Changes in my Life

Changes.  Changes and Decisions.  It is a part of life.  In this case, it's a good change.  Soooo much has changed in my life over the past 5 years, and now I feel like I've come out of it on the other side.  I can look back, and see how I've changed, and I can look forward to what is coming.  One of the changes I have made here, in this little space, is that I will be moving this blog over to Wordpress.  I know, I know, it is a pain for you, my sweet followers, and for that I am sorry.  But it is all for the good!  I now have a sweet new website that you need to check out and I am so pumped about it!  My old website was good, but it wasn't mobile!  With all the mobile devices these days, I felt like it was a major mistake to have a website that wasn't viewable on an iPad, tablet, or phone.  I would cringe every time someone wanted to look at my website and couldn't do it due to mobile devices!!  As a busy mom of two little girls, I thought that if I EVER wanted to get a new website in motion, I had better hire someone to do it for me.  And so I did.  It was an awesome decision and I have many THANKS for Laura for making this transition as easy as pie.  If you know Laura, you know that she doesn't let any grass grow under her feet!

So, now I have to ask a favor of you.  Please, please, pretty please, come on over to my new space.  I would love to have you join me over there, where I will continue to write about this crazy thing called life - and ART.  Don't forget the art part!

If you follow me via RSS, don't forget to update that as well - here's a link for you.   

http://kellythielstudio.com/?feed=rss 

And for you folks that like the Bookmark or "favorites" method, here's your link too. http://kellythielstudio.com/blog

I'll be moving stuff over to the new blog soon, and in some ways, I'll miss Blogger.  I've been here for a while, and I still like my blog design over here.  But life goes on, and I'm ready for it!  

And just to leave you with a little teaser, I've been working on a new sculpture.  It's called Of Two Minds, and it's almost done being built.  Still wet, needs to dry and then be glazed, but the forming of the sculpture is almost complete.  Come on over to the new blog and check it out :)  See you soon.

xoxo

Kelly

Studio Workshop in my personal studio!

I am so excited to be sharing some news today!  I am preparing to start offering  
weekend workshops in my studio!  My first one is already scheduled for march 2 and 3, 2013, and I have a limit of 5 students.  I have a great studio space, but there is only enough room for roughly 6 (including me), not to mention my dogs! :)  And I am also pleased to say that my first workshop is already full!  We've got students from Colorado, South Carolina and Georgia, and I can't wait to share my studio with them. 

We are planning for a nice, relaxing weekend, creating sculptures of Human/Animal Hybrids.  We will be talking about techniques for blending the two bodies together, and focusing on construction techniques.  I'm going to have our lunch brought in both days to the studio so that we don't have to leave (and since I live in a rural area), and we are just going to play, play, play! 

If there's interest, I could easily see this as being a 2-3 times a year thing, depending on my schedule.  I enjoy sharing my studio with other people who are interested to learn.  I have gotten so much of my knowledge from workshops, that I wanted to start giving back to the system.  Going to workshops is one of my favorite things - I love the synergy that is created and the knowledge that is shared.  There is always something to be learned!

More information can be learned on my website, under Workshops.  Let me know if you have any questions!!  I'll be posting photos and a video soon, as we get closer to the date. 

Yay, for fun things and fun times!

Large Jars

I have been so inspired by the large vessels by Alex Matisse outside the Bascom, that I decided to make some for myself!  I've had so much fun making them, but with my limited studio time, it has taken me SO long to makes these! I've completed one ((pictured), and there's another one almost finished as well  If these work out, they'll flank my driveway or my front porch.  Haven't quite decided yet.  

So now, I have to let it dry completely (which will take a long time), and then some poor soul (ie, my husband) will have to lift this sucker into the kiln.  I have no idea how much it will weigh once it dries! I have had fun building these.  All coil-built, for you clay heads out there.  I don't know why, but I have always been obsessed with working in a larger scale. The small stuff just gets so tedious for me!  I'll be sure to post pictures after it gets fired - if all goes well.  Hopefully I won't blow it up in the kiln!

Light Fixture for my Studio

Today, I got to pull this out of the kiln!!  It was too hot to handle just yet (I'm bad about being unable to wait to unload the kiln!), but I leave town tomorrow and I just had to see it.  And I'm so glad, because I am excited about how it turned out.  This was a fun piece to make - I totally let myself be free and just have fun.  My brush strokes were big and bold and I just got some good colors on there.  Drawing and carving the flowers was fun and free, and the only tedious part was cutting the holes.  I just had to make sure there wasn't any clay clogging those holes.  That would have driven me crazy!  

I've made pendant lights before and had so much fun with the process.  I enjoy making things for the house or studio, especially when they turn out so well.  This light says "Creative Spirit" since it is going in my studio, and I want to draw creative energies into that space.

I'm headed to The Bascom tomorrow to drop off my bronze.  I'm quite excited!  Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!!

~Kelly

Member's Exhibit at The Bascom

I'm pretty excited! If you guys remember, I took a workshop a while back at The Bascom and I really loved it.  I loved the area and the vibe of the school.  It's all in this post here.  So, since then, I have joined their membership and now they are having an exhibit of their members work.  
 

I had a bronze casting made of my Protect sculpture and this is the piece that I will be exhibiting.  The show will be open for approximately 2 months, starting Aug 18, and I am so pleased to be able to participate.  I'm having a custom base made for the sculpture right now, so as soon as that is ready, I will be able to photograph the piece.  It should be ready in just a couple of days.  I'm going with a nice walnut base this time, as opposed to the black granite that everyone seems to use.

If you are ever in the Highlands, NC area, you should really take the time to head over to The Bascom.  They have a great retail shop, outdoor sculptures and trails. 

I'll be back with photos soon!

On Truthfulness

Hi everyone,

I've been thinking about this post for days. I've been writing it and rewriting, thinking about how I wanted it sound and the things I wanted to say. Nothing sounded perfect, so here goes nothing.

I've been in a weird place over the past month. No doubt about it, being a parent of two young girls is difficult and beautiful, all at the same time. The day to day stuff can be hard, sure it is, but it has been made harder by the fact that I'm an artist who feels the NEED to create. I haven't been working in the studio as much as I'd like. In fact, it's pathetic to me how little I am actually in the studio. It's frustrating, and irritating , and makes my soul a bit unhappy. I stop blogging, and I find that I struggle to keep up with social media. I feel like I have no new content, and it all kind of makes me grind my teeth. Then, once i feel the machine slow down, I know it's so hard to get it going again, and I get even more stressed.

So this is why I haven't blogged in over a month. Really? A month? That's just nuts.

But on the other side of things, I love my girls so very much. Yesterday and today, my baby girl has been sick. She's running a pretty good fever (101 and 102), and she's a limp, hot baby in my arms. I've done nothing but hold her and rock her, and maybe some dishes here and there, and that's all I've wanted to do. I've let her drool on my chest, and turn me into a sweaty mess with all of her body heat, and that is all fine by me. It's times like these, I don't care that I'm not creating. I know there will be a time when I can get back to it. I know my girls won't be small forever. They are already growing so fast. So fast it hurts.

So as you can see, I'm conflicted, and feeling a bit torn between my two loves, family and art. I am trusting that it will all work out, that this is a tricky time.

It's hard for me to write all this. I don't want to sound ungrateful or whiney, because I do see how unbelievably fortunate I am. I just want to be honest and truthful about some of the issues an artist/parent goes through. If you have anything you'd like to share on this topic, please feel free. I'd love to hear your stories.

The Studio is Almost Complete

Wow, today was an exciting day!  We had to move the kiln from my old studio to the new studio.  No small feat! I've got a fairly large front-loading electric kiln that required some engineering to get it moved.  My old studio was above our garage, so we had to figure out how to get it off this upper floor.  We ended up removing a section of the handrail on our front porch, and raising the forklift up to that level.  The kiln was put on a pallet jack and then rolled to meet the forklift.  All this done by my most awesomeness hubby, and two guys totally new to moving kilns.  But the three of them did it, by golly, and the kiln survived!!

I don't have any pics of the kiln being moved into the new space, as it was dark and we did it by flashlights and floodlights on the house.  That's enough to make me nervous!!  Hopefully, by the end of this week, we will have power out there and will be able to hook up the kiln.  It's slowly getting done, but these baby steps are killing me!  I have exactly one month to get everything done.  It makes me sweat just to think about it.  I see some long nights in my future.  :)


That's it over here.  I've been working on two new sculptures at my little folding table, but I'd like to wait until they are fired to show you pics.


Have a good week everyone!

I've been Crazy Busy

Hi there!  I've been crazy busy - moving out of one house, flipping it to make it a beach rental, trying to get settled in our new house, had company for a week, and on top of all that, I couldn't get my computer to play nicely with our new wireless set up at the new house!  Not to mention being uber-pregnant and trying not to overdo it and get ready for baby, all at the same time.  Closing in on 36 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit of it :) 


But seriously, as crazy as things have been, I'm feeling pretty good about things.  I have actually done 3 or 4 sketches (but they're not ready to share here), and I certainly haven't been doing any clay.  I knew there would be some downtime as we traveled through this nutty time of transition.  I'll get back to it soon, though, because one of my galleries has been selling the work and will need replacements soon!


In the meantime, now that I am back online, I have been reading blogs again, and Tara Gentile had a great motivational post that fired me up.  I wanted to share that with you. and I hope that it gives you a little boost too! Check her out.

 Hope everyone is well, and I am so happy to be back online, I can't even begin to tell you!  It makes me feel like life is returning to a manageable chaos :)

~Kelly

Looking for Gallery Representation? Read this!

Are you trying to find more galleries for your work? Good galleries that work with you to actively promote your art will want to make sure you are on the same page as they are. They want to know if you can meet their needs and give them what they need to help you succeed. I've just started following this blog, but it's awesome and truly helps you think about business in a fresh light. If you are serious about finding gallery representation, Read this:

http://baangandburne.com/blog/2011/06/27/inside-the-mind-of-a-gallery-director/ 
 

Happy July 4th to all my Americans and Happy Sunday to everybody!

~Kelly

Jersey Shore Clay National!

Can I just tell you how excited I am??  I found out late last night that two of my sculptures were accepted in the Jersey Shore Clay National at m.t. burton gallery!  I was so excited to get the email that I had a hard time getting to bed last night :)  I didn't hear anything by the notification deadline, so I just assumed that I didn't get accepted, but then I checked their website and they were a little behind thanks to a lost disc in the snail mail.  So I thought... okay.... well, the game is still on!  And then I got the word!  Now I have to figure out the shipping and all the other details, but that's fine by me :)


So these are the two sculptures that will be in the exhibit:

 

Yay!  So excited!  And thanks, everyone, for the love on Facebook when I posted about this last night! :)

~Kelly

Sharing your Work with the Public

Booth pic - a little blurry!

Hi there!


I'm home from my show in Atlanta and I had a ball.  I always enjoy craft/art shows - the excitement, the anticipation,  talking to all the people, and getting feedback from everyone.  I think it's a great opportunity to learn something about what people think of your art.


I've been doing shows for a while now - 8 years or so, I think - and there's always something to learn at these shows.  This year, I took all of my newer bird-related sculptures and was curious what everyone (artists and shoppers) would think.  Well, I got wonderful feedback!  It's easy to tell which pieces everyone likes, because over the course of the weekend, those pieces are looked at again and again and again.  But the most hilarious things are the comments you get.  Some people totally get your work, and others completely misunderstand it.  You have to take most comments with a grain of salt.  People don't mean to be insulting - they just don't get it.  Let me give you an example.  (I posted this on Facebook over the weekend, and you guys just about died when you read this...)  So this nice couple was admiring the bronze I made (they totally loved it), and they told me that they aren't normally "art" type of people.  Okay, that's fine, but why are you at an art show???  Anyway, back to the bronze..  Their jaws fell open when the saw the actual price of the piece, as bronzes are always expensive.  I explained how long it took me to make it and how bronze is such a labor-intensive process.  The lady looks at me in astonishment, and said, "How much would this cost if you cast it in plastic???"  And she was serious.  Of course I wanted to knock her upside the head, but it was obviously an honest question.   She just didn't get it.  So I laughed and told her I didn't work in plastic, and had no idea what that would cost.  Oh man.  I could just visualize a bright white, hollow, plastic-y sculpture with the seams down the sides from the mold..  It really cracked me up!!

One other comment that sticks in my head that I heard from one lady (and you guys will love this too) is that one time when I was still making functional pottery,  I took a vase I had made to the grocery store to fill with cut flowers.  A friend was moving and I thought some lovely flowers in a handmade vase would be a nice going-away gift.  So at the store, I handed the vase over to the woman so she could cut the flowers to fit, and she said, "Oh this is cute.  Did you get this vase at the Dollar Store?"  I just about crapped myself when she said that.  Now I can't help but laugh out loud every time I think of this!


So I'm dying to know - what are some of the worst things that people have said about your work when you are exhibiting your work to the public??  Please share so that we can all have a giggle!


~Kelly

What a Week this has been!

Wow, what a crazy, exciting, busy week this has been! In both my personal life and business life too.  On Monday, we had an ultrasound with the OB and heard the news that we are having a girl!!  I am so thrilled, I can't believe how lucky we are - two daughters?!?!  I would have been happy with either boy or girl, but when I was a kid, I always wanted a sister (I have an older brother) that I could talk to and play with.  So I am so excited to be able to offer this to my girls.  Oh sure, they are going to fight and bicker and do all those things, but hopefully they can be friends too.  Just to be fair, older brothers can be great too - my brother taught me lots of things: like how to throw a baseball, and how to make that awful fart noise in your armpit that all kids like to know how to do.   :)  Anyway, did I mention I was happy to be having a girl???


And then on Tuesday, after I got my head out of the clouds, we announced my new branding image for Kelly Thiel Studio!  I enlisted the help of Laura Otero to help me make this transition the right way, and boy, was I not disappointed!  She designed a new logo for me and helped get all of my online stuff, (including this super cool blog!!) into a lovely, cohesive look.  I should be receiving my new business cards and postcards on Friday (yippee!) and I can't wait to take them to my show next week.

On Tuesday, we also announced my Facebook Sweepstakes (also Laura's idea), and I can't believe how much fun I've had with this!  I know many of you from this blog have entered already, and thank you so much!!  I've also heard from others that I didn't know, and I am so happy to make that connection as well.  Who would have guessed it would be so much fun to give away art?!?  I would love to do another one later this year, if I can, but I will have to wait and see how my schedule shapes up with a new babe in the house.  (Due date Aug. 14!!)  It may just be a miracle to get my first daughter to preschool on time twice a week...


So this contest has just fired me up all week.  Then I got a phone call from someone that totally excited me, but that is far too early to share any good news about that phone call yet.  Let's wait and see if that idea can get turned into a reality.


And I've been glazing and firing like a madwoman this week, trying to get some more pieces finished for the show next week, so with all of this going on, it's no wonder I can't sleep!  This is the second night this week that I've been awake in the middle of the night... Oh well, it's all good!


I hope all of you have had a great week too!
~Kelly