Stylestance, North Bank Magazine, HandMade News, Top Artists Directory... some shameless back-patting for myself and others!

Good Morning!
I've had the honor of being mentioned by some wonderful folks lately, and wanted to draw attention to their businesses and blogs.

Stylestance - I am the featured artist on Stylestance today! You can see the article here

Here is the definition of Stylestance: "STYLE + SUBSTANCE. Stylestance is a thing of beauty that has a deeper purpose behind it. Stylestance can be a simple yet life-changing product. Fashion that serves a dual purpose, even if that purpose is just to make us feel good. A beautiful item lovingly made by hand. A company or service that sets out to change the world. And stylestance can be embodied by a person with effortless style who does meaningful work. Stylestance Daily is my forum for new stylestance discoveries. I strive for stylestance every day. "


HandMade News recently chose Pieces of Me to go along with their article on creating a travel size weighted blanked for children with Autism or Aspergers. You can see the article here.


The North Bank Magazine of Vancouver, Washington - who has featured my work in the past and is compiled by the talented Jessica Swanson, has chosen Linger as a navigation image for their Craft section. You can visit the North Bank Magazine website here, and I recommend it!


Top Artists Directory featured my business as the Top Artist of the Week in May Kim Barker, aka Laketrees is doing a free mini portrait giveaway - her work is gorgeous, so you may want to enter to win! Competition extended through July 31. Visit Kim's site here! And good luck!

Have a great weekend!
Love & Sincerely,
Katie

Crush, Johnny Cash and Jason Mraz

Thursdays are becoming a natural release date for new 8x8s... that means tomorrow I'll be posting All Is Well and Something Beautiful (possibly Earthen, too, but we'll see :))

Crush was released yesterday and I'm pleased to be receiving great feedback so far, here is the completed painting (left) and it's very simple statement:

The emotion I feel for my children can sometimes only be described as falling head over heals ~ again and again.

See and learn more about Crush here:
http://www.kmberggren.com/g163.htm

Now, what do I have to say about Jason Mraz? Mostly about his song I'm Yours, let's start at the beginning.

A few weeks ago, Vancouver's North Bank Magazine released a profile of my art and me talking about my art and the opportunity to show your personality through your art (be it fine art or music or...) I can be quoted as saying "when you get to a (certain) stage in your career, you have more leeway, you want your personality to show". I use Johnny Cash as an example. Read the article here: http://www.kmberggren.com/inthenews.htm#nb

The Johnny Cash song I'm referring to (in the article) is Jackson, and at one point in the song, while June Carter Cash is singing (my ipod has become exhausted for the night, so I'm pulling this from memory) "yah go to Jackson..." Johnny flirts "mmmm-hmmmmm" to her, causing her to laugh mid-lyric. I love that ~ it's my favorite part in the song.

And now, I use Jason Mraz (http://jasonmraz.com/) as an example - in his song I'm Yours (which I have recently added to my ipod and have been listening to over and over) he uses the words "reckon" and "bestest" in the same sentence - the fact that he can use "bestest" and grace us by tucking his laugh into the song a couple times just pleases me! He is showing me his personality and lack of insecurity, and I'm responding by wanting to hear his whole collection.

When we begin an endeavor, we strive to be so perfect and not make any mistakes, but at a certain point, we realize that our "clan" or followers want to experience our true personality, our true self - they want to be there when we let go and refuse to be held back by fear (of success or failure), when we feel the free will to laugh, or even flirt, mid-song.

I'm not saying that I have reached this level, and this is not a new idea, I know. This is me maneuvering my way into and around the concept of complete freedom of expression and confidence.

I've been saying it for double-digit years: act as if ~ confidence is key ~ success begets success.

And just why IS Jason Mraz looking at his tongue in the mirror? :)

Have a great night. Love, Katie