Finding Your Passion
YOUR GUIDE TO INSPIRED LIVING
Through Art
APRIL 2014
What’s Inside . . . Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Kathryn Severns Avery Design and Layout Hallie Davis
Art In Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3
Special Projects Manager Robert Sawyer How to contact us: My Life with Style 787 Kendall Court Lakewood, CO 80214 (303) 725-2301 Info@mylifewithstyle.com www.mylifewithstyle.com Cover photo by John Robinson, Good Karma Photography Copyright ©2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Unauthorized commercial use of this publication is strictly prohibited.
Embrace Your True Love . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5
An Artist’s Career Takes Flight . . . . Page 7
Great Kitchen Artwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 9
Letter from the Editor
In 1992, Julia Cameron’s ground-breaking book, The Artist’s Way, was published. After discovering and reading the book, I faithfully wrote my “Morning Pages” and joined a group that met weekly to discuss the book. The Artist’s Way significantly changed my life by helping me uncover and embrace my inner artist. I was delighted to stumble across and purchase The Artist’s Way Every Day – A Year of Creative Living while visiting Estes Park, CO on a recent romantic getaway with my husband, Chris. It only seems fitting that the April issue of My Life with Style is dedicated to art – art we purchase, art we create, art we enjoy. In this issue, you will discover the work of several artists who are pursuing their passion after decades of other types of employment. I believe we are all innately creative. After reading this issue, I hope you’ll be inspired to create simply for the joy of creating and will nurture the spark of the artist that lives within us all.
Kathryn Severns Avery
Kathryn Severns Avery
Art in Transition
At work, Julie Mason and her team help homebuyers get walls for their art. When not at work, Julie creates art for their new walls. It isn’t every day you meet a mortgage banker of 30 years whose other side of the brain is deeply committed to fine art. After years of compliance and rules and oversight, Julie Mason needed something to balance the tedium of her daily work. Painting was her answer. She began by studying water colors with Littleton artist and teacher, Judy Patti. Then she tried oil painting. When she couldn’t decide between the two mediums, she did both. Julie loved art so much she went back to college for degrees in both graphic design and illustration. Though she continues to work in the mortgage field, her spare time is spent, brush in hand. Her ultimate goal is to transition to being a full-time artist. Julie has numerous works in the Courtyard Gallery in Buena Vista, and an upcoming show in Littleton in May. For more information about Julie, visit her website at www.juliemasonart.com.
After serving in the military, working, and having children, Tanya Keith finds and embraces her true love – pottery.
Embrace Your True Love
There has always been a creative thread in Tanya Keith’s life. As a child she danced, sang, painted, and performed in plays. But as she matured, her parents urged her to consider a practical path, rather than an unpredictable career in the arts. She put aside her creative interests, graduated from high school, and enlisted in the military. Upon her discharge she worked a variety of jobs, got married, and started a family. From time to time her creative urges would bubble to the surface. But after the birth of her second child, those pent up creative energies began to demand both her attention and way of expression. While living in Evergreen, Colorado and searching for ways to keep from feeling cooped up with two small children, she repeatedly found herself driving
When people use my pieces, I hope past a pottery studio that offered classes. “One day I just stopped and went in with a baby on my hip and my toddler at my side,” she said. That stop changed everything.
said. That same week she showed up to a class, started throwing pots, and fell in love with pottery. Within a year she purchased a potter’s wheel and the following year bought a kiln.
The owner of the studio was a stay-at-home Dad who related to Tanya’s need to get out of the house. “He told me I didn’t have to wait for a formal class, just drop by when I was ready,” she
“I started selling my pottery long before I should have,” she laughed. “It was pretty awful. But I needed to support my pottery habit.” After a change in ownership of the pottery studio, Tanya
was approached by the new owner to teach classes while he went on vacation. Another passion, teaching, was born. A pivotal moment in her creative evolution came when both of her children were accepted by the Compass Montessori School. “I remember asking myself, ‘What am I going to do with both of my kids in school?’” she said. After dropping them off, she went into the school’s office and applied for a job. Her teaching experience at the pottery studio helped her get hired. She began as a teaching assistant, but once her artistic abilities were discovered, she quickly moved into a position teaching art. She continued to teach at Compass Montessori for eight years. Needing more space for Tanya’s expanding business and their growing children, Tanya and her husband moved the family from Evergreen to Edgewater, Colorado a year ago. Her business, Luna Pottery, allows her to split her time between a number of
ventures, including teaching pottery and art classes out of her home studio, selling her work at galleries, participating in shows, fairs and festivals, and completing custom orders. The name for her business came to her during a guided meditation at church service. “I want to shine God’s light into my work the same way the sun shines light on the moon. When people use my pieces, I hope they feel the love with which they were made. If I’m having a bad day, I try not to come down to my studio. I realize my energy gets infused into what I’m creating.” She has a gift for helping her students find
“When people say they aren’t creative, I say they just haven’t found their medium.
their inner artist.
It may be collage, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, quilting, freeform watercolor, or working with clay. If you allow yourself
they feel the love with which they were made. It’s valuing yourself enough to get your idea out and into something.” For Tanya, being an artist is about the journey inward and discovering who you are through art.
the time, something will emerge.
“I encourage people to enjoy the process and not judge the finished product. If you enjoy the process you’re going to be happier with the outcome. “
“Pottery is a completely unpredictable art,” she went on. ”You can ruin your piece on the wheel. It can blow up in the kiln. You can ruin the glaze. If you enjoy the process you can say ‘Well that didn’t work out, but it was fun.’ It’s healthy to enjoy what you’re doing and not be too attached to the outcome.”
An Artist’s Career
Takes F light For years, Wendell, Idaho resident Grace Koehler toyed with the idea of being a full-time artist. But a family and career teaching elementary school made the idea more a flight of fancy than reality. Now, after retiring from 30 years of teaching, her career as an artist has taken flight. Grace’s exquisite paintings on bird feathers take patience and painstaking attention to detail to create. Countless hours go into each unique artwork including prepping the feathers, mixing colors, studying the subject matter for details to make the image lifelike, and then painting the feather Grace sells her work through her Facebook page, art shows, and galleries, and takes private commissions. Most pieces are $250 and up. To learn more, contact her at gbkoehler1@gmail.com
Looking for Great Kitchen Artwork?
Check the Fridge!
Photos of fruits and vegetables like the ones shown are easy and inexpensive ways to decorate a kitchen. Use a digital camera and experiment with different backgrounds, lighting, and combinations of foods from your refrigerator. Coordinate the fruit and vegetables you pick to match your kitchen’s existing color scheme.
Photographically challenged? Stock photos from websites like istock.com can be purchased for as little as $6 per image.
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