Pushing the creative edge: Riha Rothberg explores the outlines of moments, shorelines and spirits in washes of pigment and tea

Riha Rothberg’s small works on paper emerge from washes of paint and ink to form shapes crossing the abstract with the organic.

The artist shows her work at Placitas’ Wild Hearts Gallery, exploring the outlines of moments, shorelines and spirits in washes of peaceful palettes of pigment and tea.

Founder of the Placitas Studio Tour, Rothberg is reemerging from caring for her godmother, launching (and closing) her own tapas bar restaurant and closing her gallery representation across the country.

“If people ask me, I just say I do mixed-media,” she said. “I’m using acrylic kind of like watercolor. It’s quite diluted, but it’s more permanent.”

She discovered the technique during a workshop in Costa Rica, where she had only ink pens and a small set of watercolors.

“I sat during a break and splashed paint on paper and came with a pen. I liked the way the ink flowed into the tea, I liked the edges I created in choosing to define the shapes.”

Rothberg grew up in St. Louis, where she always knew she would become an artist.

“I spent some time in the hospital when I was 7,” she said. “I was scalded and I had third-degree burns. That’s when I remember my drawing the most.”

Her parents were musicians; her mother worked as an arts administrator.

“My grandfather was the strongman from Omaha who did needlepoint,” she added. “They taught me pride of crafts.”

Her spontaneous works begin without sketching or planning.

Pushing the creative edge: Riha Rothberg explores the outlines of moments, shorelines and spirits in washes of pigment and tea

“Finding the shapes with the ink is where the decisions are made,” she said. “What is the dominant shape? It’s just kind of magical. Sometimes great things come out of limitation.”

A committed tea drinker, she steeped a pot until it grew richer and richer.

“I love the way the pen flowed into the tea,” she said.

“The world is changing and the earth is changing with this emergent edge. I thought, ‘I’m going to push my creative edge.’ ”

She placed some of her pieces on Facebook, asking friends to interpret them.

“It was kind of like Rorschach,” Rothberg said. “I would get these wildly different interpretations.”

She concedes the shapes in “Peace Talks” resemble animals. She even named one “Hot Air Acrylic.”

“There’s intention, but I’m not necessarily directing the paint and making it mean something,” she said. “The emergent edge creates itself. It actually got to be kind of obsessive.”

Rothberg moved to Placitas in 1984. She has lived there 38 years.