Kat Eye Studio

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A Message

We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be – a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation – with courage and the willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.
— Brené Brown in Daring Greatly

I have a message today. A message from the universe. It’s not for you, it’s for me, but I’m sharing it with you too.

This morning I sat down and started reading Brené Brown’s new book, Daring Greatly. I’ve mentioned before, I have read and like her previous books, so I wanted to read this one right away. As I read the first couple of chapters, I found myself thinking, I really should watch that TED talk she mentions. I’ve heard about it but never seen it.

A little while later I stopped my morning reading and got on the computer to check my email. I open an email newsletter from a friend, and in it she is sharing Brené Brown’s TED talk. Whoa.

OK, universe. Message received. I stopped what I was doing and watched the talk, and I’m sharing it with you here today so you can watch it if you haven’t before. Or rewatch it if you have.

Her message is so important. It reminds us that to have connection and love, we have to believe we are worthy of connection and love. To truly connect or create, we have to make ourselves vulnerable. We have to put ourselves out there. We have to be willing to be ourselves and to live true to our hearts. We have to ignore the critics. We have to avoid being the critic, providing commentary from the sidelines.

I’m thinking on these messages today, since they were sent to me in such an obvious way. Do they connect with you too?

PS – I mentioned previously that Brené is doing a read along of her new book on her blog started next week. You can find out more here.

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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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And the Birds Sing

Today is a day for pretty flowers and happy music! Sometimes you just need a smile in your day. So here are a few things to put a smile on your face…

1. A lovely wildflower scene from Glacier National Park.

2. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, a new book from Brené Brown is released today. I love the message of her previous books, The Gifts of Imperfection and I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t), so I have high hopes for this new one too. She is doing an 8-week online read-along from 26 September through 14 November on her blog. Want to join me in reading it?

3. Remember the Jumpstart Creativity Tour? I hosted Jess here in Corvallis in July. The tour is still going strong! If you can’t make an event, Jess has created an e-course to inspire your creativity. It’s a 13-week pay-what-you-can e-course. Check it out here. You just might see a little something from me in the course, too!

4. Some happy music! I’ve been listening to Tyrone Wells and I love this catchy tune, And The Birds Sing. Watch out, you might find yourself singing along!

Sing, smile and enjoy your Tuesday.

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Organic Growth (+ The Winners)

I’ve been thinking a lot about “organic growth” and no, I’m not talking about growing food here. I mention it a couple of times in an interview I recently recorded to promote my on-location A Sense of Place workshops coming up in England in September and October. In the interview (below), I talk about how I learned photography organically. By that I mean naturally and slowly, growing and evolving over the last twelve years. It wasn’t like I set out one day and decided, “I am going to become a photographer!” and take a course of study at a university. I started by creating a few good photographs. Wondering how I could create them more consistently. Buying a new camera. Taking a class. Practicing a lot. Reading a book or two. Taking another class. Taking more photographs. Writing about my photographs. Falling in love with photography. All this over a period of years.

There were some times of dramatic growth, like when I took an online course called Photography 101 in 2007. It covered the basics I had already learned — aperture, shutter speed, etc. — but for some reason this time it really clicked at a deeper level. Even then, it wasn’t a light switch change. It was an evolution over the 8 week course and beyond. Now I can look back on that as a significant “moment” but it really occurred over months.

I think this is an important thing to remember. Growth does not happen overnight. At least natural, sustainable growth doesn’t. Most of the time, it’s a day-by-day journey of growing by millimeters. It’s the sustained growth over long periods of time that gets us to a new place. Like this fantastic rusty mailbox scene found in Astoria… It didn’t appear overnight. It took years for the mailbox to rust, for the ivy to grow. It took years of someone letting this little spot alone to grow.

That’s what organic growth is. Slow, sustainable growth. This applies to photography or business or even personal growth in life. Sometimes, we look at someone we admire, and we want to be where they are now. We want to be that fantastic photographer. We want to be that successful business owner. We want to have that kind of confidence in ourselves. But we can’t get there by leapfrogging all of the work it takes to get to that place. Sure, we can make it easier on ourselves. We can learn from others how they got there. There is so much wonderful information available. We have books and classes and articles and videos all at our fingertips here on the web. But it still takes our own action. It takes practice, and moving ahead, that little step at a time, to get where we want to go.

I think organic growth is the best kind of growth. At least, I’ve discovered that it is for me. It’s the kind of growth that lets me adapt to my environment. It’s the kind of growth that lets me try something out and change course if I need to. It’s the kind of growth that doesn’t commit me to too much, getting into overwhelm. It’s the kind of growth that integrates what I’m learning into a stable foundation, so that each time I take a step up or out of my normal zone the world doesn’t collapse beneath me.

I tell you all this today so that you can be encouraged. That goal you have? The place you want to go? You can absolutely get there. Just don’t try to do it overnight. Give yourself time to grow.

PS – That lovely voice with the English accent you hear in all of my interviews is my dear friend and PR consultant in England, Fiona Pattison. You probably can’t tell because she edited it so beautifully, but we were laughing like crazy as we recorded this interview, over very silly mistakes. Fiona has definitely been an important part of the organic growth of Kat Eye Studio!

And the giveaway winners are…

Out of 107 entries…
#28 Marji of Sun Breaks in the Forecast
#89 Nadine

I’m so excited to liberate these postcards to the lucky winners! Thanks to all of you who entered. I was surprised about all of the nice things you said to me as you entered, that was an unexpected bonus. Thank you for your lovely comments and your ongoing support! More giveaways are definitely to come. Giving things away is so much fun! 🙂

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Warning Signs (& New Music)

In our wanderings of San Francisco I came across this gate. Think someone needs a warning or two? It makes me chuckle, wondering what has gone on here in the past to warrant so many warnings.

I’ve got a busy morning so a short post today. As an added bonus I’m sharing a fun stop motion video of a new favorite song, Come Back Down by Greg Laswell. If you are feeling at all stuck in some emotion, just listen to this song and it will kick you in gear.

It’s the free single of the week on iTunes, so if you like it, snap it up!

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New Music, Anyone?

No photo today, just some new music! I spent some time on iTunes earlier this week looking for some new artists that primarily use guitar. I’ve started to learn the finger-picking style of guitar, and wanted some new inspiration.

I stumbled across Ed Sheeran, a young artist from the UK and am in love with his music! There is not much available yet on iTunes in the US, but I purchased the EP that is available, The A-Team, and have been listening to it non-stop in the last day.

Here’s one of the songs, Firefly, in a video with some nice photography as your inspiration today. Enjoy!

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