bring lots of Kleenex.
Don’t take that for granted, Rivka.
People will feel your energy when they stand in front of your pieces.
So keep it real….Make it positive and fun… and joyful for them…so they can know who you really were.