CHRISTMAS KC STYLE...

Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the artist does the better.

-André Gide-

Thank you all for the kind and loving support you expressed over the Somerset article. You all are just the best! Your encouragement keeps my creativity going. As much I as I love to be in the studio making art I equally love collecting the art of other artists. Boy, talk about a collection enhancement, I received a wonderful surprise just in time for Christmas, the give away prize I won from KC Willis of Lipstick Ranch.

I spent a couple of weeks looking at art on her website trying to pick something and could not decide. She suggested I tell her the pieces I liked and she would create something from that. I fully expected a piece of art from her wonderful $200.00 shopping spree in her gallery. I was shocked and awed by her generosity of not one, not two, but three pieces of her art!

The wonderful part is that I made no suggestions of specific styles or colors, only pieces that I liked, and when they arrived it was if they were custom made for areas of my home. You can't really get the depth and gorgeousness of the pieces in a photo but I tried to show them off peppered throughout this post.

I used one piece, a beautiful angel, with my Christmas decor. How did KC know that I have a deep dark eggplant accent color in my living room?I have this beautiful floral design hanging in the studio so I can enjoy it for now but it will eventually move to my bedroom. The colors are perfect!The third piece I gave away as a gift to my best friend and she was beyond thrilled. It is perfect in her family room.KC, I can't thank you enough for your generosity! The beauty of your work enhances not only my home but nurtures and inspires my artistic spirit, that is Christmas KC style!

We are covered up in a blanket of new fallen snow this morning, a cozy kind of day to head to the studio to play. I hope your day is a cozy enjoyable one too!

ARTFUL NEWS...

It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet.


-Kojiro Tomita-

Hi sweet friends, I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Thank you for all the sweet anniversary wishes, we did indeed have a wonderful quite time sequestered away from it all. Upon our return things have been hoppin' here at the Quill and I have a lot of artful news to share with you today. Are you feeling up for a challenge? Well, Cloth Paper Scissors is currently sponsoring two artful challenges that you might want to get in on.

The first is their 2012 Calendar Contest. For this challenge you create an original 12 inch x12 inch piece of art for submission, you can submit up to two pieces. There are some very specific guidelines for this entry so I suggest you visit this link and thoroughly read all the details to make a proper entry. There will be 13 winning entries with winners receiving $200.00 worth of merchandise from their online store. The entry deadline is Friday, January 7, 2011. The finalists will be announced on Friday, January 21, 2011 on Barb Delaney's blog. The winners will be announced on Friday, February 11, 2011 on Barb's blog also. How awesome would it be to have your artwork featured on a calender?
The second challenge they are sponsoring is called, All Buttoned Up. This is a mixed media art challenge featuring buttons in your design. This challenge also has specific details for the entering, you can visit this link for details by scrolling past the above calender challenge. The deadline for this one is November 15, 2010 with finalists being announced on November 22, 2010 on Barb Delaney's blog. Winners will be notified via email. Give it a try, you might just find yourself published in the pages of this wonderful magazine!
As most of you know, I am a HUGE KC Willis fan. Her art speaks to me and her teaching inspires me. After devouring her Collage Camp DVD series I have found myself wanting to dig deeper and make more meaningful art. I have had the privilege of having not only my art but my heart touched by KC in a profound way. After having the honor of corresponding with her I count her as one of my friends and hope to meet her face to face one day and I truly believe I will. KC has some amazing artful news to share and I hope you will consider helping to spread the word about her new endeavor by posting on your blog or social network.KC is moving her mainstream art into full time ministry. I cannot so eloquently express her new mission as she is able to herself, so I encourage you to visit this post and see how God is moving KC's heart and art. KC's vision is being realized in her new Imagination Congregation gathering. A small portion of her vision is to "To create a Movement that encourages Christian artists to make art that glorifies the Lord, but prove that Christian art can be sophisticated, smart, and collectible by the art community in general."
More exciting news from KC's camp is that Jenny Doh is coming to Colorado to join forces with KC for a Colorado Collage Conference! You might remember Jenny as the Editor-in-Chief and Director of Publishing for Somerset Studio and its sister publications. Jenny is now serving as the Founder and President of CRESCENDOh LLC, that inspires creative passion, authentic community, and focused compassion. This small group setting will offer you some serious face-to-face time with both KC and Jenny. If you are wanting to grow your art business then this is for you. KC will be teaching her Marketing Mindset along with fun classes and outings as you hang out for a week or a weekend with these two wildly creative women.
On the home front I have a little artful news to share myself. If it crossed your mind to wonder where my posts were for last week well, they had to be placed by the wayside while I venue scoured and power shopped for class location and art kit supplies. I will, in the very near future, be teaching a class at a local antique shop. I wanted to thank you all for the help you gave me on the art survey that I held recently. You were a tremendous help in determining strong likes and dislikes and believe it or not your choices are driving the direction of the class formation.
Another tidbit of artful news is this...I am honored to be having a piece of art and an article published in an upcoming issue of Somerset Life!!! How ridiculously cool is that?

Lastly I wanted to mention a virtual studio tour being sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors. This will be a real treat to visit or participate in, so get those studios ready to show the world! The Cloth Paper Scissors Studios Virtual Tour will be held on October 15-17, 2010, visiting the highlighted link will give you all the participation details. Hope to see you there!

Well, work awaits...have a fantastic day!

Many Blessings,
Miss Sandy

INSPIRATION, MOTIVATION, AND A PINCH OF CREATIVITY...

Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.

-Bo Bennett-
I have a few fun goodies to share with you today. I really love learning from other artists. No matter how experienced or inexperienced you are there is always something to be learned or gained, some fabulous tip or trick, some new technique or construction method, and most importantly inspiration. I have long been an admirer of KC Willis and her work and have wanted to take a class from her for ever so long. But, geographically and financially that has not to date been possible. A few months ago while visiting her blog Lipstick Ranch, I saw that she had put herself in a box.

For my birthday my husband purchased her DVD series, KC in a Box which includes three wonderful DVD's.Collage Camp - a six part series where you learn the elements of collecting, project preparation, image transfer, laying out the design, sewing your fabric collage, and finishing the project. KC covers everything from A to Z in the construction of her famous fabric collage art here and this is the basis for the projects on the next two DVD's...Altered Books - Three projects are featured on this DVD, a Mixed Media Fabric Journal Book, a Book Cover Shadow Box, and an Altered Book Collage - trust me these are fantastic projects...Alters and Shrines - This is a part of KC's Mixed Media Mania series, there are three parts to making alters or shrines, this is an assemblage type project in shadow box form that combines found objects with her fabulous fabric collage technique...Each DVD set comes in a box with a piece of signed original artwork embellishing the box top...Each box also comes with an assortment of goodies from KC's studio...My set of DVD's were nestled inside some hand dyed fabric scraps from her studio...

Bits of dyed vintage lace...One of her famous "clumpies"...And a bag of baubles that she uses in her art...All these are little pieces of inspiration to get you going on your first project. I was so inspired by her teaching that I want to make my first project using her construction methods mixed with my own style for a large piece of family history artwork for the farm. I'll be sharing more about that in a later post. This is one of the best gifts I have ever gotten. Thanks honey!

If you are thinking of getting this series for yourself not to worry about skill level, this is great for a beginner up to an experienced artist. Some of you might say, but I don't sew! Well, neither did KC when she started and her sewing technique is super simple. One of my favorite parts is where she shows her first attempt, her second, her third, and then a recent piece of her work. You get to see the potential for growth, the learning curve, the advancement, and finally the achievement, very inspiring. Her teaching style is very down to earth, friendly, and funny with more than a pinch of creativity, inspiration, and motivation. You can learn more about about KC Willis Collage Camp, Art Kits, DVD's, and Classes at this link.

I stumbled across this issue of Victoria the other day and was thrilled...Victoria Classics Rooms of Bliss is a collection of beautiful room images from the magazine archives. (Sorry about the shiny shots below. I should have scanned rather than photographed.) This is not the regular issue, this is classic old Victoria! It is not filled with advertising and verbiage is kept to a minimum, the showcase of this entire issue are the beautifully styled inspiring rooms, much in the format of a coffee table book at a magazine price. Love it!

Lastly, I wanted to give you a better sneak peek at my latest project...Ruffles...Roses...Texture...A tiny shoe plus another thing or two...

I hope to have this one complete by this afternoon. It is down to the details and those always take me the longest to do. Yes, Lisa, I will show the finished project when I am done. She's on to me folks...I owe you some reveals ; )

This post is about a person, a publication, and a pleasurable project that have given me inspiration this week. I'd love to hear what or who inspired you this week.

Blessings,
Miss Sandy