Oh eh so you came here to find more about this entity? Mustra the pseudonym of Tena Ivanetic, a Croatian artist and do it all. Her work reflects resilience, curiosity, and a fearless embrace of new challenges. She is currently based in Maastricht, Netherlands, but who knows where she will go next! Her journey has taken her through a variety of fields- veterinary medicine, environmental sustainability, animal and human rights, and activism. Each of these experiences has left its mark, shaping her unique perspective and ultimately creating Mustra. No matter where her path would take her, art has always been her constant, a way to connect with her passions and express ideas that go beyond words. Throughout her work she wants to confront the indifference and conformity of society, transforming feelings of guilt, anger and urgency into creativity and purpose. Working primarily with recycled materials and found objects, she reclaims discarded and turns it into something powerful. Recently, she has moved into film, a medium that lets her craft intense, immersive experiences. While her past work explored mental health and healing, she now uses her art to challenge and engage. For her, real growth happens when we dare to question, when we let go of passive acceptance and start actively caring about the world around us. She wants people to leave her work feeling unsettled yet inspired, to feel the weight of responsibility but also the possibility for change. I could keep on going, writing, talking, but lets be honest, you came here to find out the basics and to enjoy some art, and there is probably a very small percentage of you reading all of this. Stay curious, pick on the leaves while walking, jump only the white lines when crossing the road and keep on romanticising the small things.

MUSTRA'S CREATURES AAAAA

MUSTRA'S CREATURES AAAAA

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AS FLASHES CARRY IT ON YOUR SKIN

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AS FLASHES CARRY IT ON YOUR SKIN

3D VERSIONS AND STICKERS AVAILABLE

3D VERSIONS AND STICKERS AVAILABLE

BEHIND THE SCENES, THE SACRED PROCESS

MIXED MEDIA I LOVE YO U U U U U. U. UUU

As I mentioned I usually don't trust my artistic processes, and when it came to mixed media that was especially challenged . Not knowing how the footage is gonna turn out after putting hours and days into a 15 second sequence is torture for the inpatient. As everything in life mixed media thought me many things, I learned to let go and I quickly fell in love with this strategy of making. Incorporating anything from my own world into this one using mostly paper, I felt like an alchemist. I would spend days and nights without sleeping, from one morning to another, I learned what being obsessed actually means.

THIS WAS THE MOMENT

I KNEW

I WANT

TO

BE

A

FILMMAKER

THE NOT

SO

NICE

PROCESS

This project was done in my first year of art school, from the start of the process all the way to the final piece I was devastated and burned out emotionally. I decided to make this piece on the topic that was deeply personal for me, I managed to create a mask exactly like it was that night, in that dark forest I grew up in. This was impressive and yes I was proud of myself but it was way to close to me to be a project for an educational institution. They wanted to have control over my process and pace of work, they kept adjusting it to their liking, and I that was tired and burned out kept listening to them, every criticism that came my way I would take deeply personal.

why am I mentioning this in my portfolio?

I think it's important to mention the bad moments equally as the good ones. Nevertheless, those moments where my whole world crumbles down, and I do not know how to proceed, in those moments I snap and I grow. In this specific project I wanted to express how I felt on one late and cold winter night in my hometown. This was a period of my life that was very dark, it was my gap year and I was l working a lot in order to study in the Netherlands, I was surrounded with people that weren’t good for my head and I was overmedicated. I kept seeing shadows and faces similar to the one I created from wood, the whole process was unsettling, carving the face of something that traumatised me few months before. I wrote a poem in my mother's tongue as my art description, they weren’t satisfied with this, they kept pushing me to write something graspable, my process was constantly disrupted.

I DIDN'T LIKE MY FINAL PIECE!

MY PROCESS

WASN'T MINE

THE INSTALLATION

MY CREATURE

MY OWN PERSONAL STORY

BELONGED TO SOMEONE ELSE.

AT LEAST THAT IS HOW I FELT…

MORE COMING SOON MUSTRA IS WORKING ON A BIG PROJECT

(Oh you can't wait that long? then better follow her on ig hoping she will post regularly, or email her idc)