The last year or so has been extremely challenging for Tracey Kazimir-Cree on all levels — professionally, emotionally, and personally, including the deaths of her mentor and brother-in-law. Her enthusiasm for a lot of things naturally waned as she dealt with these losses, but her interest in art journaling grew stronger as she had more challenges and sadnesses to process. Tracey is recommitted to journaling as a tool for helping herself and others to move through the good and less-than-good events the comprise our lives. “Written All Over Her Face” is a reflection of that, with many layers of collage, paint and words that make tangible who she is.
It’s pretty exciting to see my work hanging anywhere but in my own home, but it’s super exciting to see it hanging in a museum. This is the second year I’ve participated in the Masks at MOA silent auction fundraiser that Fort Collins Museum of Art does each year. To the right is my mask for this year and my original statement.
About 200 artists participate, creating one-of-a-kind works that are exhibited for a month and that over 4000 visitors to the museum can bid on. This is the museum’s major fundraiser each year.
I will be at the opening on Friday night, April 3, 2015, to see my mask and that masks of my fellow artists. I hope you can join us — and please bid on a mask!
Loveland Art Studio Tour is this weekend and next and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s free, so pick up a map & artist directory and go to town! I have a few pieces in Lola’s Fresh Patina this month, so I know I’ll be over there for a bit Friday night, for sure. Since it’s 2nd Friday, we might hit Artworks Loveland, too.
I haven’t shown any work in a while and I’m a little anxious, but I’m hoping folks like what they see. See you around town this weekend. 🙂
First of all, no, I have no idea why I was up at 2 am writing this post. I thought I might get more work done while everybody is asleep and that I might sleep while everybody is awake tomorrow. I don’t know if any of this is wise, but Tim was ok with the burden it would place on him in yhe morning, so why not give it a try.
And that’s one of the things this post is about. Trying something even when you’re not sure it’s going to work out.
Now I want to share the two scary and creative things I’ve done in the past few months.
1. Became a foster mom.
I haven’t mentioned this topic here, because it’s my art blog, but it’s relevant to this post. Last year Tim and I were certified by our county as foster parents. Never having been a parent before at all, this was a huge and scary step for me. (Not for Tim. He was good with it from the word go.) I have learned in the past two months, however, that motherhood requires large quantities of creativity. HUGE quantities.
I had no idea.
Can I shower, have breakfast and answer all of my client email before the baby wakes up? How do I take a sleeping baby in the car to pick up the 11-year-old at school and get home before the baby has a poop explosion or needs a bottle? How long can I listen to the boy yammer on about his plans for a birthday party we’re apparently throwing him this summer? How many times can I take him to McDonald’s for an after-school snack before I feel like an awful guardian? (The answers are: no, carefully and quickly, as long as I have to, and two.)
And so on.
But you know what I learned this week? I can do it. I AM doing it. And I am doing it pretty well, if I do say so myself. There may have been a couple of times I wanted to cry or give up, but in general, I think I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. And even though I haven’t made one bit of art in the past 3 weeks, I look forward to the challenges these kids bring into our lives.
I took the chance. I made the leap. I let these kids into my life. And it’s good.
And the other thing:
2. Participating in an art community tradition in my city.
Statement: Lately Tracey Kazimir-Cree has been experimenting more with color and texture and found objects, so she has been keeping her imagery simple — flowers, hearts, houses. The idea of home has become increasingly important as she and her husband became foster parents this year. Tracey states, “All of us, especially children, deserve A Safe Space to Land and a chance to be truly happy and loved.” (Photo by Christina Gressianu. http://www.photocg.co/)
I’ve heard of the Masks at MOA for years and either was afraid, or kept missing the deadline, but this year, I finally got to participate. Basically, it’s a fundraiser for the art museum in which artists create masterpieces out of ceramic masks. The masks are then displayed in the museum for a month and the public bids on them throughout the exhibit. Some of the masks also sold during a Gala dinner, as well. All of the proceeds to towards the museum.
On First Friday last month, the museum was packed. I was so nervous…I enjoyed looking at all of the masks, but was so anxious to see my own piece displayed in a museum. I’d been in a gallery before, but a museum! That’s huge!
When we found mine, we saw that someone had bid on it. Not only that, but two someones had bid on it.
It was thrilling.
The exhibit is closing this week, so I went over there today to check on my mask one more time. More people had bid and the price was up to $95. I don’t know that I ever expected that!
I took a chance, made the leap, arted up the mask and put my work out there. And it turns out, I’m not the only one who loved my piece.
I can do anything, if I want it badly enough, but the point is in the trying. Even if it’s scary. The point is in pushing myself to see just what I’m capable of. You can do that too. Even if you’re scared.
I’m so excited and the countdown has begun — one week from yesterday Fine and Funky will be in the Opera Galleria, Downtown Fort Collins. And it’s my first time doing a show like this, so I’m super nervous, too! Come and see me — And see Kat Peters-Midland, of Two Dog Art Studio, since she and I are sharing a booth! As the week progresses, I’m going to try to post some sneak peeks of what I’m prepping for the show.
I was walking alongside a friend who was riding his bike. We were headed for NYC from NJ and having a nice, leisurely walk/ride. At some point, though, the chain fell off his bike and he couldn’t ride anymore. Luckily, we were right across the street from some notable bike co-op and we hoped they would fix it for him. We went in and while they worked on his bike, I wandered the offices, which were in a really cool old victorian walkup. I visited the gift shop, where they sold brightly colored dog paintings and there was a display with the names of each volunteer and what they had accomplished in the organization, represented by assorted shapes in a divided display box. I thought it was nice that they had taken the time to honor and develop the talents of the people who worked there for no pay. Then I was given a bike to alter and I started painting it. When I left it to dry, someone else took it and undid all of the work that I had begun.
(mixed media piece using rescued bike, spray paint, spray webbing, wood, polymer clay, metal)
We are in the process of trying to move my mom out of the house she and my dad moved into over 40 years ago. It’s been difficult and traumatic for all six kids and for mom, but with me being so far away from New Jersey, I’ve been having lots of anxiety about this new phase in our lives. I dreamed that I was in mom’s living room and all of the furniture was gone, no pictures on the walls, which were painted white. I don’t even think that the carpet was there anymore. There was a pile of big brown leaves from the tree out front that had blown into the room and sort of drifted up against the fireplace, which was in a different location and was cold and dark. As I stood there, a little area of the leaves in the middle of the room caught on fire and I tried to stomp it out with my shoe.
(mixed media shrine using cigar boxes, corrugated cardboard, acrylics, wood pieces, shrink plastic, light element, picture frame, brown paper bag, beaded trim)
The economy really messed us up and we’re behind in some of our bills, most notably to our dentist, which causes me extreme anxiety. In the dream I was talking and my teeth started falling out of my mouth. I don’t remember it hurting, but it was very upsetting. I went to the dentist and he looked at my mouth and said he wouldn’t fix my teeth until he knew that he was going to get paid. So I’m sitting there, missing teeth and completely baffled as to how this was going to work. Suddenly there were many people in the waiting room and in came a terrorist with a syringe and the focus was off my teeth and how I was going to save all of the people in the dentist’s office.
(mixed media shrine using cigar box, wood pieces, Mardi Gras beads, acrylics, teeth mold rescued from the dentist)
