Two years ago, I turned 50, I suddenly felt empty, lost and with no direction.

I could hardly recognize myself.

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I turned to art

&

I observed nature.

 

I found myself melding paper,

textiles,

botanicals,

stitch

and

found objects.

 

My intuitive 'stitch collages' opened a doorway allowing me to

peel back many layers,

reveal latent narratives and

by incorporating this art practise with specific self care rituals,

I was astounded to witness how constricting mindsets that were inhibiting my growth were starting to evaporate. 

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Today, I am a vibrant, new version of myself, with all the parts I liked before but

with new wings for the parts I never thought I could be!

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Art & Self Care helped me re-FIND myself.

Art & Self Care helped me re-SPARKLERIZE.

 

Now I live a magically art-FULL life.

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My specific approach has allowed me to live authentically, with

passion & purpose.

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Transformation is hard work, so my aim is to help other women incorporate the same techniques I used on myself to transform from

gloom to BLOOM.

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I am excited for you to

re-discover

re-align

&

re-'sparklerize'

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using art and specific self care rituals, while having fun!

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My first Creative Self Care 'self-care art product is set to be released in the next few months! If you are interested, you can

sign up for my newsletter

to be the first to know when they will be released and

to get a subscriber discount!

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Together hART to hART,

Aruna

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Hi. My name is Aruna

and I am a humanitarian collage artist

living in Vancouver, Canada.

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I am so happy you are here. 

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Two years ago, I turned 50. 

I suddenly felt empty, lost and with no direction.

I could hardly recognize myself.

​

By using art

&

rooting my recovery to synchronize with

Mother Nature's natural rhythms and wisdom

​

I witnessed a personal transformation within myself.

I cannot wait to start each day living my life

vibrantly & authentically.

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Hi, I'm Aruna.

I am so happy you are here.

I am based in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia.

I help artists find their inner voice, tell their stories & live an authentic life through intuitive experimentation & mindful making with mixed media textiles.

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MY VALUES

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1. I believe art is healing.  Art can help us to live authentic lives and be true to ourselves. 

 

2. I believe that art can bring people together.  Art is a universal language.

3. I believe that artists can make a difference!  I feel it is our duty to stand up for important causes be it preserving our heritage and culture, being kinder to our environment, promoting social change and encouraging conservation action.


4. I believe in the environment.  I love to recycle, reuse and refresh!  I honour Earth and all she has given us by trying my best to be gentle to our planet in return.


5. I believe art should be a soul satisfying journey.  So we let go of all preconceptions and just...create.

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6. I believe in creating for the generations.  Symbolic designs with responsible fibres create heirloom gifts to be worn, celebrated and treasured.

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7. I believe in mentoring and fostering leadership through creativity.  I take every opportunity to teach others a new skill with open hearts.  Through community events, I strive to provide character building volunteer opportunities for youth so that they can develop a mindset of creating with a conscience.

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8. I believe in giving back to our community.  I hold events/exhibitions for the community to see what we can do as a community and raise funds to help causes we are passionate about. 

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ABOUT ARUNA

Aruna is passionate about using art, in a multitude of forms, as a vehicle to help uplift humanity & create positive change. Art & craft are extremely powerful visual markers of humanity at any given time. For this reason, she believes that it is imperative that traditional world crafts be documented, preserved & passed onto the next generation. World culture fascinates Aruna--traditional garb, traditional practices & especially traditional textiles.  

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Aruna holds a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce from the University of British Columbia & a Diploma in Fashion Design from the Blanche MacDonald Institute.  During her studies, she had the rare opportunity to work with one of Canada's leading textile artist, Joanna Staniszkis--an experience that impacted her life forever.  

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Aruna went on to have her own art work displayed in galleries throughout Vancouver, Canada. From there, she wrote for newspapers, magazines, appeared on television several times and conducted workshops both locally and internationally.  

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Non-profit work is also another passion of Aruna's. In both organizations where she worked as Director of Fund Development and Marketing, Aruna's skill with inspiring creativity was utilized in addition to her business expertise. So much so, that she helped to establish the Home Economic Department at The Third Academy School in Calgary, Canada--a school for children with learning disabilities.  

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Because of her passion for instilling a sense of leadership in children and youth through creativity, Aruna created Haberdash Couture Kids, teaching children and youth to knit for causes.  Her goal was to instil a sense of purposeful confidence that anyone, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or socio-economic status, can make a difference.  She worked collaboratively with local yarn stores, schools, hospitals and community knitting groups (namely the Knit2gether group at Tommy Douglas library in Burnaby).  She created worksheets and patterns featuring two characters, Coco and Sebastian, which she created and painted.  (Please visit: www.HCKids.weebly.com for more information).

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Aruna had studied a multitude of art forms and often finds it constricting to stay with just one form in an art piece. Most of the time, she infuses a multitude of art techniques into one piece. It is rare for her knitted works to consist of just yarn. Breaking away from tradition, the knitted piece is only a starting point & is treated more like a blank canvas--infusing with origami, haberdashery, embroidery, sewing & collage. Her novel techniques have fuelled recognition--recently winning her 1st place in an international knitting competition in 2013, run by knitwear designer, Debbie Bliss!

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As she looks back on her life, she realized that everything she chose to pursue somehow all pointed to the same thing--devoting her efforts, passions, knowledge and skills to something greater than herself. This is the very reason why her designs have meaning behind them.  Her designs reflect her personal ethos of living authentically through art and as an artist. She believes that when we can give ourselves permission to live in alignment and honour our creative spirit, a beautiful, harmonious existence starts to manifest.

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In 2022, Aruna found herself melding her passion for textiles, paper, stitch and found objects to create highly symbolic mixed media art.

She calls this technique Stitch Collage.

Her very first piece was accepted by the Inspired Arts of North Vancouver for their exhibition in April 2022.

Her piece was called 'Many Faces, One Voice' and it was a visual narrative exploring Canada's innate culture about the power of

Unity in Diversity during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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*****

Together hART to hART,

ARUNA

XOX

*****