Art With Heart Fundraiser

You know, one thing that always interests me is how one thing leads to another.  I just love the connections and how each little thing is such an important step in the big picture.  You can't see it at the time, but everything is interconnected.  I just love studying how connections and opportunities bloom out of each other.  

For example, earlier this year, I did a fundraiser in Charlotte (you can read about that event here), for the GBS/CIPD Foundation.  I had a great time and met some wonderful people.  Recently, I was contacted by the Art with Heart organization that helps victims of domestic abuse and many, many other things.  They put on a very nice event, and I am honored to be involved. I'm making some pieces right now for them.  The event isn't until Feb 2, 2013, but I wanted to go ahead and make their pieces.  I have decided to donate two of my larger wall birds, one will be entitled SOAR and the other one is untitled as of yet.  These pictures show the process. I took these photos today in my studio while I was working.

It's fun to do these fundraisers, and it's great that I can do a little something for these charities.

Have a great week, everyone!

~Kelly 

Charlotte Fundraiser

Great attendance! and plenty of food

So we had the big fundraiser event in Charlotte, and it turned out to be a wonderful evening!  The woman behind it all, Hannah, did a marvelous job, down to the smallest details. You can read about her amazing story here.  Hannah brought in a well-respected Charlotte interior designer to help arrange the art, and they put in special lighting to highlight many of the works.  Rarely, have I seen that much effort go into an art event.  The fundraiser was held in two penthouse condos that were for sale, and so we had access to kitchens and bathrooms! Yay!  There were even lovely little napkins and soap in the bathrooms.  Those are the kinds of details that I noticed and appreciated.

Mike Lewis,  performance painter

Gotta love that red "SOLD" dot!

And here's the fun part :) I sold two pieces and got a commission for a third! So that's exciting!  I've already built the piece (it's still drying), but my next post will show details of how I made it.

Charlotte sky from the Penthouse

It was a great night and I was so honored to be a part of it.  And even better, some of our friends, that we don't get to see very often, were able to attend and we got to hang out with them too.  It was a win/win situation!  

Hope everyone is well and I'll be posting soon about that commissioned piece...

Kelly

Fundraiser Event in Charlotte, NC

A while back, I was contacted by a wonderful woman named Hannah Blanton.  She was coordinating a fundraiser for an inflammatory disease called GBS/CIPD that causes weakness and paralysis.  As she told her story, I became increasingly interested in her and her experiences.  She was so straight-forward and sincere in her story and I felt an immediate connection to her.  I had never heard of this disease until she told me about it, but I really liked this woman and what she was doing.  Passion is like that, don't you think? It just radiates off a person when they are doing something they truly believe in.  And so her energy was contagious.  She said she liked my sculpture and that she would love it if I would consider placing some pieces in their fundraiser sale.  I was already liking the sound of the event, and after reading about it online, I was decided.  It's called the Carolina Art Soiree, and it's coming up in early May.  It's going to be a beautiful event and I am truly excited.

Have a great week everyone,
~Kelly

Wow, How Time Flies

Wow, time is just zooming past these days. Having a little baby is awesome and fun and exciting, but you sure do start to lose track of different things! Let's see, quick update on everything. My Mom is doing okay. She is stable right now. Chemo doesn't seem to be helping with the cancer, but we have found a steroid that keeps her symptoms at bay. Now, it is a quality of life thing - this steroid keeps her headaches away and eases the confusion and gives her energy and a appetite. So I am glad that she feels better. Little Marley is four months old now as of tomorrow, and I can't believe it has already been four months. We saw a dad in the grocery store last night with a new baby, and I can't believe that Marley was that small! It is really mind-blowing. She's well and she's happy and she just got her pavlik brace off her legs last week. For anyone who didn't know, Marley's hip sockets were a little loose when she was born and she had to wear a canvas/velcro brace for three months. She is doing much better now and only has a brace on at night when she sleeps. I'm back at work in my clay, even though I am not getting nearly as much time to work as I would like. I have a show coming up in Charlotte next week that I am very much looking forward to. It is with the American Craft Council and is a very nice show. I will not have all the inventory I would have like to have had, but with everything going on, there was just no way I could make more time for pottery. Between moving, my mother being sick, and the new baby, our lives have been a little out of whack this entire year. But we are slowly finding our way in this crazy new world. That is a photo of Marley in the studio with me while I'm prepping for glazing! So right now, things are good, they are stable, and now I just need some more sleep...