While we’re all waiting for spring to arrive, I’ll be keeping busy creating up a storm and getting ready for a some upcoming shows. Here’s a few things going on for me this month…

The March/April edition of ATG (All Things Girl) will feature my photograph, “Taking Notes” in the art & photography section.

All Things Girl started in 2001 as a personal project so that girls from a variety of creative industries could showcase their talents online. The first edition of ATG consisted of 5 submissions but has since grown into quite a large creative online community. Today, it is a bimonthly, high quality, fun and diverse ezine with aspirations to one day find itself in print!

The mission at All Things Girl is to allow women a place to showcase their stuff – artwork, photography, poetry, prose, articles on health, reviews, thoughts on business, creative endeavours and so much more!

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At the end of the month (March 28-April 1), I’ll be travelling to Washington’s beautiful coast to attend ArtFest! This is my first year going to ArtFest…and I am so excited!!!

I can’t imagine how inspiring this experience will be…over 500 artists and three days of creative workshops is sure to spin me into quite the creative frenzy!!! I’ll be taking workshops with some of the best artists in the industry:
- a resin workshop with Susan Lenart Kazmer
- an abstract paint workshop with Patricia Seggebruch
- a jewlery workshop with Nina Bagley.

Looking Ahead…
April…I will have four photos on exhibition at The 5th Annual Lone Tree Photographic Art Show, in Lone Tree, Colorado starting April 15th.

May…The Center for Fine Arts Photography selected one of my photographs for a national exhibition at Denver International Airport from May 25-August 6th

September…Can you imagine how amazing it would be to take a week-long art workshop in Tuscany, Italy??? Well guess what? You don’t have to just imagine it…you can be a part of it!!! This September, I will be teaching a week-long mixed media art workshop called “Creating Without Fear” in Tuscany, Italy!!! For more information about my workshop, check out the Toscana Americana Workshop website…and imagine yourself creating under the Tuscan sun!

Participate…

Looking for a free art journal challenge? Artwords, the online art journal, is filled with journal entries from contributing artists. Each Sunday, a new journal entry topic is posted. You can interpret the topic in any way you wish…sketches, photos, paintings, collages, digital or altered art before posting your work to the site.

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Urban Adventures
Urban Curators

Here’s a new way to find art in the every day…
The goal of the Urban Curators project is to engage the public in the celebration of the decaying urban environment, recognizing its inherent aesthetic qualities as well as the important role that it plays within our cultural habitat.

The project achieves its goal by elevating common, overlooked objects and spaces within the city of Providence, Rhode Island to the level of high art. The frames themselves are hung with double-sided hardware tape and are easily removed without harm to the spaces in which they are placed. While this is a necessary component of the project, it likewise means that each frame will hang only temporarily. The site encourages others to spread the word and continue the project in their own cities…I’m seriously thinking about getting a group of Denver artists together this spring!

Drop-Spot

A Drop Spot is a kind of alternative mailbox. It’s a hiding place in a public space, where people can leave things for exchange. Anything. It’s a wierd and wonderful way to add personal character to the streets that we live in. Stash something fun and see what you get back.

To find a Drop Spot in your neighborhood, visit the Drop Spots map; select a Drop Spot map marker near you, make note of its location and visual description and head out the door to find it! Once you locate the spot and discover your mystery gift, make sure to leave one in its place to keep the exchange going.

You can also create a new Drop Spot…simply find a hidden nook or crevice in your neighborhood to tuck away a simple gift you would like to share; perhaps a poem, photograph, favorite quote, or mix CD—something fun that represents you. Then log on to dropspots.org to map and describe the secret location of your gift so others can find it.

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Affordable Art…

fine art…paper goods…home & garden…jewelry…clothing & accessories…baby & pet
Petaline.net provides a place for new artists and craftspeople to showcase their work to the world, and a place for people to purchase and/or peruse quality artwork + design for their home and lifestyle. Be sure to check out their daily buzz blog with cool tips, links, and articles about the artistic lifestyle – or the networking salon where you can participate in arty designy crafty conversations.

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Free Fonts…
K-Type is an independent, young and vibrant UK type foundry which offers cool and unique type fonts for free! They also have very affordable fonts for purchase. Here are links to a few of my favorites…

MailArt Rubberstamp

Susanna

Klee

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Quote for the week…

“Live the Questions” © 2007 kelly angard

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke

(mixed media on canvas, available at my etsy store)

Inspiration is everywhere!!!
Here’s a few things which have caught my eye, spoken to my muse or piqued my curiosity…

Artist/Photographer…Dale Doyle
Every once in awhile, I happen across an artist’s work who takes my breath away…not just because of what they create, but because their talent seems to know no limits. Dale Doyle is one of those artists…

© 2007 Dale Doyle

Not only does Dale have the eye to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary with his photography skills, he is also an amazing (an i mean AMAZING) portrait artist and avant-garde graphic designer. I can’t help but wonder how so much talent and creativity can be encased in one person…

What else can I say, except that Dale is a true “renaissance man” in every sense of the word. See the abundance of creativity and talent at his photo site the murmur project and flickr site.

© 2007 Dale Doyle

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Cool site…Art Face-Off.com

Spreading the word…and Art!
Art Face Off is a new online home for the global art community. The site,
ArtFaceOff.com provides artists a free online portfolio of a professional quality that will be viewed by critics, curators and other artists around the globe. Steven W. Ochs, the gallery owner and instigator of the movement, began his quest to build Art Face Off in 2004. The website launched on September 1, 2006, and continues to grow rapidly as his volunteers and employees labor at the monumental task of getting the word out to every artist in the world.

What is the Art Face-Off?
Each artist who posts an online portfolio on ArtFaceOff.com enters their work in one of our eight media categories: Photography, Painting, Printmaking, Craft, 3 Dimensional, Digital, Drawing, and Mixed Media. Their work is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is beginning level amatuer art and 10 is a masterpiece, by site visitors in a weighted rating system. The two artists with the highest overall ratings in each category are then entered into the esteemed face off phase of the competition where their most highly rated artwork is shown next to that of their competitor, and the Art Face Off community votes on which of the two pieces is their favorite.

Face Offs occur almost every five days in each media category for about a year, until the two remaining undefeated artists in each category face off against each other and the winners are awarded as “Humanity’s Greatest Living Artists.”
www.artfaceoff.com

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Sounds of a beating heart…
With Valentine’s Day coming up and all, what could be better than music that makes your heart pound? Take a listen to Devotchka’s song, “The Last Beat of My Heart”.

© 2006 kelly angard

I was honored to have the opportunity to meet and photograph these very talented and creative musicians this past November for the cover of Colorado Music Buzz Magazine.

DeVotchka (clockwise from upper left: Shawn King, Tom Hagerman, Nick Urata, Jeannie Schroder) is an amazingly creative group of talented musicians…their sound is unlike any other I have heard; passionate, cinematic, haunting, beautiful and memorable…and has garnered them a Grammy nomination for film/tv compilation soundtrack album for Little Miss Sunshine!

Mikel Jolet from “Filter Magazine” writes, “Devotchka may be the best band in America you’ve never heard of. This fascinating little quartet from Denver, Colorado has made a wistful, beautifully-arranged something that isn’t really an indie rock record, and isn’t really a jazz record…It’s the album you put on when you want to wallow, when you want to brood, when you want to shut your windows and close your blinds and lose yourself in the wistful tragedy of love and loss and hope and nostalgia that bubbles to the surface in all of your darker, finer moments. …It makes you think. It makes you long. It makes you dream. And if you can listen to the aching troubador ballad “Dearly Departed” without feeling the suffocating sensation of tearing flesh from bone that accompanies any true loss, then you haven’t loved and you haven’t lost and you shouldn’t kid yourself that your better for it.”

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Quote for the week…

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© 2006 kelly angard

Photographer, Robby Garbett

© 2007 Robby Garbett

Robby Garbett is a self-taught photographer, living in Dublin, Ireland who began his passion for photography with what he calls, “strange holiday snaps that no-one understood.” About a year and a half ago, he packed in his academic career so he could spend most of his time deciding what kind of photographer/artist he is and the rest of the time earning enough money for food and heat as a registered nurse.

© 2007 Robby Garbett

A taste for texture
Robby’s desire to make sense of things found him fascinated with decay and texture. “Decay, colour and texture seem to call me. I don’t suppose it’s any psychological mystery; life is impermanent. The proud posturings of today will be as nothing in an eyeblink. Love and compassion endure, material things do not.”

© 2007 Robby Garbett

Inspirational Insights
When asked about inspiration, Robby says, “I think it’s more what than who…
For a long while I simply shot what drew my eye. I wasn’t troubled by the fact that I had no idea why I was drawn to decay, after all it was hardly an original topic. But as my technique and style developed, I started to think about where my look has come from. I think it relates to my own preoccupation with the absurd nature of existence; believing that that the material world is finite and deeply mortal, I see the textural work as a meditation on that concept. The beauty I try and capture is similarly a meditation on love – perhaps the closest concept that I have come across is the buddhist notion of mehta – a kind of all embracing positive regard toward the world…”

As far as “who” Robby finds inspiring, he reflects on the colour field artists like Rothko for example, but paradoxically is also drawn to those who focus on tonal range and an almost dessicated kind of light which typifies the work of Andrew Wyeth.

Personally, I find Robby’s photography is a great inspirational resource for my mixed media art…his affinity for capturing unique layers of color and texture never fail to jump start my creative battery. You can take a look at his entire body of work here.

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Handmade Modern Designer/Blogger, Nicole Lecht

Nicole Lecht is a handmade modern designer who specializes in bookbinding and her uber-fabulous design blog, freshlyblended (www.freshlyblended.blogspot.com). Once I read freshlyblended’s blog description, I knew it was destined to be one of my favorites…

Nicole loves setting creative goals for herself; she is currently working on expanding her site and opening an etsy shop, claiming it as a “fast growing brainchild of mine created to give my work to those fabulous people who support the indie design and craft community.” The new freshlyblended site will focus on handmade books, journals and sketchbooks as well as her trademark blessing books for weddings with goals to branch out into papergoods.

Best of luck to you Nicole…we’ll be looking forward to watching you and your ideas grow!

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Online Courses through MIT

I’m always up for exploring new ideas, finding new avenues of learning…so when I recently read about MIT’s Open Courseware, I knew I had to see what MIT was offering. MIT’s Open Courseware is a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world…with over
1,550 courses with topics ranging from architecture to writing to foreign language and literature. The site is easy to navigate, even with it’s immense library of information; you’ll find a ton of helpful information about how the site works here.

Here’s a few courses which piqued my interest…
The Art of Color
The Creative Spark
Composting Your Life: Exploration of Self through Visual Arts and Writing

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Thought for the week…
“I Succeed” by Michael Jordan/Nike

To the dull mind, nature is leaden.
To the illumined mind, the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

in·spi·ra·tion n.
1. Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity
2. An agency, such as a person or work of art, that moves the intellect or emotions or prompts action or invention.
3. Something, such as a sudden creative act or idea, that is inspired.
4. The quality of inspiring or exalting: a painting full of inspiration.
5. Divine guidance or influence exerted directly on the mind and soul of humankind.

Like so many words in the English dictionary, there are quite a few definitions for the word “inspiration”. My personal favorite is #2:

When I took a closer look at the definition of inspiration, I realized what an amazing force it is. By definition, inspiration is something which “moves the intellect or emotions” i.e., something which goes to the core of us, something that speaks to us on a deep and intrinsic level. Furthermore, inspiration is defined as something which “prompts action or invention”, i.e., something which propels us to take action, something which encourages us to do different and/or see something we hadn’t seen before. No wonder we artists are always seeking it!!!

Whether we’re looking to be inspired in terms of color, texture, composition, technique or image…we’re always looking, always searching!!! We peruse websites, flip through magazines and wander the halls of museums and galleries; sometimes we find it, sometimes we don’t.

On the days that we are lucky enough to find it, what do we do with it?

I don’t know about you, but 9 times out of 10, I get so many ideas and thoughts swirling in my mind, I’m not sure what to do or even where to start! And then suddenly, my moment of pure excitement quickly turns into utter frustration…

Why does this happen? Why is it that whenever I’m not sure what to do, doubt sets in (like when I tell myself, “I could never create something as beautiful, wonderful and/or inspiring as that!”) and I can’t create anything?

I think it happens because first and foremost, inspiration is not to be copied; it is not an act of simply recreating that which we see and/or experience. It is instead, a process…a process which requires us to think before taking action. A process which enables us to integrate our own thoughts and style with that which we’ve seen and/or experienced.

This, I believe, is the challenge of inspiration…finding ways to make what we see — that which moves our intellect and prompts us into action — “our own”. Because as artists (of any kind!), we are driven to leave our mark on the world…we are driven to create, not copy.

I find this subject fascinating and full of possbility, so I think I’ll be exploring more of it here on my site over the next couple of months…

As always…your questions and comments are always welcome!

I’ve been totally inspired by urban art lately…I love that it is a colorful, freestyle art form that is expressive, bold and graphic. I’ve been experimenting with ways to integrate the urban art look into my own style of creating. On this journal cover, I collaged a high contrast image of a brick wall, flower images and graphic text in between layers of sprayed and splattered paint. I even closed my eyes and did a few “Jackson Pollack” paint splashes while holding my breath…talking about “Creating Without Fear™!” Trust me, I feared…

circle journal title page

Inspiration can be found everywhere!!! I had so much fun creating these inspiration boards for my book, Creative Collage…I can’t wait to get them back from the publishers and put them up in my studio!

For another place I find inspiration…take a look at my other blog, Creative Collage.

One very special moment was meeting Sonda and her daugther, Baylee. When I met Baylee, she instantly reached for my hands and held them wonderfully close. I was incredibly moved at how this little girl had so much to say, and how she expressed herself without saying a word. Her joy is contagious and she captured my heart…

Thank you, Sonda for sharing your angel with me.