Drawing inspiration from Jungian therapy, the merging of the conscious and unconscious mind, Maalavidaa‘s highly saturated, abstract NFTs explore the intricacies of human emotion. Maalavidaa, also known as Alycia Rainaud, is a French-Canadian graphic designer and digital artist based in Montréal whose psychedelic, iridescent aesthetic encourages creative introspection. Beginning her career as a creative director in editorial design, Maalavidaa’s expertise extends to branding, motion design, programming, and so much more.

With an interest in psychology, particularly color therapy, mental health awareness, and meditation, Maalavidaa founded Heal The Deal in 2021, Metaverse’s first emotional support club, a safe space driven by a creative, inclusive, empathetic community. For Maalavidaa, creating art serves as a pathway to increase emotional intelligence, an attempt to work through life’s daily complexities through her simultaneously vivid yet dark visual experiments.

You can check out more of their work here on Creatively and @hellocreatively on Instagram.

What is the first creative project you remember? 

I do reckon it was back in 2013 when I was in my second or third year as a design student. Everyone had to create something based on a different theme. I chose Urbanism and modeled a mini skyscraper for birds with a bunch of textures mapped on the outside. Now that I say it, that sounds pretty weird!

Describe your aesthetic in three words.

Emotional, psychedelic, colorful.

What was the most fulfilling collaboration you’ve worked on?

It’s hard to tell. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with fantastic artists for years. They all became friends and taught me so much in their own way of apprehending art and life. Recently, I worked on a collaboration with Chuck Anderson (@nopattern) for his “Infinite Pressure” series and the piece we created together really struck me with feelings of joy. This is not a familiar emotion for me to work with but it ended up being a wonderfully enlightening experience.

What’s one creative project that taught you something fundamental about yourself?

I do believe it will always be my master’s degree thesis in graphic design. This whole experience and process trying to link design and psychology really carved the path for me to become the designer of emotions I am today. My function as a creative is to make people feel things.

Do you think creativity is something you’re born with, or something you’re taught?

Always a mixture of both because creativity is in everything. I’ve been creative in many shapes and forms throughout my life, whether as a hairdresser, an overthinker, a Sunday writer, or a digital artist. Creativity is sensitivity. Everyone feels it, but you have to open the door for it to consume you.

What’s the last dream you had?

I dreamt that I was pouring resin on my bathroom tiles and on my bed. Then I realized that it was obviously so impractical because my bed was now hard as a rock and my tiles slippery as hell. I had to scrape it out with my hands but somewhere in the middle of the process, I decided I wanted to order pastries. A pretty basic dream for me.

One hundred years from now, what do you hope people write about your work?

Not sure I’ll be remembered, but if so, I hope they can write about who they were when they came across my work and see how far they’ve come.

Follow @maalavidaa on Creatively.

Creatively is more than a platform—we’re a creative collective. 

Questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@creatively.life.