Kat Eye Studio

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The Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap is Back!!

What happens when you create your art? Does it make you happy? Do you find that you have an amazing boost of energy, of insight into life and self? Do you find that you feel centered and grounded, as if some piece of you has been completed for brief moment? I’ve discovered the act of creating, of making art of any kind, can have an amazing and transforming effect on me personally. I know I’m not alone.

Now, what happens when you share that art with world? You share a little bit of yourself, and add a little bit of beauty or joy or brightness into someone else’s day. When you share your art, that wonderful energy you gained in the act of creation is not gone, it is magnified. You will see it reflected back to you in different, positive ways.

That’s what the Liberate Your Art postcard swap is all about – sharing your art, liberating it out in the world, where it can do its greatest good.

I’m excited to announce the Liberate Your Art swap is back for 2012 and now open for sign up! We had a fabulous time last year, and I’m ready to do it again. I’m hoping to make it even bigger this year! Can you help me reach my goal to beat last year’s number of participants, and share the info about the swap? Blog it, tweet it, post it on your Facebook page. Whatever it takes to get the news out to more artists!

Visit the swap page for more information and to sign up for the swap list. After you sign up, you will receive an email with all of the details and lots of support from me to get you started.

You’ll be hearing more about the swap here as time goes on, but for now click over here to see what the swap is all about, and join!!

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A Postal Mystery

Here we have a row of one of my recent fascinations, newspaper boxes. Some empty and abandoned, others and in use. All in a neat row outside of our town’s post office. I loved the light coming along the wall, pointing to the row of these colorful boxes.

An appropriate photo to go along with the news of today’s postal mystery.  Let me set the stage…

The Liberate your Art postcard swap had just finished up, and I was contacted by my online friend Elizabeth, from Puerto Rico.

“Kat, I never received any postcards. Did you get mine?”

“I’ve sent out everything I received! I don’t remember if I got yours or not. If you didn’t get anything, I probably didn’t receive your cards. I’m so sorry!”

An unsatisfying ending. Until…

Yesterday. The postcards she sent to me in July for the swap arrived in the mail yesterday. Over two months after she had sent them.

So I have 5 cheerful postcards that Elizabeth liberated into the world two months ago, now looking for a home! I would like to get some postcards back to Elizabeth too, so if you would like to send Elizabeth one of your postcards, I will send you one of hers. You don’t have to have been a participant in the Liberate your Art postcard swap to do this. Email me kat [at] kateyestudio [dot] com with your interest and I will send you the details. The first five to respond are in!

One last participant. A postal mystery that will never be resolved. All I need is a few generous readers to help make Elizabeth’s swap happen! Can you help?

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What’s going on around The Kat Eye View of the World…

  • The current Exploring with a Camera theme is The Color Wheel: Part 1. Check out the post and join in the exploration.
  • Are you ready to find your own unique vision through photography? This is the last week to register for the fall series of the Find Your Eye e-course. Class starts Sunday, September 25! Visit here for more info.
  • You can subscribe to the Kat Eye News to stay up-to-date on all the happenings around here.

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Scooter Love in the Pacific NW – and GIVEAWAY!!

Who would have thought it! I went to Portland (1.5 hours north) on Saturday with a friend to see the traveling production of Mamma Mia. After the show we headed to the Northwest section of the city and what did we run across? Vespa scooters. Not one, not two… Seven in all. Seven!! I was in scooter heaven! Especially this one, parked in an empty garage against a textured wall in some moody light. It was calling my name. Luckily, I had my little Canon PowerShot with me to answer the call.

Someday, I will have a red Vespa scooter. And I will park it in front of every texture-y wall I can find to take pictures. Until then, I will take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way to live vicariously through taking photos of someone else’s red Vespa.  And I can do this in Portland. Who knew?

What a weekend though! Not only was there fabulous scooter love to be found, but we received our container from Italy. Yay! Early Saturday morning, the truck pulled up and there was the container waiting to be unloaded. All sealed and packed, just as it was as it left from our apartment on Via Matteotti. That means, however, that our lives are in disarray again. The semblance of order and routine we had been able to create for a few weeks is once again dismantled as we unpack boxes and try to figure out how to fit everything in to our house. Our house in the US and our apartment in Italy were the same size in square feet/meters, but there was so much more storage in the Italian apartment. Add the belongings that were in storage in the US to the items we collected over two years in Italy, and you have the makings of one gigantic garage sale in a few weeks. First priority is to get to the point I can walk through the house without tripping over anything though!

On top of that, the Liberate Your Art postcard swap blog hop was going on. So fun! I had such a great time hopping around, seeing where the art ended up. It provided a much needed break from the unpacking. The swap turned out better than I imagined, and the blog hop was a blast. I can’t wait to do the swap again in 2012!!

Until then, I have tons going on around here…

  • Find Your Eye registration is open for the September-October class series! I’ll be running Starting the Journey and the all-new Journey of Inspiration. Right now the August class, Journey of Recognition, is going on and has it been fantastic. I couldn’t ask for a better group of participants. I love doing this!
  • We are exploring Night Photography in Exploring with a Camera. I had forgotten how much I love taking photos at night! I hope you will join us and link in before Wednesday. You can still get the Night Photography Camera Companion if you sign up for the newsletter too. I’m sending a “catch up” newsletter to all new subscribers this week so that new subscribers don’t miss out.
  • You still have a few more days to catch Superhero Summer Camp too. Sign up for this fun and free six-week class closes on August 31. 
  • And finally – in honor of the seven Vespas of Portland – how about a GIVEAWAY!! My first one on US soil. I am going to give away a set of my new “Classic Italian Transport” postcards to one lucky reader, and a Vespa mousepad to another.

I will draw for the postcards on Wednesday morning when I write my blog post, from the comments left on this post. Let’s make it fun, you can have more than one entry. How about a whole bunch of entries!! Leave a separate comment for each of the following:
1. Just to say hi!
2. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook
3. If you are a newsletter subscriber
4. If you have registered for a Find Your Eye course (past or present) 
Good Luck!

Linking in to Creative Every Day and Creative Exchange, as always. Happy Monday! 

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Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap – The Blog Hop

1020 pieces of art
170 participants
37 US states
13 countries
2 homes
1 swap
done.
I am struggling to find the words to describe how wonderful the Liberate Your Art postcard swap turned out to be. I set a crazy-big goal, to make myself reach farther and higher than ever before. You all came and answered the call, joining in to liberate some beautiful art and brighten someone else’s day. I knew it would be fun. I never anticipated what you all would give to me. At a time when life could have been sad, with my move from Italy to Oregon, your mail filled up my post box with love and encouragement. Color, beauty, passion, peace… your art helped me through a difficult transition. The image above is the art that many of you gave to me, unexpectedly, unasked, along with the swap. I am honored to have them. I am honored to have met so many of you through this swap. I look forward to hopping around this weekend, visiting your blogs and seeing your swap experiences. Seeing what liberating your art and making connections brought into your life.
Thank you.

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And They’re Off!

Here and there a few people have asked me to share how I’m going to do the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. I brought the box of envelopes with me on vacation to swap the postcards out and get them mailed. So here’s how it was done…
First, I opened each envelope and laid them out on the floor. As I did this, I made sure they all had the right number of postcards (found a few more for me!), the right postage and labels. If anything was missing I took care of it as I laid them out. The swap participating was about 80% US and 20% non-US, so I made sure that every 5th envelope was a non-US participant so they would be mixed in. Otherwise, there was no planning involved as to the order.
Thankfully, my sister has a very large, open living and dining room (~600 sq ft), because the postcards looped around the full space. Here are a couple of photos to show you how it looked. I wish I could have captured the full extent of it!

Next, the easy part, actually doing the swap. Picking up the stack of 5 postcards from the pile, I dealt them out to the next five participants. I did the same thing, moving from one stack to the next on the left around the whole loop.

Finally, the labels and stamps had to be put on. This was the time-consuming part. I cajoled my husband into helping (he’s such a good sport) and we went around the loop putting the postage and labels on all of the postcards, stack by stack. As we completed each participant’s stack, we sorted them out in to five stacks for the different mailings. There is a sixth stack of postcards from me done too.

Here I am, mailing the first stack. The postcards are officially off. Look at all of that art being liberated in the world! Pretty cool, huh?? The second mailing will go out later this week!

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A Stack of Happiness

Look at this stack! This is a stack of the happiest, most fun mail you are ever going to see. This is a stack of 112 envelopes for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap! On Saturday, things were sorted out enough in our house that I had the time and space to start going through these envelopes. It just filled me with joy! This is not work in the slightest, but exceptionally fun and inspiring.
Some of the envelopes were completely decorated. I love all of you mixed media artists who find any surface something to create art on! Just look at this one, can you guess where it’s from? You would be right!

And here’s one from closer to my new home, California. A little bit of art in the mail, anyone?

My blog friend, Kristin, created this envelope from inspiration from this photo I took in Ravenna. Funny thing, I took that photo because I was reminded of Kristin by the snail! Such a fun circle of inspiration that happens with artists sometimes. Too bad the US Postal Service covered up some of her art with their sticker.

Here’s one that I didn’t want to open, just look at that! I think the dancer stamped on the envelope is definitely Liberating her art…

The stamps were art too! I didn’t know I had anyone in Hong Kong participating, what a nice surprise.

And then, opening the packages there were lots of little treats inside. Some were prettily wrapped, like this one from TJ of Studio Mailbox.

I was surprised at how many of the participants included a little something for me. Totally unexpected! Lots of postcards and little notes. Some magnets and little bits of this or that to use for my own projects. Even some chocolate! This was fun mail at its best. Here’s a tiny sample of what was shared with me, but I don’t want to give away too much, so that you will be surprised by the art you get in the mail!

This was exactly what I needed to inspire me and reconnect me to the creative community after my move. I can’t wait for the rest of the envelopes to come in and then to get this art liberated back into the world. If nothing else, everyone liberating all of this art has had a wonderfully positive effect on me!

PS – My blog is now on Pacific Standard Time! I updated my profile location and about me page too. Sorry for the two posts in one day but I’m trying out my new schedule. So far, so good! 


PPS – Linking in to Creative Every Day and The Creative Exchange today. It’s good to be back!

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