Two of Rosie's books, The Golden Sword and Time Smugglers were finalists for the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  

Check out our discussion by clicking here.

Click on the book covers to learn more about each book.

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness, is a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

In 2015, Mutual of Omaha staff traveled the USA in a 34-foot long, super-cool, silver bullet Airstream trailer to talk with folks across the nation about their “aha” moments.

I was fortunate to be able to meet up with this talented crew.

Please click here to find out about mine or on the photo below…

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness, is a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Art is a great way to release stress, have fun, feel creative, and access insights and messages from your inner self!  

You also have something tangible to reflect upon, look back at, and share with others!

So here is an easy project that you may become addicted to creating...a mini-doodle book.  You don't need to be an artist to create one and it's an easy project for all ages.  

You can do this project alone or with others.  You could even trade the mini-doodle book back and forth to see what evolves from more than one person working on the same book.

Supplies:

• A black fine point and a black ultra fine point Sharpie permanent pens.
  
• A pair of scissors.  
• Coloring tools such as crayons, colored pencils and pens, and markers.  
• Other items you may want to use include magazines, glue sticks, and even stickers and glitter.  

Steps:

1) Take a piece of paper--you can work with any size.  I have used 8.5 inches x 11 inches as well as larger pieces. A 12 inches x 18 inches works very well and is what I used for the example I'm including here.

2) Draw lines over the page with a fine point Sharpie pen.  

Here's an example of what your page could look like:

3) There are a variety of ways to make mini-doodle books.

I'm including here a quick and easy way to make an 8-page mini book by just folding a single piece of paper and making one cut.

Click here for a short YouTube video on how to do this or click on the below image.

4) Choose which page you want to be the first page or "cover" of your mini-book.  

5) Use your chosen supplies to decorate your mini doodle book.  

As you flip through the pages, you may find that your lines look like an animal or a person's face or an object like a lamp.   

You may want to include words, phrases, or even write a short story. 

You can also keep everything abstract and create your book as a meditation on color, line, and/or shape.

Also sign and date your mini doodle book--it's always interesting to go back and see what you've created at different points of your life.

Looking for an example? Here's my mini-doodle book you can flip through.  It's titled, Teddy's DreamTime Adventure.

I'd love to see what you create!  

And a special thank you to Wendy Wahman for providing the idea of starting off with creating lines across the page before folding the paper to create the mini-doodle book!   The book I include here I made at her "Insight Book" workshop.

Also, YouTube has a variety of videos on making mini-books, including a circle flip up book and a Roald Dahl mini book! 

So go make your mini-doodle book now and have fun!  

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness, is a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Love beautiful art? Interested in different media? Enjoy supporting artists? 

If you answer "YES!", then stop by North Seattle College's Art Gallery to enjoy a smorgasbord that includes watercolors, acrylics, jewelry, ceramics, prints, sculpture, and photography.

Happy News! Two of Kathryn V. White's watercolors were juried into the exhibit.

The exhibit continues until August 20, 2015. Hours: M-Thu from 12-2PM and 5-7PM.  Click here to find out more.

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book is Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Click on the cover to find the book on Amazon (USA).  It's also available internationally via Amazon.

Click here to read more endorsements and testimonials.

Click here for an e-flyer on Rumble Tumble Joy.

Click here to learn about Kathryn's stories and here to learn about her art.

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book is Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Grab a Hunk of Lightning is Dyanna Taylor’s documentary of the life of her grandmother and famous photojournalist, Dorothea Lange.  

It reveals Lange’s challenging childhood (abandonment of her family by her father and contracting polio at age seven); her dream as a young woman (to leave her hometown of Hoboken, NJ and travel the world); and her unconquerable willpower to never give up.  

For example, her dream was sundered when she and her friend were robbed of all their money in San Francisco, CA.

To get out of the situation, Lange got a job at a photography studio in San Francisco and not long after, opened her own portrait studio in the same city.  

Her first marriage in 1920 was to western painter Maynard Dixon.  He had a daughter and together they had two sons.  A major challenge of this marriage was Dixon leaving the three of them for months at a time to paint in the southwest.  In 1935, Lange divorced Dixon and married economist Paul Taylor.  

And it is with the deep love of Taylor and her own adventuresome spirit that Lange matures into the photojournalist we know today.   
Her iconic “Migrant Mother” (shown above) is one of her many heart-wrenching photographs that documented the struggles of migrant workers during the Great Depression.  

Other work that is just as moving and which only became known later in her life are her photographs of the relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans.  At the time, the US military impounded these photographs as they were considered too critical and disparaging of the US government’s decision.  

Throughout her life, Lange struggled with the demands of being a wife and mother; her passion to be a photographer; and health issues such as bleeding ulcers and post-polio syndrome. 

Yet, through it all, her indomitable spirit is palatable—from her choice of husbands; to her critical eye and gifted hand that takes us to the depths of injustice and also reveals the hidden beauty and power of individuals; to her courage and unwillingness to let her ill health stop her from her passion of photography; to her love of huge, bold jewelry.

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White loves well-conceived documentaries and life-affirming films.  Her most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness, is a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com.

Here's an excerpt of the review:

"Using poetry and prose, White takes readers inside her personal journey of transformation, acceptance, and wholeness. Through the passages, White wrestles with and finds contentment with her weight, her face, her skin, and her body,particularly her thighs...

White's journey is filled with moments of joy, pain, sorrow, anger, and love, and readers--women of all ages--can use Rumble Tumble Joy to embark on their own journey of appreciation and acceptance of themselves and others..."
                 --Africa Hands, San Francisco Book Review

Read the entire review here.

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness, is a finalist in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Each week in March and the last postcard arriving in April, a little gift of joy and connection arrived in my mailbox.

Receiving these postcards, plus participating in Kat's scavenger hunt before the postcards were mailed and a blog hop for participants over the weekend of April 18, 2015 (after the post cards were received) has been a fun way to share my art and writing as well as see the cool stuff other folks are creating.  

I received art-filled postcards from artists in Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Florida, and the United Kingdom. I also won a beautiful calendar of Patricia Lyon-Surrey's art!

If offered again (say it will be so Kat!), I highly recommend that you take Kat's postcard swap excursion in 2016 to meet others through tangible postcards and social media. 

Connecting with others in this way makes the world smaller and bigger at the same time--and a great reminder of human kindness!

So thank you Kat and all the 2015 participants for making this an event worth remembering, sharing, and celebrating with others!

Click here to see a video of some of the art shared through the 2015 Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. 

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White is now a "Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap" enthusiast. Her most recent book, Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness  was recently voted a finalist for the 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Award.  Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Yes, my wish is that both Odin the Ferret and Rumble Tumble Joy move from finalists to winners!  Now that would make for a fantastic year. 

Will the Wishing Shelf grant my wish?

Winners are to be announced in April 2015.  Tune in to hear more...

Find out more about author and artist, Kathryn V. White at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Run, don't walk to see the art of 39 northwest woodworking artists at the Bellevue Art Museum's Biennial (on display until March 29, 2015) as well as the haunting, exquisite ceramic works of Jason Walker (on display until March 1, 2015).

As to be expected with 39 woodworking artists—there is a broad range of themes and creations on display. For example, an immense wooden mask by Michael De Forest got me thinking of the Wizard of Oz mixed with Easter Island and allowed for a perfect photo opportunity.      

Through their eyes, a couple of Shawn Nordfors' wooden heads invite the viewer into an inner world (if you find the secret button).

William J. Whipple's whimsical, moving sculpture provides fun and play. Helga Winter's large-wooden, not-quite-spheres are painted with an Australian-aboriginal-feeling design and are also rattles. There is even a wooden piece of furniture by Aaron Levin that actually breathes in and out!

And you won't want to miss Taiji Miyasaka's and David Drake's outdoor sculpture that you can enter into and feel like you're viewing a star-filled sky. 

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Author and artist, Kathryn V. White's most recent book is Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness. Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

And their playful and boldly provocative art continues to influence artists and provides relevant social commentary to this day.

Roy Lichtenstein parodied societal roles of men and women through his comic book inspired paintings.

Iconic Marilyn, Campbell’s soup can, and Elvis images are seared into our minds ensuring Andy Warhol’s fame persists beyond 15 minutes.

Claes Oldenberg raised the mundane objects of our lives into modern megaliths with his clothespin, trowel, typewriter eraser and other humongous sculptures that dominate any place they are erected.

Through their outrageously-magnified imagery, slick pop idol aggrandizement, and advertising-inspired style, Pop Art artists reveal our endless fascination with stereotypical roles, consumerism, and celebrity-culture. 

Seduced by their captivating images of our insatiable hunger for more, we can’t turn away.

So it is with the Seattle Art Museum’s Pop! Departures exhibit—you’ll be entranced by the skill of these artists, enjoy the familiarity of famous paintings, and see some new pieces.  

I particularly liked Margarita Cabrera’s series of soft-vinyl sculptures of domestic appliances and an almost full-size VW bug as well as a Claes Oldenberg’s rendering of a huge faucet-shaped fountain pouring water into Lake Union.  

Perhaps Paul Allen could bring this one to fruition?

The exhibit runs through January 11, 2015. 

As an extra treat, you can create your own Pop Art inspired images at a photo booth located near the museum’s ticket purchasing area.  

With this blog, I’m including a few of my own creations.  

Be forewarned, your images will show up on a large, flat-screen TV in the SAM’s lobby.

To your 15-minutes of SAM-provided fame!  

Kathryn's most recent book is Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness. Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Showing the world your magic includes making art--which Mati can help you with, especially in the realm of collage.   

And for this art magic to happen, you'll need to allow for spontaneity and messiness.

Hmm...sounds a bit like the magic that shows up when you let go of control, and allow life to happen!

If your life has gotten stale, take a baby step towards re-awakening its magic by clicking the cover above. (Affilitate link)

In October, at the Southwest Branch, I enjoyed making art for two Saturday afternoons—a cute little clay owl (which I may paint or leave its clay color), a black wire nest with a soft interior for my owl to rest in, and a gold wire nest with three “pearl eggs” pendant.

Kathryn V. White is a mystical cosmonaut, writer, and artist. Her dream is her creations help transform our world to be a more joyful place.  Her most recent book is Rumble Tumble Joy: A Journey for Healing, Inspiration, and Wholeness. Find out more at: www.kathrynVwhite.com

Recently, I attended a wonderful, weekend painting workshop—Stewart Cubley’s, The Painting Experience.  I’ve had this workshop on my “To-Do” list since 2008 and with it coming to Seattle this autumn, it was a good time to attend.

I was comfortable with the process shared as it is an approach I frequently take in creating my own art.  Basically, show up, be present, open to whatever wants to express itself, and follow your creative flow.  

Overall, be in the mystery of creation instead of focusing on painting an aesthetically appealing product. These are my own words, so other people and the workshop facilitators (Stewart Cubley and Annie Rousseau) could describe it differently.

What I loved about this workshop was that there were no critiques, no stories to be shared about your paintings, being present amongst others who are delving into the same process, and getting to paint BIG.  I have wanted to experience painting on big canvases for some time.

With the approach of either starting off with one 26” x 20” paper and adding to it or starting off with several papers attached already, I got to experience what it feels like to take a big, paint-tipped brush to big painting surfaces. 
 
I LOVED IT! Especially when I started with several pieces of paper already attached to make one huge canvas.  My pieces ranged from 26”x20” to 52”x60” to 91”x 60.” Yep, the largest one is approximately 7.5 feet high by 5 feet wide!

So here in my blog, I’m sharing with you my BIG pieces.  All done with bright tempera paints.

Now, I just need a BIG studio space to paint BIG paintings!

Curious about The Painting Experience?

Click here to learn more.