Nobody Puts KC in a Box!

Well...except for KC. For all the fine folks out there with a hankering for mixed media collage in all it's forms...at least the forms that I do...I finally came up with a way to offer you all my workshop DVD's in one place...with an original collage of mine and bits of fabrics and doo-dads all in a great box to keep it all in. OMG! KC in a Box!

In order to get all the DVD's in the past you needed to go to 3 different places and order one-by-one. This takes care of that...it's cheaper to buy it this way...and you get a cool one-of-a-kind art box with a KC collage on it.

The Collage Camp DVD is a six-video class where I show all the secrets to making work look old and funky....with a heavy dose of motivation and inspiration thrown in for good measure. This DVD has been selling for $75 by itself. Soooo much good info here.

Then you take what you learned in Collage Camp and have at it with 2 cool Altars and Shrine art projects on one DVD...like this one...



and 3 awesome mixed media art book projects on Altered Books...like this one....


So if you want to take all the art workshops I currently offer, but just can't get to Colorado....or you simply want to give a friend the gift of more art than she'll know what to do with....well...it's in the bag! I mean...the box.

I'm Hittin' the Road!

For most of my 20's I was on the road with one band or another singing my way across the country. I gladly gave that up when the opportunity presented itself...I did NOT like living out of a suitcase. I am a homebody extraordinaire. So for the better part of the last 20+ years I have traveled very little. I did make several road trips all by myself (I don't really fly) from Los Angeles to Colorado and I dug the heck out of those special times. The craziness of LA behind me, the open road in front of me and the only audience that heard me singing at the top of my lungs as I rolled across Utah...well I was the only audience that heard me and dang if I didn't STILL have it! But I digress....

One year ago this week I began teaching...and teaching has changed my life. I have watched an interesting evolution take place....first I had to decide to teach at all...then not wanting to travel I decided to teach on-line...then I opened a studio outside of my home so I could teach to people who wanted to travel to me, since I wasn't much interested in traveling to them. But as I met people from all over the country (and in a few weeks I have a student coming to take a class from Peru!) I began to hear about places I wanted to see again or perhaps experience for the first time. I started to recall the road trip. Me on the road...singing my way across the country. So when the wonderful gals at Art is You in Hartford, CT contacted me to teach there in October 2010...I thought long and hard and finally said yes.

Well as is my way...once I grab a hold of an idea I do a little manic dance around it and go nuts with it. Traveling! Me! I want more! So in October I will head to the East Coast by car. I am thinking about teaching little mini-workshops along the way or just speaking to a group here and there about the power of art, or perhaps just visiting in person some of the wonderful folks I have met on-line. I may travel the southern route there and the northern route back. So if you are interested in booking something or letting me crash on your couch :-) let's talk about it.

Lee Weber already hit me up for a fabulous weekend workshop at her beautiful Chickadee Creek Farm in Maine. I posted it on my site a couple of weeks ago and it's about half full. So if Maine in the autumn sounds like a dream...check out the details and join us. The B&B's in this area are amazing.

And if that wasn't enough...Texas came calling. Now this little Wisconsin gal melts in the heat of the Texas summer (I know I lived there for 2 years)...and since the fall was booked and the spring was already here...we opted for next April. OMG. Clark Mansion in Taylor, Texas just outside of Austin. I have had so much response to a class there that I am doing 2 week-ends worth of workshops. I'll be forced to stay at the Mansion during the week in between and go junkin' with my friend, Dixie. These 2 workshops will be full fast...already gettin' there...so if you're in Texas...here's your shot.

So something tells me the gypsy girl in me has come to life. I look forward to continuing the classes at my wonderful studio house here in Colorado...as a matter of fact I just added 2-day intensive marketing classes to my 2010 schedule. No art making...just how to get it out there and sell it. A topic near and dear to my heart. But, I am gonna hit the road this year and I have funny feeling this is only the beginning....

Thank you all for making this past year soooo amazing. I'm singing at the top of my lungs again...but this time it's in the form of teaching. xxoo

Jonah Days

I'm an upbeat sort of person...regularly full of energy, high-octane creative work ethic....blessed beyond belief. I post all the amazing, exciting things that happen to me on FB almost every day. I blog here full of enthusiasm, humor...hopefully inspiring you. In the workshops I teach, especially my marketing class, I am big on saying "hang in there." Afterall..sometimes you're the windshield...sometimes you're the bug. IT happens.

And from time to time people e-mail me and say they are struggling with their art careers, but they are not sure if I will understand because, based on my FB entries, my blogs, and my comments in class, everything is smooth sailing for me and business is falling from the sky. But let me tell you something...basically I am a person who keeps the down days to myself...just my style I guess...either that or I just refuse to give anymore energy to a bad day than it is already getting...BUT I have Jonah days all the time. Jonah, if you know your Bible stories, was swallowed whole by something much bigger than he was...a whale. Definitely NOT a good day.

So this week... the whale swallowed ME. Orders were canceled, workshops for visiting artists in my studio were canceled or postponed, refunds needed, utility bills for my studio doubled in size, stores didn't pay me on time, almost every order I got at the Denver Gift Show decided on May delivery (great for May-not so much great for now), the new video we're making for my on-line marketing class is being problematic...and I'm behind schedule with it. I usually get along wonderfully with my step-son...but we've been head-butting all the way this week. Jonah days.

Everybody has them. But when those days (or weeks) happen...the trick is to learn how to dance in the belly of the whale. Visiting Artist classes didn't work out...figure out why so next time they do. Order canceled...get another one. Everybody wants May delivery...get a head start on those orders...May will be here in fifteen minutes. Bills eating you alive...get on the phone and call every store that carries my work. Stores not paying....get on the phone. Arguing with step-son...get HIM on the phone. Talk to him. In other words take charge. Lead the dance.

I have worked hard for ten years to create the life in art that I have...but you never get to the place where you say "There. I did it. Smooth sailing from here on in!" Nope. Doesn't happen that way. The whale is always out there...always waiting to swallow you whole. And when he does and all the fears and negativity start holding a conversation in your head, making you doubt everything you know. When that happens....I literally speak out loud to it. "Quiet!" I have been known to almost shout it. "Quiet!" (Try it.) Get thee behind me.

So dear friends...whether you are artists or not...when the Jonah days happen...just remember...dance in the belly of the whale...you won't be there forever. Jonah was only there for three days...the whale finally got tired of his strength and fortitude and released him.

And when the Jonah days pass and the whale discards me on the beach...I will dance there too...with gratitude and joy. Then I will get to work.

What if....

I'm a textile kind of girl. I am known around these parts as a fabric artist. But in teaching my 0n-line workshop on how to sell your art...one of the main things I teach is developing your Signature Style. Developing the look you will be known for takes hard work....just getting in the studio and working....moving things around...touching materials...Signature Style does not happen without a work ethic; it does not happen waiting for the magical moment of inspiration. It happens when you show up and get to work. My Signature Style happened by being in my little basement studio with a few ideas flitting about my head...images and thoughts that had stuck with me. Pioneer womens journals...an old photo stitched to a piece of covered wagon canvas...Ken Burns PBS Series The Civil War....photographs with words. But none of that would have meant anything to me artistically if I had not asked the words...What if...

What if I put all these elements together? What if I kept them in the color palette of the covered wagon? What if I added words...my words? What if I stitched the layers together in an imperfect way? What if.....

And in teaching my marketing workshop I realized I asked what if still...but I didn't ask it enough. I had settled into my Signature Style and wasn't questioning myself as much as I should. So recently I stood in front of my fabrics and in front of my work and asked....What if? What if I made a version of my work...but made it entirely out of paper? What if I could find papers that I could treat just like I treat my fabrics. Coffee-stain...burn....iron...sew. The rush of discovering a new idea was just like it has always been. Thrilling. So I talked to my friend C (yes her name is C) at paperarts.com and she set me up with papers that would survive my techniques and I was off and running.

So yes, it's fun to experience the what if come to life, but the main thing I'm trying to say is that the "What if technique" is an amazing tool. It's one part to developing your Signature Style. I have a 30 minute video on my Marketing Mindset workshop just on this subject alone. And it's a crucial subject. Without a Signature Style you will be limited in the distance you can run with your art. You will start and stop forever....never having "that thing" that identifies your work as your work. And even if you have your style down pat as I like to think I do...you must always be curious, always be seeking new roads....never stop asking "What if..."