OrideaCreates

08/16/2026

This piece feels a little like the inside of my mind — crowded, messy, wandering in a hundred directions, but somehow always looking for something beautiful.

It’s a mixed media paper collage, made entirely from paper, cardboard and dried natural flowers, layered into this little world of birds, flowers, night skies and things growing where they perhaps shouldn’t.

And somewhere in all of that, the words I wanted to leave myself with:

Be brave in this life.

Because life asks that of us more often than we expect.

07/23/2026

07/09/2026

Mush Love is proud to welcome Diana Tohar / Orienda Creates to this year's exhibition!

Diana Tohar is a Calgary-based self-taught paper artist and the creator behind Oridea Creates. Her work combines hand-cut paper, watercolor, ink, and layered collage to create gentle, detailed pieces with quiet emotional depth.

Diana began making art while caring for her young son through his cancer diagnosis and then relapse. What started as a way to cope became a visual language for grief, tenderness, survival, and hope.

Her work is rooted in empathy, memory, childhood, caregiving, and the small moments that help people feel less alone.

Through soft colours, delicate textures, hidden details, and storybook-like imagery, Diana invites viewers to slow down, look closer, and connect with the stories beneath the surface.

Alongside her original paper artworks, Diana creates prints, greeting cards, calendars, stationery, totes, and other artful goods through Oridea Creates.
She also teaches creative workshops that offer a warm, accessible space for people to reconnect with imagination, play, and the grounding act of making something by hand.

The Mush Love exhibition runs from July 18th to 26th, 2026 at the NVRLND Boutique - 1048 21 Ave SE, Calgary, AB. For more information on all of the amazing special events taking place through out this year's fabulous fungi festival, be sure to visit www.mushlovearts.com 🍄 ❤️

07/01/2026

A few years ago, someone looked at my art prints and asked in dismissal, “What are those good for?”

At that moment, something broke open in me.

My work was never just paper, colour or prints on display. It was where loss went when I had nowhere else to put it. It was how I stayed connected during a time that felt impossible to hold.

I feel like I know the answer now.

Art is good for healing.
For remembering.
For surviving.

Sometimes, that is more than enough.

06/21/2026

I wrote an essay about a piece I made when I was trying to do something impossible: keep my children untouched by fear.

It is a small artwork of two sunflowers in a jar, but underneath it was a much bigger feeling - the ache of wanting love to become protection.

The Jar I Could Not Keep Closed - now on my website - link in bio.

06/18/2026

This paper art piece feels like a wish more than a scene: that even in dark places, soft things can still find us.

I feel so much of my work lives in that space between whimsy and longing. The bright colors are there, the playful details are there, but underneath it all is a wish for softness. For protection. For small lights in dark places.

May gentle things find their way to you ✨️

06/13/2026

Some pieces stay quiet for years before we understand what they were trying to say.

I wrote about one of those pieces on my blog ✨️

The Whale That Carried My World
is now up at orideacreates.com, or through the link in my bio.

06/09/2026

The finished artwork is only one part of the story.

Behind every piece I've created are experiences, emotions, questions, and moments that often remain unseen. I've decided to make space for those stories by adding a blog to my website.

It will be a place for reflections on creativity, grief, healing, motherhood, and the complicated process of making art while living through life's hardest seasons.

A place to share not only what I create, but why.

If you'd like to look a little deeper into the work and the person behind it, I'd be honored to have you there.

https://orideacreates.com/my-blog/

Link in bio.

06/02/2026

I'm excited to be a featured artist in the 2026 See Me. Hear Me. Art Show about Empathy at Canopy Studios.

For this exhibition, I'll be showcasing a paper art piece that is especially meaningful to me. Built from hundreds of individually cut pieces of paper, this lighthouse became a reflection of what empathy means to me—not fixing someone's pain, but standing beside them through it.

A lighthouse doesn't stop the storm. It doesn't calm the waves. It simply remains present, offering light, guidance, and hope to those navigating difficult waters. In many ways, that is what empathy has looked like throughout my own journey: the people who stayed, listened, witnessed, and helped carry the weight when the path felt impossible.

I'm grateful to be part of a show exploring such an important and deeply human theme, and I look forward to sharing this piece and its story with the community this June 💛