48 for 48

In honor of reaching the amazing milestone of having 200 awesome artists belong to my on-line workshop, KC Willis Collage Camp....I am celebrating. This very fun, informative and-oh-so inspirational class will be only $48 for the next 48 hours. 200 Campers from 9 countries have participated or are currently participating in the workshop where I give away all my fun secrets for making the work that I do. Some you would never guess...trust me. :-) If you have 43 seconds to spare...take a peek at this. http://blip.tv/file/1994328

So if you have been wanting to take this on-line class (which was written about so beautifully by Judy Bidwell in the current issue of Somerset Sew) then here's your chance to get it for half price...it's typically $98.

And if you have watched the videos on DVD or taken Collage Camp...please drop a note to your art groups, mention on your blog or Facebook to let your friends and followers know about this great opportunity. $48 for 48 hours (ends Sunday at noon).

I also want to thank the many folks who ordered KC in a Box. If you have not received your Box o' DVDs yet....they are in the works! Putting them together as fast as we can! KC in a Box is box with a collage top that I make just for you and the box contains fabrics and bits from my studio and the DVDs to Collage Camp as well as my Altered Books Workshop and my Altars and Shrines Class. Only $75 right now. Back to $90 on Sunday.

Info on purchasing KC in a Box, as well as the Buy Now button for Collage Camp for $48 is in the lefthand column at www.collagecamp.ning.com.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks so much! And remember to practice Random Acts of Collage-ness. xxoo


www.lipstickranch.com

As Good Excuse As Any

This week I got an e-mail from a stranger on my website. Happens all the time. This one got me to thinking, though. She said that in the hard times we find ourselves going through in our country, she found it rather self-indulgent to do something as frivolous as making art. After all, it wasn't going to add to her family's coffers, she had never really made much money at it, and while she would like to attend my on-line Collage Camp, she just couldn't bring herself to justify such a thing. Now the fact that she was writing me to tell me that, told me that this was more about convincing herself of the validity of her selflessness than it was about explaining her decision to me. I, for one, was not convinced by her argument.

If there was ever a time for mankind and womankind to honor their creative selves it is now. In art we find the obvious...beauty, freedom of expression, a way to take our fears and angst and let it all out. But there is more than that. When I feel overwhelmed by the world I like to look at art for starters, which almost always shoots "artdreneline" through my body, leading me to create something of my own. But it starts with looking at the art others have made. Helen Frankenthaler makes paint dance across canvas, DeKooning's "Women" make me chuckle and be glad I am not one of his girls, Pollock, before he dripped was a Bi-Polar wonder to behold and O'Keeffe makes me fly up through the holes in her desert bones and come back to earth more in love with color than I was before I took flight. Robert Rauschenberg just makes me as joyful looking at his collages as he was making them. He died a couple of months ago, no doubt with a smile on his face and an idea in his head. Most of these artists lived through World Wars and a Great Depression. Thank God they never thought that when times are gloomy they should stop doing something as self-centered as Art. Sometimes looking at art is the thing that fills me with hope and keeps me focused on forward motion.

Not everything I make in my studio is intended to sell and I certainly don't need to validate these things that I do that are for the pure pleasure of doing. I look at an empty fruit crate and feel an obligation to make it into a shrine of color and texture, giving it life beyond what it seemed destined to experience when it lay in a pile of "stuff" on the side of my studio. I am not being self-centered, I am being God-centered. I believe we are created in God's image and therefore we who have been given a vision to make something out of nothing must CREATE. It's what He did. He set the example. I follow. Create. Create. Create. In the first few pages of the Bible it was pretty much what He did. The Ultimate Artist. So how can I possibly think that there is ever a time when I can feel bad about being an Artist. I like to think that on the seventh day he rested...because he had created what he set out to create and from that point on He was turning it over to us.

I've decided to spill my guts.

It's not that I haven't wanted to talk about how I make the art you see on Lipstick Ranch, it's just that I've been too busy making that art to talk about it. And honestly...workshops in far off states always seemed like a logistical nightmare to me, so I just avoided it. But now they've got this newfangled contraption called the "Internets" and I have climbed on board the Info Express.

With the encouragement of my dear friend, the wonderful mixed-media artist, Jane DesRosier I began thinking about doing what she is doing and set up my own video workshop series on the very cool Ning network. I created a Ning site called KC Willis Collage Camp and between Jane and my other super-talented artist buddy, Joanna Pierotti, we got through the set up and I've pitched my creative tent at Collage Camp.

You can check out the particulars at http://collagecamp.ning.com/.

I have the Workshop set up for early registration, so you can go on and read the many words I have put up describing everything. If you're not already a member of the Ning network you can Sign Up for free in the box at the top right. Being a part of the workshop with access to the other Artists and the upcoming workshop videos and yours truly, requires hitting the Buy It Now button and paying the reduced registration fee. It's all explained. Gonna be fun!

And if that wasn't enough....I've decided to give away a piece of my work. Just grab the Camp icon or Badge off of the first page of http://collagecamp.ning.com/. Link back to me, so others can see what we're gonna do. Drop a comment here and tell me you've done that and your name will go in a drawing to be held on April 30th. The winner can go on my site and pick out any one image-one quote piece in any size available and it's theirs! Heck, I'd like to get in on that drawing, but I don't have anymore room on my walls.

Georgia O'Keeffe took a class when she arrived in New Mexico, wanting to know the secrets of capturing the subtle colors of the hills outside her door. "They could teach me how to paint their mountains," she said. "But they couldn't teach me how to paint mine." I just want to share with you some of my techniques and my enthusiasm for what I do, so you will take that info and paint your own mountains.

E-mail me with any questions. Thanks everyone! I look forward to seeing you there!