Kat Eye Studio

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Liberate Your Art 2018 Final Celebration

Wow! We had another fantastic year of sharing art in the 8th Annual Liberate Your Art postcard swap. Here are this year’s stats:

804 pieces of art liberated
134 artists
10 countries
31 US states

It was a crazy year for me personally, since the swap coincided with the FIRST Robotics Competition season, and we are heavily involved with my son’s team. We completed the season at Pacific Northwest District Championships in Portland, OR last weekend, and we are completing the postcard swap this weekend. Whatever will I do with my free time??

But no matter what is going on with me, this postcard swap is all about YOU. The swap is really made great by the active participation of all of the artists, and you were a wonderfully active bunch in the Facebook Event Group this year! Thank you for continuing the fun of getting happy mail by reaching out to the artists who created your postcards and sharing the postcards you received online.

As always, a theme emerges from each year which inspires the special edition art I create at the end of the swap. This year’s message, Art brings Light to the World, was inspired by a comment one of my swap helpers made on swap day. As we were sticking on labels and stamps, Kate said, “Wow, there is so much positive energy in this mail!” Such a great observation! Collectively, the art and personal messages of inspiration and encouragement you all liberate into the world is positive and powerful. Your art is a light in a world which is often characterized as fraught with conflict and division. Keep liberating!

Thank you to everyone who participated this year. Enjoy the video of the art from ~70 participants who send me images. It’s always amazing to see the range of creativity in this group of artists!

Now, it’s time to HOP! I have a special bonus for the blog hop participants in the form of a giveaway drawing! At the end of the final celebration, by random drawing from all blog hop links, I will be giving away:

  • One 6×9″ fine art print of this year’s Final Celebration image “Art brings Light to the World” shown above. Having this image in your studio will remind you to keep liberating that art to make the world a better place.
  • One copy of the second edition of my book, Art with an iPhone: A Photographer’s Guide to Creating Altered Realities, which was published at the end of 2017. Sharing my process is another piece of the art I liberate in the world!
  • Eight packets of postcards from other participants. You all were a generous bunch, and even after sharing them with the helpers on swap day, I have extra postcards to share with the rest of you! 

If you would like your own 6×9″ signed fine art print of this year’s image “Art brings Light to the World,” it is only available for purchase during the time of the final celebration. To order, click here if you are within the US and here if you are outside of the US. Postage is included in the purchase price. Thank you! Your orders help me defray the extra expenses I incur on behalf of the swap. (And don’t worry, if you purchase the print and then win the giveaway, I’ll refund your money.)

All right, are you ready? Let’s celebrate! Share your experiences with this year’s swap. You can link in from a blog, Flickr, Facebook, even Instagram! Make sure your image is public, and you are good to go.


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All Wrapped Up with Art

Mail art, one more time! This is likely the final mail art update for the Liberate Your Art 2018 postcard swap. I’ve slotted the postcard swap in the midst of FIRST Robotics Competition season, which is incredibly intense, so it’s been a big balancing act. Next Saturday, March 17, is the swap deadline and swap day is Sunday, March 18. After that, the postcards are heading back out! So enjoy this latest group of envelopes.

A pen and a template is all you need to great some fun doodle art! From Allen, in Canada.

A lovely crane on a background of my favorite color blue, from Anne in Australia.

Gloria in California sent this lovely painted piece. Do you know how cool painted envelopes feel? I love the texture!

Here’s a gorgeous hand-drawn and colored garden, from Regina in Virginia.

Suzette in Utah layered this envelope with a lovely stamp collage. Very reminiscent of the art on her postcards, too!

Something shiny arrived in the mail from Linda in California. Love the foil layers on this collaged envelope!

Sheila in Arizona always shares such lovely flowers in her mail art!

Mary Jane in Canada brightened my day with this colorful piece:

Catherine in Michigan created this amazing painted, layered and stitched envelope. I wish you could feel these textures!

The back was just as gorgeous as the front.

Even my cat Roman wanted to check it out…

Thank you all for sharing such gorgeous mail art with us this year! The countdown has begun. Not too much longer and there will be postcard art arriving in your mail box, too.

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Mega Mail Art Update

Whew! We are exactly THREE WEEKS from Liberate Your Art postcard swap day, and the mail art is rolling in! With this mega-update, I’m including many of the wonderful envelopes I’ve received over the last few weeks.

Let’s dive in, starting with Stephanie in Southwest Florida…

…and another Florida envelope, from Kelly. She decorated wallpaper to make the envelope. Great upcycle!

This envelope from Diane in Australia has some lovely colored pencil birds. Front…

…and back!

This happy, bright envelope is from Bethany in Florida. Her envelope proclaims her a member of IUOMA: International Union of Mail Artists. Check it out!

Djuna from New Jersey included this lovely quote:

Lovely lettering really makes this envelope, by Kate in Illinois…

…and this one from Crissa in New Jersey.

A fun collage from Michele in Michigan…

A beautiful tree from Sea in Canada…

This awesome envelope made it’s way across the Atlantic, from Debbie in the UK.

Lisa in North Carolina liberated this beautiful butterfly…

Jeannette in Washington sent a great message to us…

Local artist friend Jen in Oregon made this fun design…

Anne in Maine uses gel pens to dress up a manilla envelope…

Johna in Montana created this gorgeously textured piece…

…the back too!!

Lynne in Pennsylvania created this lovely, soft piece incorporating one of the staples of the swap… The butterfly stamp!

And celebrated Liberate Your Art, for those in the know, on the back.

Peggy in New York sent this fabulous envelope which just begs to be colored… Maybe that’s because she has created her own adult coloring book called Lotus Trip, and she sent me a copy. Thanks Peggy!

Finally, Janice from California asks this question…

Hopefully, your boots will take you to the mailbox, to mail your postcards if you haven’t already. Only THREE WEEKS to go!!

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All the Pretty Envelopes!

Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap

Yes, mail art has started arriving for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap! It never fails to amaze me how quickly some of the postcards start to arrive. It’s almost like people have been waiting all year to send! It truly is a joy to get this kind of happy mail, and now I get to share it with you all, too.

The image above is from Hope in Michigan, and it’s a fitting introduction this year’s mail art, don’t you think?

Next up we have Lisa from Texas. Let’s definitely have coffee sometime Lisa!

One of our first international participants is Heidrun from Germany. I’m a sucker for stamps from other places, and what a great way to wrap up the postcards!

Here we have an amazing, colorful envelope by Imelda in California.

I always love getting an envelope from this lady! It’s Sherry, from Alaska. Isn’t it great what a little pen and marker can do for a white envelope?

This gorgeous blue envelope has heft and texture… can you feel it? This is from Val, although I’m not sure where she is from. She has a mailing address in Idaho and a business card from British Columbia…

Finally, we have Christine from here in Oregon. Hiya, neighbor! By the way, the owner of the UPS store felt so bad that his employee put a label on your envelope. He told me, “We don’t put labels on your envelopes, they are too pretty!” I think it still looks great.

Thank you all for the lovely envelopes! Whether or not you decorate your envelope, it’s great to see all of this art liberated. There is still time to join the swap if you haven’t already! The deadline is March 17. Sign up here.

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New Year, New Postcard Swap!

It’s that time of year! The holiday decorations are coming down and the celebrations are wrapping up, but there is still something to look forward to…The 8th Annual Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap is just getting started! I’m excited to get the 2018 swap launched. You can learn more, sign up, and see info on past year’s swaps here. This year’s swap deadline is Saturday, March 17.

Chase away the dark and the cold with some great art and connections with other fun, likeminded participants. I hope you will join us this year!

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Liberate Your Art 2017 Final Celebration

We did it! We are wrapping up another fantastic year of the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. This year was swap number seven!! Here are the stats for participation:

876 pieces of art liberated
146 artists participating
12 countries
30 US states and territories

As always, you are an enthusiastic bunch! I love the energy that shows up in the Facebook Event Group before and during the swap. I think this year the sharing of the postcards in their new home was especially creative. Thanks for stepping that up!

One of the goals of the swap since the very beginning has been to foster connections between artists in different places and mediums. The requirement to add an email or web address to the postcards was new this year, and I hope it encouraged you to reach out and connect with your fellow artists via email or online. Everyone likes to know where their postcards landed.

So, what theme came out for me this year? You saw it on my postcard, and you see it in the piece I created for the Final Celebration – these words kept coming back to me over and over:

Experiment, Create, Play & Liberate

 
Four simple words which are clues to an expressive, playful and free approach to making art. Let’s keep those four words with us over the next year as we make and share our art. I have a feeling that great things will come along if we do.

Now it’s time for the video! Let’s take a look at the art liberated in the swap. I received images from 100 of the artists in the swap for the video this year, so it’s still not everyone, but seeing this much art in one place is definitely inspiring.

Thanks to everyone for liberating your art this year! This swap is not possible without YOU.

Now, it’s time to HOP! I have a special bonus for the blog hop participants in the form of a giveaway drawing! At the end of the final celebration, by random drawing from all blog hop links, I will be giving away:

  • One 6×9″ fine art print of this year’s Final Celebration image “Experiment Create Play & Liberate” shown above. Having this image in your studio will be a reminder of a great way to approach your art.
  • Ten packets of postcards from other participants. You all were a generous bunch, and even after sharing them with the helpers on swap day, I have lots of extra postcards to share with the rest of you! 

If you would like your own 6×9″ signed fine art print of this year’s image “Experiment Create Play & Liberate,” it is only available for purchase during the time of the final celebration. To order, click here if you are within the US and here if you are outside of the US. Postage is included in the purchase price. Thank you! Your orders help me defray the extra expenses I incur on behalf of the swap. (And don’t worry, if you purchase the print and then win the giveaway, I’ll refund your money.)

All right, are you ready? Let’s celebrate! Share your experiences with the 2017 swap. You can link in from a blog, Flickr, Facebook, even Instagram! Make sure your image is public, and you are good to go.


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