Kat Eye Studio

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Liberate your Art 2013 & Watercolory Goodness

2013-Liberate-Your-Art-Square-Large copy It’s time! It’s time! If you haven’t heard the news yet, it’s time to sign up for the Liberate Your Art 2013 postcard swap. The postcard receipt deadline is April 6 so you have plenty of time to create your postcards and get them mailed. Visit the swap page and sign up to get all of the details and helpful resources via email.

We are going to have a fantastic time this year! There are already 232 artists signed up. Yay! If the previous year’s participation rate holds true, I’m going to need more than 350 signed up to meet my goal of beating last year. I could use your help! Join us, and help me get the word out. Blog it, share the Facebook event, whatever the best way to contact your creative peeps.

For my Paint Party Friday post this week, I wanted to share a bit about a new app I’ve been playing with the last couple of weeks: Aquarella HD. This is a very cool watercolor app and I’m loving it!

First off, here’s a quick example of what the app can do… Original photo at left, painted version at right:

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This app has lots of options. You can “paint” with the colors of your photo, or you can use two-tone effects as I’ve used for this one. It is amazingly customizable… you can change the colors used in the tones, the intensity of the color and the watercolor edge effects, the paper texture, the wash and background bloom. I love all of that control, as it allows me to create something I really love.

As always, I’ve been experimenting with combining it with other layers and apps to create an original piece. I’ve found I use the Aquarella HD app slightly differently than the other painting apps I have. For most other apps, I shift colors prior to adding the painterly effects. For this app, I’ve been creating the layers without worrying about color, because I’ll pick colors in the Aquarella HD app itself at the end.

Let me show you what I mean, with this finished piece, Moonrise:

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I started with a photograph from several weeks ago, captured on a foggy morning:

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I wanted the evergreen tree alone, so I used TouchRetouch to remove the tree and ground to the right:

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I was also playing with the ArcMachines app last week, which is free app that creates circular geometric patterns. I had captured a couple of different images off of that:

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Next, I played around with blending the circles with the tree image in Image Blender. When you are blending black and white images, the blending modes do interesting things. In this case, I think I was using either the Difference or Exclusion blending modes, which I don’t use with color. I moved the arrangement of the circle layer around until I liked where the circles were in relation to the tree:

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The three circles weren’t packing the visual punch I wanted, so I added the large circle over the top one in Image Blender. I will note that for both of these steps, I needed to mask out the branches of the tree, so that the circles would appear to be behind the tree branches:

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I played around with painting this version in Aquarella HD for a while, and while I got the colors and effect I liked painting-wise, the composition was not working out. So I went back to Image Blender and played with enlarging the layers. After several tries, I got a composition I liked:

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Since I already had the painting effects set in Aquarella HD from my previous experimentation, I pulled this image in and processed it. As long as you don’t close out the app, your settings will stay the same when you pull in a new image. Very nice!

I named the piece “Moonrise” because my husband said it looked like the moon rising behind the tree with a couple of extra moons along for the ride.

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My favorite thing about this painting is the light-in-dark effect happening within the circles. The watercolor edges really make that contrast pop. I’ve also discovered, or maybe rediscovered, that I really like combining geometric shapes with natural shapes like this, and this new app has created all sorts of possibilities. You can see a few more in my Flickr photostream.

It’s great to add one more painting app to my toolbox, and Aquarella HD is chock full of watercolory goodness. I just love creating art this way!

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Liberate Your Art 2012 Blog Hop

It started with a simple idea: Host a swap to encourage people to create, share and connect through their art. This second year, the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap just kept getting better and better. The addition of the Facebook Group added a fun, virtual element that went beyond the simple enjoyment of getting real-life mail. I loved seeing the excitement as the postcards were mailed and received. So much art liberated, so many connections made. I have to say, this year’s swap not only met my goal, but exceeded my original vision and delightfully surprised me!

So here are the stats of the 2012 swap:


1152 individual pieces of art liberated
193 artists participating
11 countries represented

From the USA, postcards came from 36 states and territories. Beyond the USA, we had artists from United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, Slovenia, The Philippines, Portugal and The Netherlands. Pretty cool, huh?

As I laid out the art for the swap, I was incredibly inspired by all of your creativity. I was amazed at the individuality of the art. No two were alike. It made me stop and think about how there are more ways to express our creativity than it is possible to imagine. When we try to define what art is, we limit the possibilities.

I was inspired at the last moment to create something special to celebrate. Before I swapped the postcards, I went around and took a photo of one of each participants cards and created this video. Forgive me if the colors are off or if your art is oriented the wrong way, I didn’t have the time on swap day for perfection. There are 193 pieces of art shared in the video, and I think you will be as inspired as I was, seeing all of this art in one place.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for an amazing swap this year. Now, let’s finish it off with a bang. It’s time to hop!



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Labor of Love

This weekend was swap weekend! I spent quite a bit of time over the last few days getting ready and then swapping postcards for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. 192 participants this year! Yay! I met my goal of increasing over last year, thanks to the help of everyone who shared about the swap.

I thought it might be interesting to the swap participants to share about the swap weekend. It all started Friday night, when I sat down to “check in” envelopes. This entailed opening them, making sure there were the right number of postcards, stamps and labels, removing any extra items (like postcards and notes for me – thanks!) and correcting any problems. I only had to write a couple of labels, and for every stamp missing someone had sent an extra, so it all worked out well. I realized when I sat down to do this that I should have been doing this all along as I received the envelopes, but hey, live and learn. I normally don’t like to show my studio as messy but here it is, mess and all, as I was checking envelopes in.

“Checking in” envelopes

After a last run to the mailbox on Saturday afternoon for the latest arrivals, I was ready to swap. Here are the envelopes, all stacked and ready to go!

Sunday morning I laid out the envelopes around the house to prep for swapping. About 25% of the participants were from outside of the US, so I made sure that every fourth envelope was an international participant. Everyone in the swap will receive at least one postcard from a participant in a different country, and at least one of your postcards will be traveling to a country other than your own. Maybe more than one! Isn’t that cool? Other than the mix of US and non-US, the sorting was completely random as I laid out envelopes. I love that part of it… Who knows who you will connect with? Who knows what those connections will bring? It’s all serendipity and delicious uncertainty.

Envelopes laid out and ready to swap

Then it was time to swap! That’s one of the quickest parts of this whole process. (If you want to learn more on the mechanics of swapping, visit this post from last year.) The longest part of the process is sticking on stamps and labels after the swapping is done. I listened to music and watched a couple of movies on Netflix while I worked. I also recruited my husband later in the day, to help me finish up after he got back from a 40 mile bike ride. What a sport, huh? I did note to myself that I should do this swap in the winter, when the weather is bad. Summer is too short in Oregon to be working inside! Watch for 2013’s swap in the rainy months. 🙂

Finally, I ended with 6 stacks of postcards, all ready to go out in different mailings over the next 3 weeks. Here is today’s stack. Which one is going to you? You will find out soon, when it arrives in your letter box!

While it takes some work, this process is truly a labor of love for me. I love seeing the art that comes through my hands. I am so in awe of the diversity of art in a group like this. Each piece is so incredibly unique, just like each of you. I am inspired by all of the beautiful postcards you created and the words you all wrote to each other. There was so much positive energy that came to me as I worked on the swap, it was overwhelming at times.

Today one of your postcards is heading to it’s final destination. Art, liberated.

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Art Has Wings!

Picking up the mail this week was like Christmas! 80+ envelopes for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap had arrived while I was on vacation, bringing the received total to 160. Yay!! My son looked like Santa Claus, carrying the bag into the house.

Want to see some of this week’s wonderful mail art? Of course you do!!

Paula sent this colorful winged collage art on the envelope…

…and Deb proved art has wings with this wonderful piece.

Look, her art is celebrating its liberation!

Deb also sent me a beautiful bracelet handcrafted from Kodiak Island sea glass. A bonus surprise! How awesome is that! Thanks Deb – I love it.

This envelope from Terrie reminded me of the wonderful texture and layers that get added when you send something through the mail.

Kathy sent this beautiful print on her envelope. Isn’t it cool how the envelope acts as the mat! I love it! I might have to frame this one.

In fact, I’m trying to figure out how to display all of this wonderful art I’m receiving. I would love to have this liberated art on display all year long! I can’t wait to open the envelopes this weekend and see what else is hiding inside from some of you. It’s almost time to liberate the art back out into the world! Are you as excited as I am?

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Art wants to be Free

Liberate Your Art! It wants to be free. Don’t you agree?

There are so many envelopes arriving now for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. As of Monday, 77 envelopes from 10 countries have arrived. We have a little more than two weeks until the receipt deadline so I know the flood of mail is still coming. So much fun!!

And of course, the mail art keeps coming too! This envelope came from Valerie-Jael, all the way from Germany. I love that thought bubble!

She also included a couple of gorgeous mixed media pieces for me to enjoy. You get to enjoy them here too! Thanks Valerie-Jael!

I had to smile at this lovely lady from Kathryn* in Illinois. Don’t you think a few post office employees got a smile from this too?

Cindy* in Arizona had a great idea on her envelope. Balloon mail! Wouldn’t that be a fun way to get mail?

And finally, I must thank Tina in Minnesota for the title of the blog post. Yes! Art DOES want to be free! Let’s liberate it!

It’s also time for Paint Party Friday, so I want to show the progress of my latest yellow-green piece. I have not had much time to paint this week, but I’ve made some progress and I know where it’s going next. It all comes down to making time.

Have a lovely creative weekend!

*I try to share website links for the mail art I share when I can find them, but many of the envelopes I’m receiving don’t have a website on the postcards. If this art is yours, let me know and I’ll link back to you!

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Saving the Post Office!

The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap is saving the post office, one postcard at a time! Sign up for the swap closed this week with just over 300 artists signed up. I’m so excited to see the postcards from all over the world! So far, 41 envelopes have arrived from participants in 7 countries. Many more are on their way, if the notes in the Facebook group are any indication!

This week brought some gorgeous art in the mail. My favorite is this one, from Amanda, a calligrapher in Washington. Is that calligraphy not the most beautiful thing ever?

She’s the one who inspired my leading line, since she wrote “Saving the USPO one postcard at a time” on her beautifully wrapped postcards. I hated to open them, for fear of messing up her work! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a link for Amanda to share more of her work so you’ll just have to enjoy these photos.

Jane from California (again, no link, sorry!!) created a fun little mixed media piece on her envelope. I’ll share a tip I learned by observing what she did: Cover your mixed media envelope creations with clear packing tape, then the layers won’t peel off as it goes through the mail. Thanks Jane!

This week brought the first snail in the mail! This fun envelope zentangle is from Stacie in Oklahoma. Don’t we all love snail mail?

Finally, I’ll share a bit of my art for the week, for Paint Party Friday. I’m working on two paintings in shades of yellow and green. Last week I shared the first, and here’s the second work in progress. I’m actually working pretty exclusively on this one now, since I know where it’s going. I love it when that happens!