May: 30 days of art play!

Hey Pals!
​Just wanted to reach out and say HEY and let you know what I’ve been up to in the studio. Recently, I was able to participate in a fabulous workshop, presented by my good friend and studio mate Sara Saltee. It was called “Magical Little Worlds: Assemblage” and was as super fun as it sounds. It was really interesting because even though I’m a mixed media artist, and love to glue pretty things to my paintings, I’ve never really worked 3-D. Not since I was a kid, and made dioramas. Man, I love me some dioramas. Sooo when I started making my magical little world, I found I just fell back on my modus operandi and made a collage/painting with glued on items. Below you can see what I made on the front of my box..

​Then I opened my box, and did the same on the inside of the lid.

​But FINALLY, on the inside, I was able to take a step into a more developed
3-D kind of space.

The piece was expressing my frustration and anger at all of the injustices coming to light - or rather, being forced into my view. I used the images of the Goddesses Kali, the Destroyer, and Oshun, Defender of the Poor and Warrior against Injustice, to express the archetypes of feminine sacred rage, and inside I created a treasure chest of the gifts that these Goddesses offer. Not only was creating this piece cathartic for me, I also found myself in a place I haven’t been for a while: PLAY. I was creating art with no other purpose than to please myself. All the work I make DOES have to please me in order for me to create it, but I haven’t made anything that didn’t also have one of these questions attached to it: What series is it a part of? Did it reflect my current style? And how could I market it?

I really liked playing. WHEEEE! So I decided to make May my 30 Days of Play! Aren’t I rhyme-y? So starting May 1, every day I am going to make a piece of work with only my entertainment as the goal. I have in my art supply stash quite a few substrates that can be used as you can see below....

.....and each day I will choose from this pile and put something on it that pleases me.
And I want to share with you my May of Play!  Simply join my newsletter list on this page, and every morning in the month of May you will receive in your inbox an image of what I have created. AND as a special treat just for my newsletter folks, I’m going to offer each piece for sale, starting at $5 the first day and going up $1 each consecutive day, plus shipping. If one of them pleases you as well, just be the first to reply to my email.
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Doesn’t that sound FUN? I’m psyched. And feel free to share with your friends if you think they’d like to play with us as well. Simply send them this link:
http://karinbolstad.com/fun.html 
so that they can sign up for my newsletter, THE FEMIN-ARTIST.

Happy May!
xo Karin