Kat Eye Studio

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Finding Color and Space

From scooter love yesterday to Burano love today. I am sharing “color” today, in honor of the wonderful Rachael Taylor who has featured me on her blog. Rachael is a surface pattern designer I met at the Do What You Love Retreat in May. Her work is beautiful and simple, and she loves bright colors, just like me. Stop by and visit her blog here to see me featured, and stick around to see her work. You will find something you love, I guarantee it. My favorite is this orange bag, which I brought home with me from the retreat. I’m so excited that it arrived with my goods from Italy, and I can start using it again. Orange Power!

I’m celebrating negative space on Mortal Muses today, so thought I would share some “space” here too. Have you stopped by and visited Mortal Muses lately? There’s been a lot of change! We celebrated our first year at the beginning of August and now have five lovely new muses bringing their beautiful images and words your way. I have always loved how having nine different people working together creates a place of such beauty and diversity, and that has not changed. I hope you will join us there.

PS – Don’t miss the giveaway on yesterday’s post, there is still time to enter.

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The Possibilities of Emptiness

What do you see in this image? Maybe you see the empty room, and wonder what will go there. Maybe you see the red wall. Maybe you see the tree beyond the window, the world outside. To me, this room is not empty, it’s full of possibilities. Welcome to my studio. The Kat Eye Studio. Like a blank canvas, what will exist here is what I will create.

Kat Eye Studio has become real in more ways than one with my move home. First I have this room, what should be a “formal living room” is my physical studio, where my creative space will be. It has the best light in the house with the only south facing window, and it’s a nice big space. I’ve also officially created Kat Eye Studio, LLC as a registered business to offer my classes and whatever else I get inspired to do. I’m so excited to make the “studio” I’ve been dreaming of real in multiple ways!

This room is going to morph and change over time. During my assignment in Italy I’ve carefully thought through how I want to use this space for my creative endeavors, and now I get to execute the plan. The final incarnation is going to take a while to get to. I already plan to repaint the wall, and know what furniture I want to go here. The room is currently full of random bits and pieces as we get settled into our house, as you might expect.

But a studio is not much use if you don’t use it, and this week I took steps to move it beyond just a computer and storage room into a truly creative space. I painted! With a borrowed easel, a purchased drop cloth, the painting supplies I brought from Italy in my suitcase and a table and lamp in storage I’ve cobbled together the start of my painting space. I can’t tell you how great it felt to turn on the new Matt Nathanson CD (love his music!) and get messy with paint.

Here’s a pic of what I’ve got in progress. The blue canvas is the one I started this week (I was in a blue mood) and the other two were started in Italy before the move. I’m just adding layers right now, and am interested to see where these go. I don’t have any intention with painting right now, other than to find joy in the process. Happy Paint Party Friday! I’m back!!

Today I thought I would leave you with what I have going on “in the Studio” (I’ve been dying to say that for some time now, can you tell?):

  • Reflections in Glass is the current Exploring with a Camera theme and I’m loving the images being shared! I find reflections complex and interesting and worth seeking out.
  • Are you signed up for Superhero Summer Camp? If not, consider if it’s time to do something good for yourself. We have almost 400 participants – yay! If you’re signed up already, let me know what you think of it so far.
  • We have a wonderful group of people joining my July-August Find Your Eye series of classes. I’m so excited! Registration is open for the next week, and class starts August 24.
  • The Liberate Your Art postcard swap is bringing new mail to my mailbox every day. It’s quite amazing to see! If you missed my post Monday, head over to see a bit of the art that’s been arriving at my house. In the next two weeks that art will be liberated all over the world. So much fun!
Have a wonderful Friday and a fabulous weekend all!

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Creeping Along

I found this snail on a windowsill in Ravenna, creeping along going nowhere. He made me smile, with his fake flowers happily blooming regardless of the weather. I also liked the repetition of shape, in the tea pot just barely visible in the window. Have you ever noticed the similarity in shape between a teapot and a snail? I hadn’t, until this photo. Thanks to my camera and the awareness it gives me, I now have this little tidbit filed away in my brain. As of today, you do too.

Yesterday’s post, I noticed, was my 600th post on my blog! Wow. I don’t know why that number strikes me, it just seems BIG. So I decided to celebrate that milestone by posting a photo of a snail planter full of fake flowers. The appropriate celebration of 600 posts, don’t you know. All the blogging milestone books say so.

But seriously, instead, how about giving away a few things today? That seems appropriate too! Here are the winners of my LAST giveaway from Italy. There were 49 entries, and numbers were drawn by using the random number generator from random.org:
#13 – Kristen of K. Laudick Photos wins the lens cleaning cloth from Ravenna
#48 – Pam from Utah wins one of the sets of notecards from Florence
#20 – Diana of Diana Mulder Mixed Media Artist wins the other set of notecards from Florence
#23 – Jo of Jo Murray – Art wins the postcards
I’ll be contacting you all for your addresses. Give your congrats to all of them!

Thanks so much for all of your support and participation here at The Kat Eye View of the World. Who knew that this little blog that I started to keep family updated about what was going on with us in Italy would end up with 600 posts. Well, 601 today. Amazing.

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Feeling the Fear

Sometimes, as we travel through life, it may seem that we are the only ones with problems. The only ones who feel fear. We may read the stories of these big successes, people we admire, and think, There’s no way they feel like I do. We tend to look at the outward positive things and tell ourselves a story, when we can’t see the fears that are inside of someone else.

I feel fear. As I start to dream big, after the creative retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago, my fears are growing to match. I recognize now that my fears have accompanied me on every step of this creative journey. Fear of sharing my work. Fear of putting my honest self out here on the blog. Fear of trying something new. The only way I’ve grown is to face the fear and move past it.

The bigger the steps we take on our creative journey, the bigger our fears become. Last winter, as I was getting ready to start my first run of the Find Your Eye class, I was assailed with an attack of, “Who do you think you are?”  Who did I think I was, to create a class and put it out there to the general public. To think I had something to contribute to the conversation, since I don’t have a photography degree or years of professional experience under my belt. Luckily, it was too late – the class was being advertised, people were registered – I was committed and couldn’t quit. It didn’t mean I felt those fears any less, however.

We all feel fear. Fear of rejection, ridicule, failure, hurt. Maybe even fear of success. Fear is there to protect us, to keep us from getting hurt. Everyone has doubts and insecurities. The face we put out to the world may be a brave one, but I guarantee there is some fear going on inside. We are not alone in this. While it may be a comfort to know others feel fear too, it doesn’t make it easier to deal with our own fears.

The only way I personally know how to deal with fear is to acknowledge it. If I can define the fear, understand where it is coming from, I can make a plan to deal with it and move ahead anyway. If I can name it, I’m less likely to let it stop me. The fear doesn’t actually go away, I just carry it along for the ride. I think of it as having a conversation with my fear, “Hello there Mr. Fear. I see you lurking there. I see what you are trying to do. Thanks for trying to protect me, but this time I’m not going to listen to you. We are moving ahead anyway. You can come along with me and see how this turns out.” Somehow, that helps. But believe me, it’s not comfortable, to carry this fear along. It would be easier to run away in the other direction.

Now, as I get ready to hit the submit button on this post, the little voice of fear is talking in my head. Should I admit my fears publicly? Won’t this just look weak? Maybe it will to some of you, but to others, it might bring a sigh of relief. You aren’t alone.

What do you do when faced with fear? How do you recognize and address it? Move past it? Please leave a comment, and today let’s help each other deal with fear.

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Looking Closer

A small reflection of the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) in Florence, reflected in a window of the Museum of the History of Science. At first glance, you might only see the window, the buildings and the river. You have to look closer to see the reflection of the bridge.

I haven’t shown you many pictures of our weekend in Florence, I’ve suddenly and completely been distracted by the flowers in the park. I must admit, I’m distracted by not only flowers, but a lot of other projects such as getting my newsletter launched, prepping for my next series of Find Your Eye courses, and putting the finishing touches on the Liberate Your Art postcard swap so I can announce the details. I can’t forget the time I spend on other things going on in my life, like planning out our move back to the US (plane reservations are made, final apartment walkthrough scheduled), and visiting Greece next week. Oh yeah, and the occasional soccer game with my son or with my nose buried in a book.

Sometimes I wonder where my “free” time goes, but then I look at the list – just a partial list – and I know. My time goes into things I love to do. The results of those things are not always as immediate and visible as promptly edited photos showing up on the blog, but they are real just the same. So while I don’t have a lot of photos from Florence to show you, I’m reminded today that sometimes I need to look beyond the visible and obvious marks of accomplishment. Sometimes I need to look a bit closer, maybe change my angle and see my time in reflection this way, to find that sense of achievement I seem to crave. And take a deep breath, because then it seems like a lot more than I thought at first glance.

How about you, do you like to be able to call something done, to check things off of the list? How do you personally count something as an accomplishment if it’s not clearly visible?

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News Flash – Postcard Swap, Birds for Japan and Superheros

I interrupt today’s regularly scheduled blog post to bring you some interesting news. What do postcards, birds and superheros have in common? They are all on my blog today – read on to find out why!

Introducing the Liberate your Art Postcard Swap


Today I’m announcing the “Liberate your Art” Postcard Swap I’ll be hosting this summer! Many of us have an artistic practice – whether it be photography, mixed media, painting, beading, papercrafting, ceramics, you name it – but we don’t always share our craft with the rest of the world in a physical form. So I’m going to encourage you to “Liberate your Art” from the online world through a postcard swap! Is there anything better than getting artistic, creative snail mail in your post box? I don’t think so!

Here’s how it will work:
1. Have five postcard prints made of your original artwork. These could be photographs you’ve taken, prints of your painted or mixed media work, or images of 3D artwork. You can use five different images or five of the same image. The only requirement is that they be postcard-size prints of your original work (no layered or 3D artwork as part of this swap).
2. Mail the postcards to me in the US along with your address and return postage in July. (Signup and mailing details will be provided later, along with how non-US participants can provide return postage.)
3. You will receive five postcards back in the mail from other artists from around the world.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Though the swap won’t take place until July after I return to the US, I’m telling you this now so that you can get started on your postcard prints. You may want to create them yourself at home, or you may want to order them from an online source. I’ve had great luck with moo.com and have a 20% off discount code for new customers if you order by 30 March – that’s tomorrow (use this code: BK67DT). There are many other options for printing postcards, let me know what services you recommend and if you come across any discounts I’ll share them in future updates.

More details and sign up will be available in the near future. Until then, start planning your postcards and get ready to Liberate your Art this summer!


Help Japan 1000 Birds Project

UK-based Japanese ceramics artist Makiko Hastings has a wonderful project going on to help Japan. She is creating and selling one thousand of these delightful little ceramic birds to raise money. All are unique, numbered and handmade by Maki. You can find out how to participate and help her help Japan on her blog, shin shin.
I have a special connection to Maki, since I had the opportunity to meet her when we visited England last summer. We met for breakfast and both were a bit nervous to meet someone from the online world. It seemed a bit weird at first, but we knew we had a love of art in common and quickly fell into conversation. I enjoyed talking with Maki and hearing the story of how she came to England from Japan and her dreams of being a ceramic artist. Since then, I’ve enjoyed following her adventures and her beautiful artwork on her blog.
Maki and me at the “posh” Betty’s Tea Room in York
I hope you’ll support Maki’s efforts to help Japan. We have three of these special little birds winging their way to us in Italy – I can see a group of three photo in my mind’s eye already!
Are you a Superhero?

If you are ready to put on your cape and change the world with your creative ideas, my friend Jenny Shih is here to help you. She’s a business coach for creative entrepreneurs, and I can’t begin to express to you how enthusiastic she is about this job! Even though I haven’t ever been “officially” coached by her, she’s given me more helpful ideas than I can count, just in casual conversation. She’s got it all – great ideas, great strategies and great heart. 
If you have a creative idea and are looking for some help to make your business a reality, or to help your existing business grow, she’s the woman to help you become the superhero you were meant to be. Take a look at her fun video below and then stop by her site, jennyshih.com, to see how she can help you with your plans to change the world.


Put on Your Cape, It’s Time to Save the World from Jenny Shih on Vimeo.

(Today’s image is from a back alley in Dubrovnik, Croatia.)