March Update: Creative Soul Museletter

Dear Creative Souls, So much has happened since my last "Museletter" and I've got loads to share! Key word being DISCIPLINE!

Each day I sketch plein air (outside), often at my neighbour's home who has incredible grounds to explore. It's just like visiting a botanical garden - all sustainable and water-wise too, lots of cactus (a few of my drawings can be found here). After that I lift weights, suntan (plenty of vitamin D to be had in Southern California), drink a smoothie with about 15 different things in it, work on the internet (I'm trying to keep this to 1 hour minimum to break my addiction, ya know what I mean?...hint, hint Facebook!) Then I work on printmaking and painting, take a walk at sunset with my black dog Abby and finish off with situps and pushups. I've also come to realize that I need to draw and paint EVERYDAY and I'm hear to tell you that the well does not run dry! ie. keyword being discipline. I also still love giving astrology and creative soul readings, so if you're wondering what's become of me, I'm still here!

It's almost Spring ~ Woohoo! (Fall for my friends down under). Also, future Museletters will be much less chatty and more announcement-style to keep you posted on my upcoming art exhibits because I know your time and mine is precious! If you want more 'Chatty Kathy" please do subscribe to my blog where I've been posting at least once a week, by signing up here (look on the right hand side of the page). Now for the good stuff: where to find me and my current work!

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Exhibitions Read-Red Fallbrook Library Dixon Fish has organized an exhibition of fine art prints at the Fallbrook Library featuring artists from the North County San Diego Printmakers group and surrounding areas.

I'll be exhibiting hand pulled prints from my BodyPrint Healing Series. These prints are part of a process of healing I've undertaken through art-making.

Exhibition dates: March 8 - April 27 Reception: March 16, 5-7pm

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Local Author Exhibit San Diego Public Library

This is an annual event open to local authors. The physical exhibit is now over but selected books will be available for viewing at the San Diego Library.

I exhibited two books, Moon Musings Volume 1 and the Goddess Zodiac Playbook which are currently available as ebooks. Moon Musings Volume 1 was written over one year's time in conjunction with each month's new moon. Affirmations and creative exercises were originally shared on my blog and in my Divine Feminine eClass. The Goddess Zodiac Playbook was written and painted over one month's time in conjunction with the moon's passing through each of the twelve signs of the zodiac. I interpreted each zodiac sign as a goddess rather than the more typical male interpretation.

Online Exhibit

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PNET Member's Print II Exhibit Riverside Art Museum

The Printmakers Network of Riverside County organized this exhibition.

I am exhibiting an aquatint created at Palomar College in their now defunct printmaking program. This print was an early experimental piece incorporating several techniques I was in the process of learning including the use of non toxic waterbased Akua inks.

Exhibition dates: February 2 - April 7

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Artscape Riverside County Administrative Center

The Riverside Arts Council organized this ongoing exhibit of local artists.

I am exhibiting two pieces from my Journey Into Intimacy Series. This current body of large abstract acylics is based upon my exploration of embodying intimacy through every part of my life so as to welcome and invite greater intimacy into my life.

Exhibition dates: October, 2011 - March, 2012

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Save the Date

March,  Verse to Image Exhibit, RCAA Gallery, Riverside, California May 6 - June 24, Solo Exhibition, San Marcos Library, San Marcos, California

Recommendations & Links

New gallery in Temecula: Wine Country Art Gallery at Van Roekel Winery Dorland Mountain Arts Colony ~ Spring open house photos (painting plein air with 2 artist groups) My eClass: Awaken Your Divine Feminine Soul is now self-study Creative Soul Readings Facebook

Sparkly Blessings! Kathryn V. Crabbe

Email: info@kathrynvcrabbe.com Art: http://KathrynVCrabbe.com Blog:http://KathyCrabbe.com

Arty weekend: Painting at Dorland & Wine Country Opening

Last weekend (March 3-4) was the Spring Open House at the Dorland Arts Colony in Temecula, California. I was there painting along with two artist's group I belong to: the Plein Air (open-air) Artists of Riverside (PAAR) and the Printmaker's Network (PNET). There was live music, art for sale, artist's in action, art colony residents (Leslie Sterne, author), an auction and a raffle; plenty of arty goodness for all. Afterwards I invited PAAR members to attend the grand opening of a new art gallery in Temecula's wine region where I was exhibiting two paintings from my new series, Journey Into Intimacy. It was the final night of the opening so we happily helped polish off the last of the cream puffs, Van Roekel Merlot, cheesecake and brownies as we watched a gorgeous California sun setting over the vineyards. Arty links are at bottom of post.

Helpful Links Dorland Art Colony, Temecula, California: http://www.dorlandartscolony.org Wine Country Art Gallery: http://www.facebook.com/events/259219804156504/ Plein Air Artists of Riverside: http://pleinairartistsofriverside.blogspot.com Printmakers Network: http://www.riversideartmuseum.org/groups/printmakers-network/ Gary Rainsbarger, PAAR President - Art: http://www.garyrainsbarger.com Susan De'Armond, PAAR Treasurer - Art: http://www.susandearmond.com Elin Pendleton - Art: http://www.elinart.com Kathryn V. Crabbe - Art: http://kathrynvcrabbe.com

Discipline Required - Brainstorming in Process!

Discipline seems to be a key word for my process right now. The key is keeping Facebook time low! The computer world is insidious; it creeps into your life quickly and it stays there.

Each morning I sketch outside (plein air is the fancy French term for it) and have been focusing on still lives rather than landscapes as of late. My 2B pencil is put to work although I need to find a 6H to get really serious ;) It feels like I'm in training right now (athletic discipline required).

I'm also brainstorming; giving my corpus callosum a work out for a couple of prints I'm conjuring for an exhibit called Verse to Image at the Riverside Community Arts Association Center. I chose a quote about rebellion from Chris Hedges' book, Death of the Liberal Class and a poem by Margaret Atwood titled The Poet Has Come Back; both reference death. Somehow printmaking brings out the darker more political side of life for me. Prints are due mid March and making an etching can take a while so I'm digging in and going deeper with Atwood's poem for starters; perhaps the two will tie in somehow. I hope to post some photos here in the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Quotations of Interest (originally posted on my Facebook page this week)

"Unfortunately, many works sold at art fairs, and in the global market in general, promote cultural cliches or personal brands...Formatted for private collection spaces and museum galleries, this art is too often totally predictable and non experimental." ~ Hou Hanru, Art in America, Nov. 2011

"College Art Association is at the LA Convention Center. CAA is a front for Goldman Sachs student loan scam to keep young creative people broke and enslaved in debt. CAA is the Monsanto of Art, complicit in crimes against creativity. Top that rant!!!" ~ Matt Gleason (who was expelled from every school he attended according to his Facebook Info page...hmmmm, not surprising really, is it?)

California Alliance for Arts Education Webinar: How to work with your local school board to keep arts education in schools.

"All we have, as Vaclav Havel writes, is our own powerlessness. And that powerlessness is our strength. The survival of the movement depends on embracing this powerlessness. It depends on two of our most important assets—utter and complete transparency and a rigid adherence to nonviolence, including respect for private property. This permits us, as Havel puts it in his 1978 essay “The Power of the Powerless,” to live in truth. And by living in truth we expose a corrupt corporate state that perpetrates lies and lives in deceit." ~ Chris Hedges

How to Occupy

Utne Magazine's 10 Most Enlightened Towns to live in America

I'm BACK and ready for Soul Reading!

It's been a few months since I've posted here due to some intense painting and printmaking which can be viewed on my fine art website: http://www.KathrynVCrabbe.com plus I've been partaking in quite a few exhibits of my work at local museums and college galleries.

But my Soul Reading/Astrology biz is calling me back ever so surely and I'm very happy about that! I've made a few changes here on my site also: I've changed my eClass to a self study eBook and I have found another newsletter provider (Mail Chimp) which is free!

My creative explorations have taken the upper hand over the past few months and I've joined a bunch of artist groups: PAAR (Plein Air Painters of Riverside), PNET (Printmaker's Network), the Haggus Society (L.A.), The Women's Caucus for Art, and I am also volunteering at the Dorland Arts Colony in Temecula.

I begin my day by drawing from life, mainly landscapes and still lives of my neighbour's water-wise cactus and native California plant garden. After drawing, I lift weights and sun tan - it's almost always sunny here in the Southern California valley desert plus it's my change to fill up on all that Vitamin D! I paint large abstracts and work on printmaking after that; all part of my Journey Into Intimacy Series and my BodyPrint Healing Series.  You can read more about what they mean here in my bio.

It has been a nice change to get out of my studio and my meditation space to kibbutz with live people at art openings, meetups and plein air painting dates. Next on the agenda is offering you, my dear reader a chance to purchase high quality reproductions of my new paintings as well as a chance to purchase my originals which are all large (4 foot by 4 foot) and are painted on silk, masonite and canvas. So stay tuned, I'll be keeping you posted through my Museletter, my blog and on Facebook.

V Series

Finally finished the third and final print in the V Series from my BodyPrint Healing Series. The first two are monotypes and the third is a drypoint etching. All three will be on exhibit at the 2011 Riverside Art Museum Off The Wall Event.

More here: http://www.kathrynvcrabbe.com/2011/2011-healing-bodyprints/

Artist Statement

The current body of mixed media paintings, Journey Into Intimacy and prints, BodyPrint Healing Series are a visual representation of an intuitive cathartic process.

Journey Into Intimacy depicts an inner landscape of the senses. Part dream, part yearning and part sacred symbol the work stems from a holistic perception of the world. Emotions are spiritualized into Divine patterns pre-existing in nature; the spiral, the circle, a seedpod, a flower.

The paintings are steeped in pure and brilliant SoCal color. “The lack of tradition here allows artists to go farther out in defining their own culture.” (Chris Burden) Lyrically and synaesthetically responsive to the music that inspires the work the process is intuitive and spontaneous, the brushstrokes restless and absurd in their unashamed vulnerability.

Charcoal, pastel and acrylics are applied in layers to a smooth prepared surface using garden rakes, fingers, (house painting) brushes, sponges, scraping tools and my body pressed into the surface; the process itself leading the way.

“Even as we pass into a time when pencil smudges themselves are an increasingly exoticized thing of the past, the world is still tactile and material. To touch it is to know it.” (Amy Sillman, Art Forum, Summer 2011)

The BodyPrint Healing Series depicts various body parts in need of healing. Each body part is printed in a series of three. The first two prints are monotypes of the body imprinted onto plexiglass and printed with an etching press. The third print is etched into the plexiglass plate and depicts the inked up impression of a body part. The act of scratching or etching into the plexiglass sublimates the need for harm to come to the body.