When following your guts works. Inception of KeenSpirits.

If you’ve been reading this space for some time, you may know that I am longing for connections with other artists. It can feel lonely to work from home, especially when not doing (yet) any craft fair, or when not being in a gallery etc.

I can be socially awkward (ok, admitting that is… weird. but that’s the truth) and I am much aware of this. So when it comes to meeting new people, and you add to being shy, I get anxious (like… sicktomystomachfortwodays anxious).
However, last year or so I heard that Inner Voice whispering «find other artists, more or less locally, and connect with them. create a nurturing but fun group.» I guess that Kelly Rae Roberts was sharing her experience in this same area with her LoveBombers as they call themselves and it triggered that feeling that this was exactly what I wanted to live, too, somehow.

And I decided that if nobody would actually invite me to be part of a Tribe, then I should simply create mine and be that link between women artists that may or may not know each others and do something about it. You know what they say, that you need to take actions when something you feel is missing so you don’t long for it anymore (ok, maybe I am the one saying that).
So last year-ish, I took a deep breath and emailed a bunch of women I was admiring and asked them simply if whether or not they would be interested in belonging to a group of kind-hearted artists and to meet now and then to share about what we are up to, cheer each other up, give advice and who knows what ! I got a great response to it, but I guess it was not the right time for it to get off the ground yet and we never find a date to make it work. But the seed was there in me for sure.

I want to belong. I want to be an active part of the creative community. I want other artists to know they can always ask for advice to me and I will answer as much as I can. I don’t want to keep everything a secret, and I guess this is also why I love sharing my process so much.
Why ? because my Inner Voice yells at me: there is a place for everyone in this vast ocean that the creative world is. There.is.a.place.for.each.and.everyone.of.us.
There is a line between inspiration and finding your own creative style and voice is a whole other story I may talk about later.

A few weeks ago, this tingle of excitement about trying again to meet local women, with different artistic endeavours, knocked on my heart, reminded me that this was an experience I wanted to create. And this is how I contacted them, some of them I’ve personally met already, some I only knew online. They all responded with great enthusiasm which made me SO relieved (hey, you never know what people are looking for and ready to go for).

It was a bit of a last minute but we soon met over Nicci‘s place. Unfortunately, all of us could not make it for this first gathering (we missed Vivienne, Lynna and Nancy).

She hosted us in her eye candy home studio, each of us brought something something to eat for lunch. At her place, inspiration is everywhere, even at the front door or on her beautifully painting chairs 😉

We played in our journals, shared products we enjoyed (lots of stencils and sprays were involved) and just had fun being with other creative women.

There is something special that happens when you are not alone to create. When you are surrounding yourself with other creative persons. Even if we work on our personal stuff, the energy is different than when you are alone in your studio/space. It’s almost tangible at times. And I simply love it (and having a studio buddy now and then rocks my world).

We all have an artistic style, and are not in the exact same art area. For example Melissa is a watercolour artist, Vivienne is a photographer, and several of us are more in the Mixed Media kind of universe. How exciting is that, honestly ? It will make our point of views richer.

 

Here are the women I spent some time with:

I am excited about our next gathering, I have a lot of ideas about what we could do next. I hope we will all be able to make it.