Evolution of an Artist

I went to art school. Yup, 4 years. I enjoyed taking electives in many things I don’t use, such as paper making, the only course I got less than a B in during the whole 4 years. Not for lack of trying either, I was in that stupid paper making studio for loads of extra hours- but it still didn’t really work out for me.

I got my degree in teaching, and went on to teach for a few years. Love it. Hated it. Definitely a love/hate thing. Still Jones for it whenever I drive by a high school, and have to talk myself down. It was awful to be a free spirit stuck in a classroom with my wings clipped. I was in a constant state of anxiety, because I was nervous that I was too close to the kids, too personable, and would end up smeared all over the news because I touched someone or made too personal a comment. It was horrible. But I loved it too, because I loved spending time influencing teenagers. I LOVE them! And I was never inappropriate, although I worried because of all the pressure of society and parents. It was awful feeling that way, did I mention that?

I am primarily a polymer clay art jewelry artisan. I fought being a jewelry maker for years, but it’s just part of me. I make tiny beautiful things. For a while, I called my etsy shop StudioBijou…until I found a porn studio using the same name. Whoops, didn’t want that association! So I changed to my name, KiraSlyeDesigns. I keep that, because it’s been around for so long and it’s me. But again, evolution rears it’s head. I needed to follow a colorful dream and associate more with the style I love.

I love Bohemian style, color, the gypsy connotations. I love the movie Moulin Rouge and highly recommend it- Freedom, Beauty, Truth and Love.

Color is a Driving Force

This is recycled Sari ribbon- all ripped and shredded.

I love color. It is what drives me. Have you ever seen ColorLovers.com? It’s a fun little website where I’m going to start posting new palettes often- I just love playing with the pattern generator too!

I got interviewed!

It was so awesome to be on the receiving end of an interview, after all the long years of podcasting and videocasting. iCreateFlix is a classroom site where I've got some videos for sale, and they talked to me on BlogTalkRadio last week. Here me talk about living my creative life, writing the book with Ilysa, and growing up in a teaching family. Among other things :)

Check Out Art Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with iCreateFlix Radio on BlogTalkRadio

What is your favorite color?

I say this using my best Monty Python English accent, because I just love it when they tell the guy he is wrong and he dies....

How can you have a "wrong" favorite color? Mine is absolutely FF3399.

I shudder to think that it is "hot pink," that description takes me back to 1986... 7th grade... bad hair, braces, Catholic school uniforms, a crush on the wrong boy, and lots of other 13 year old nonsense.

So I will just stick with FF3399, because I think this color defies description. It is neither magenta nor fuchsia, and calling it pink simply doesn't do it justice. I have it in my hair, on my lips, and on way too many clothing and accessory items including rhinestone earrings, scarves, a gorgeous druzy necklace... I have a huge faux flower leaning over the side of my monitor in this color, my Ikea lamp is this color, actually when I look around my art room, I am amazed at how much I do gravitate towards having items in this color in my space.

Then I look around again and notice that I have a lot of black and white in my wardrobe and studio as well, probably to counterpoint the fact that I pick this heavy pink color for all the little things. It is totally subconscious, but now I suppose I will begin noticing it more, since I brought it to my own attention...

What is YOUR favorite color? Do you just like it, or are you passionately in love with it, as I seem to be with mine?

What did you do to your hair! On going pink....

Yesterday, I spent an absurd (!!!) amount of money in a hair salon.  My hair was double-processed, the brown parts were all returned to my natural dark brown color and I had ombre pink and purple strips put into the front. All part of my birthday present to myself :)

In the future, I will keep adding more crazy colors to the front until I am saturated- right now, I had the strips put in so I could start getting used to it- I was a little afraid to go pink because I'm always nervous to let the real me out to play. What will people say or think? Then I have to remind myself that I don't really care, do I?

I love my hair right now...although I saw a girl at the salon and I've decided I want to look more like her- hair to mid-shoulders, black with blue and aqua strips. She was wearing it in a really interesting style, part braided and part pompadour in the front. So cute. Not that I want blue hair, but once you bleach the color out of an area, you pretty much end up with a part of your hair that can be any color at any time- there are no permanent crazy colors, so every color you put in immediately starts to fade and has to be freshened up often... so it becomes easy to say, let's be pink this week! or Blue, or Turquoise....

I'm an Author!

When our book hit Amazon's "shelves" this week, it became official! It's so awesome to see your name in print. But what has been even more incredible is to see the comps of what the design team at F&W Media has done with our art and jewelry. The inside of this book is GORGEOUS! I'm upset I can't share it with you. You will just have to buy one for yourself and see.

Right now, it's a good time to get it- because it is on a deep discount for pre-ordering, since it won't be available until September. The list price is $24.95, but I think I saw it for $15 yesterday.

Here's a Link!

From Rumination to Illumination

Rumination is usually defined as repetitively focusing on the symptoms of distress, and on its possible causes and consequences. Extensive research on the effects of rumination, or the tendency to self-reflect, shows that the negative form of rumination interferes with people’s ability to focus on problem-solving and results in dwelling on negative thoughts about past failures.

I just had the best experience in a long time- I got to Skype chat with Marney Makridakis, the founder of Artellaland.com. I've been following the site for years now. Can I just say that Marney is VERY smart? And a generous soul who gave me an hour of her time, free. In that hour, I was able to realize what my heart has been telling me about my life mission, and therefore I changed the title of my blog and now will change my focus as well. It's always been there, I just haven't been able to listen to the quiet, deep part of my soul that is telling me what my REAL, true wish is as a helping professional.

I am a teacher- through and through. I've taught others my whole life, and dedicated myself to lifelong learning. 

I've read several pieces of literature which suggest that teachers are people who have not had a healthy upbringing- rather they have had struggles to deal with, in some cases, all their lives. This makes this special group of people highly empathetic. Many become psychologists, counselors, or therapists of some kind or another. Many get specialized training to do these things, and I believe that in many cases it's because they want to practice in a medical field that they are forced to get this training. But it doesn't take "letters" after your name or a Master's degree to make someone a teacher or counselor. It's a gift.

Somewhere in my early 30's, I realized that I spent a lot of time in Rumination. That is to say, that I could identify the causes and effects of the negative parts of my rearing and psyche. I could think about them to no end, pick them apart, and wallow in them (which, as the definition above suggests, is what rumination often leads to.) But I was getting no where in this endless cycle of negative thinking. I was still depressed, passively suicidal (wishing your airplane will crash when upon takeoff is a terrible thing to live through) and wondering about the meaning of life. Questions I had since age 8 or so. I realized that I had to let the light in, and let my light out. My focus then became finding the light. I did some reading, meditation, study and therapy. I still have a ways to go, and my teachers assure me that I will probably spend the rest of my life "perfecting" my own approach to happiness, fulfillment, and contentment- three states of mind that sometimes coexist, sometimes not.

My gift is this- I now understand how to shine. I know the path, and I want to share it. I believe that creativity and positive thinking can lead you there. As humans, we all share the power to create, and the power to think- to make new life, to make art and build things, to tell stories, to imagine things that weren't there before. Creativity and Positivity is our gift. I'm not just talking about art making, although that tends to be my primary expression. I do like to write as well :)