[2] During World War I, Vīka served as an assistant nurse, worked as an educator and maid in Russia, Poland and Lithuania, and completed a course in accounting.

People's university) in 1920–1922 and studied under the painters Romans Suta (1921–1922), Augusts Zauers (1922–1925) and Uga Skulme (1925–1927).

[1][4] In the 1930s and 1940s, she made multi-colour watercolour and oil paintings of scenes from everyday life and dreamy visions, typically with women as central figures.

She was expelled from the Artists' Union of the Latvian SSR [lv] in 1950 "for remnants of formalism in her oeuvre" but was readmitted in 1957.

[2][5] She became the stepmother of her husband's sons Anšlavs and Vidvuds;[2] the former became a successful writer in the 1930s and was influenced by her works and personality.

[2][7] In the postwar period, Vīka lived in poverty, spending winters painting in Riga and summers in Dobele.

In 2021, the town announced a plan to create a cultural centre in her honour, located near the Dobele art school.

[9] To celebrate Vīka's 125th birthday in 2022, Latvijas Pasts released a postage stamp block featuring her and her works as part of its series Outstanding Latvian Artists.