Meet Raven Ritrovato

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Raven Ritrovato. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Raven below.

Raven, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I grew up in a family of creative people who didn’t necessarily see themselves that way. My mother had a talent for cake decoration, my sister had a beautiful singing voice, my father would sing and dance with me, and my brother had a diverse skill set that included singing, art, and writing. Many art forms intrigued me as a kid, and my hobbies jumped frequently as my mom always encouraged me to try new things. Between movie making, singing, acting, clothes making, dance, etc, you can see creative things were always an interest of mine, although none fully stuck with me. When I began exploring fine art, it became quickly apparent that something about it drew me to it, no pun intended. I loved creating art, and for the first time, I found something that I was naturally good at, which was a huge confidence boost. As I took more classes and received critiques, I improved my skills, and that confidence in my abilities only grew.
Referring back to my brother, a lot of my confidence is due to him. Being eight years older than me, I always looked up to him both literally and figuratively. He was one of the most popular kids in school, an athletic star, and had a bold, friendly, and charismatic personality that made him stand out. His confidence was infectious, and he inspired me to be more like him. He never shied away from singing at the top of his lungs or making new friends and always wore a smile. After he passed away, I made a promise to myself to always be confident in who I am and what I do, to embrace my quirks, always wear a smile, and to have fun while making amazing memories and friends along the way because life is too short not to.
Now that I made you all sad, let me add some cheese to lighten the mood. I have a significant reason for my confidence, and that is my husband. I address this further in the interview, but he has always been one of my top supporters and constantly pushes me to do better for myself. He challenges me on decisions, and he praises me frequently, whether it be for my art or doing something around the house. As a person, he makes me feel beautiful, strong and cared for. As an artist, he humbles me at times, but he also boasts of me more than I would allow myself, which is the biggest confidence boost I could ask for.
My husband was also the one who helped teach me how to take care of myself, which was very much needed for my confidence to grow. My family was happy enough to have food growing up that we never learned the importance of eating healthy. As a result, I became overweight as a teenager, and this took a toll on my confidence. However, I was also built strong, stronger than some boys, and I found pride in that. I turned my weakness into an asset and excelled in cheerleading, becoming known as the powerhouse of the team and learning to love my body, no matter the shape. But there was always a feeling that I could be better, and when my body struggled to perform, I knew I had to do something about it. After discussing it with my husband, I started providing my body with proper nutrients and exercise. It was many days of hard work and It wasn’t easy as I struggled to do things I didn’t want to do, but over time I gained even more strength, confidence, and cognitive energy to perform that overall made me proud of myself for pushing through.
Although I deal with these body issues, anxieties, and other faults, I’ve always had an appreciation for who I am. There is no other me out there, I am truly unique, and I feel that a combination of all these thoughts; practicing what you do, taking care of yourself, being surrounded by good people, and not caring what others think, are kind of cliché things. However, when you do have one if not all of these in your life, you notice a difference. When you have an appreciation for yourself and the good around you, gaining confidence doesn’t feel as hard to obtain, in my opinion.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Much of my work today includes the female form, along with the integration of flora and fauna that flow through the page while exploring color and texture. Living in the woods and caring for animals, I try to make my art something that makes me feel as alive as I do when I’m outside. I am currently in the transition of creating primarily charcoals on canvases and organic materials while also exploring the medium of mural art as projects arise. My objective is to find people who want to bring nature indoors and add something unique to their space that will bring energy to their space and take them out of their everyday lives to transport them back into nature. My goals for myself at the start of 2024 are to expand my inventory of many pieces and hopefully to start preparing myself for fine art shows to come. As something new for me, I recently joined the group GSLA to hopefully find more opportunities here soon. I’ve also taken on already one mural project coming soon that I can’t wait to show off.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

One thing that has been the most impactful to me as a growing artist is networking. Network, network, network as much as you can because the universe works in mysterious ways, and this big world we live in is much smaller than you think at times. I have had many experiences that have come to me only because I learned to be comfortable meeting and talking with strangers, co-workers, and friends about who I am and what I do. These experiences you go to can cause you to meet more people to get than another experience, to go to meet new people, and so on. One thing I did as an example was going to a random local art fair with my husband, and while we planned to buy some things, the main goal was to meet local artists. With this plan, I just so happened to have a nice long talk with the director for a local fine art fair and joined a local artists group. If I hadn’t gotten myself outside that day and introduced myself to that stranger, I wouldn’t have made such a good connection that may advance me in the future.
Something that advanced my actual process of art was learning to understand color. When I was a young artist, I found it challenging to incorporate color into my artwork. Despite creating decent work, it always felt as though something was off when I did so. Thankfully, during my second year of college, I took a painting class with Professor Ahzad Bogosian who opened my eyes to the construction of color and taught us to experiment with it. This experience helped me understand how to differentiate each pigment that works together to compose different tones. It fascinated me to see the slight variations I hadn’t noticed before and led me to learn the many names colors have, and how to mix to get the desired shades, shadows, and highlights without relying on standardized pigments from the art store. This new approach gave life to my art, making it more personal than the techniques I was using before. Experimenting with color helped me to look beyond the norms and think more like German artist Franz Marc, who believed that color can evoke emotions and convey ideas.
The last piece of advice that helps me as an artist is a mash-up of thoughts, and that is having drive. Having the motivation when there is no motivation to do the research, to put a pencil onto paper and just start a piece even when your thoughts are too jumbled, or to write down the key points that you want to achieve by a piece. I have dealt with procrastination my whole art career as I feel I do well under pressure, but part of that is due to the lack of drive at points. One thing I do to combat this is scheduling time for just doing art. When I’m allowing myself no distractions and can prepare myself accordingly, as long as I stick to what I have planned, then it always seems to help me out. In times of preparing for a project, I like to make the idea-making process enjoyable. Although creating something from scratch can be daunting, I start by browsing the internet and social media to see what other artists, both historical and current, are doing that is similar to my intended plan. During this research, I try to understand why things were made the way they were and what the trends were during different eras. By doing this, I gain inspiration from artists I might not have thought of before, and it feels like a fun way to explore current trends.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Finding your match early on in life is scarce, but I just so happen to be blessed enough to be one of those few. I met my husband very early in life, so he has been around since the beginning of my art journey. From the start, he always has been super supportive and loving in all that I do. When trying new mediums, subject matters, and techniques in college, he would never be afraid to tell me what I do well and what needs improvement and I desired this greatly. One thing that bothered me most in college was the students who wouldn’t take critique days seriously, as it became hard to discover what I needed to do to improve, and he combatted this greatly. I adore that he doesn’t sugar-coat any feelings. While others would assume at times he’s being harsh, I only see it as we’ve always been very upfront about how we feel, and that only tells me he cares about me strengthening myself and achieving what I love to do. In the last two years of our finally living together, this connection only became stronger as one evening I was told that he knew I could go far and that he wanted to help manage me. Since then, he has continued to push me out of my lazy/procrastination moods and listens to my struggles when I lack creativity or gives me a second eye from staring at a piece for far too long. On the other hand, he praises me for the weeks of pushing myself without his persuasion and even encourages me to take breaks or stop working for the evening. Although he has told me before that I work best under pressure, he knows the points where I’m stretching myself too thin and forces me to take care of myself.
One challenge I have dealt with from the beginning in acting as a genuine artist is learning to value my art and price myself accordingly. We knew in the beginning that I’d be taking cuts as I gained experience and knowledge of how to use my time and resources wisely. However, now with years and many experiences under my belt, I find it still hard to ask people for what I’m worth out of the feeling of wanting to be kind and cut people deals. My husband has been very supportive whenever I undersell myself. Although I make such decisions with good intentions, he always reminds me to consider the value of my time, supplies, and effort. He emphasizes that I should not underestimate myself and always fight back with my decisions. Time and time again, he has emphasized to me how good I am at what I do, picking me up in low times and reminding me that my work is special and I need to act that way.
While my family and God play a huge role in who I am today, I truly feel they guided me to this man in my life. Although I am confident I could’ve been successful in some way and love who I am and what I do, I still wouldn’t be as strong as I am today if it wasn’t for him. He is the reason I research, the reason I strive for more, and the reason I am oh-so filled with joy every day of my life, knowing I have someone as encouraging, challenging, and loving as him.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
The wedding photo was taken by Bonega Photography, @bonegaphoto on Instagram

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