End of Year Museletter: it's been a BIG year!

Dear Creative Soul, Here's one last blog post for you as we approach the end of 2015.

As the year draws to a close, I've been dealing with a week long cold and cough knowing that many of you may be in the same boat. Not pleasant, but it's given me space and time away from my business and marketing. Space to gain clarity and a chance to re-evaluate my goals. We are in the shadow time of Mercury Retrograde which occurs from Dec. 19-Jan. 4 whereas the actual Retrograde is from Jan. 5-24, 2016. So, it's a good time to do just that; re-evaluate.

I was planning to self-publish my Creative Soul 'Lefty' Deck, but don't feel the interest is there and I personally don't 'see' it when I look into the future. For those of you that did express interest I offer you this link where you can view all 69 cards in my own personal deck plus several extras.

This past Cancer Full Moon occurring on Dec. 25 may have helped many of you enjoy an even more traditional, heart-felt, homey holiday season because the Moon rules the sign of Cancer and Cancer is all about hominess; it's the sign of the parent; the mother, the nurturer and it also represents our emotions that ask us, 'where do we feel most at home and what brings us comfort?' When I painted this month's Cancer Full Moon Goddess I asked my husband who has a Cancer Moon, what one word best describes how it feels to have a Cancer Moon and he said, 'emotional' and so I explored that word in the painting below.

Being in my emotions feels powerful and scary by Kathy Crabbe

This past year saw me delve into so many new and exciting projects and I'd like to share them with you, such as:

1. Teaching and facilitating my New Moon Creative Soul Circle for the first time at: Yoga For Life, Temecula Gypsy Luv, Pomona, Rosewood, Menifee Inspire San Diego Studio Mt. San Jacinto College

Moon Circle Collaging

2. Giving Creative Soul Readings in person at: Gypsy Luv, Pomona Bailey's Winery (Elizabethan Feast), Temecula Karma Boutique, San Diego Learning Light Foundation, Anaheim

Kathy Crabbe giving readings at Baileys Winery, Temecula

3. Painting a series of small, abstract, watercolor landscapes both plein air (outside/in the field) and then abstracting them further at home.

painting abstracts at the cottage 2015

4. Turning 50! Plus achieving my lifelong dream of building a cottage on a lake. My husband and I also stayed overnight there the day I turned 50 and spent time canoe-ing on the lake for my birthday.

Contemplating turning 50 this morning

5. I began advanced Shamanic training (3rd Road Celtic Faerie Tradition) with my mentor, Francesca De Grandis.

6. Myself and two other artists began an artist's support group in Temecula, California.

7. We adopted a puppy that was abandoned in our neighbourhood and named her Djinn Djinn. She is now spoiled rotten and a huge buddy for our big dog Abby.

tumblr_np0t58mEvw1utwkv0o1_1280Me & Djinn & Djinn

8. I joined The 52 Project put on by Riverside Art Museum and am creating one new painting a day for 365 days which I post online in the hopes of having a 4 day exhibit at the museum. It's open for anyone to join at any time and then you can have your own show!

9. I finally started an Instagram account to document my 365 days of art plus a Tumblr blog.

It's been a BIG YEAR!

Kathy & Mark

In the coming year I plan to continue to paint and post my artwork and my writing daily. I plan to continue being of service by offering Creative Soul Guidance and I plan to celebrate the New and Full Moon through ritual, meditation and painting which I'll share with you in this Museletter and on my blog.

So thank you dear creative soul, for all your love, support and encouragement along the way.

Blessed Be and Happy New Year!

Kathy Crabbe at Beltane 2015About Kathy

Kathy Crabbe inspires soul-seekers to discover their innate gifts and talents through intuitive, creative expression in safe, relaxed and playful environments. She has been an artist forever and a Creative Soul Guide since awakening her own intuitive gifts at age forty.

Kathy lives in sunny SoCal with her husband and pet muses, Abby the shaggy black dog and Djinn Djinn, the small scruffy one in an adobe home they built themselves. Kathy is painting a Lefty-a-Day for 365 days and posting all works in-progress on Instagram at http://instagram.com/kathycrabbeart

To order a Creative Soul Reading please click here.

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How to create an art fair booth in 4 days

Leftys first booth EVER - Temecula 1st Friday Art Event Hey all!

This blog is going to be taking a different direction starting this Full Moon in Libra. Like I mentioned in my last post, it's taken me 15 years to work up the courage to create an entire art booth devoted solely to my Lefty art. But now that I have, I'm not gonna stop...my goal is to get into some of the shows I call 'millenial/GenX' shows which are sooo different from the 'boomer' shows I've been doing over the last 20 some years with my very popular LuLu in Laguna artwork (which I'm retiring by the way other than still selling LuLu cards wholesale to the mermaid stores that love them).

So, to sum up the Lefty's debut show of which I had no expectations whatsoever regarding sales because heck, it's Temecula and it's a brand new town that doesn't really have any art galleries that anyone knows about, so the crowd was sparse but the folks that were there were interested in talking about art which was a very good thing. This town has potential and it's changing fast so we're all hopeful.

Anyways, I met with lots of folks who are quite involved with what little art scene we do have here and got invited to show my work at several shows and events.

Mercy Me by Kathy Crabbe

I did notice that my Lefty cards and my small Lefty booth sign were not easily read (if at all) by older folks and I even had one man look quite disgusted when I trotted out my little spiel about painting my leftys using my non dominant left hand (perhaps he thought it was the work of the devil?  heck I dunno), but  I do KNOW that I'm NOT a salesperson. I don't have that special something required; never have, never will, but I do plan on hiring someone sparkly to sell for me at shows. I myself plan to be in the back of the booth giving Creative Soul Readings with my Lefty deck which is something else that these Millenial/Gen X shows (let's call them 'XY shows' from hereon out, okay?)  DO allow readings - kewl!  ...because I'm almost certain the Boomer shows would not like that at all!

Next up is a new online shop for my Leftys (Shopify platform), new banners for my blog and facebook to match my Storenvy banner - it's all got to be consistent, of course plus my first wholesale order from a shop in San Diego (just waiting for the owner to pick out her faves).  Then purchase some really cute envelopes for the Lefty Cards, perhaps in a fun pastel-ey color. I also need to hire a booth helper/salesperson for shows and then apply and actually get into said shows!  I may start an Instagram account and look into making Lefty resin necklaces and rings also.  The Artist's Circle which I'm starting this month in cahoots with 3 other kick ass artists will hopefully prove to be a wonderful support group for helping all of us keep it together whilst living out here in cowboy land!

So, stay tuned...I plan on adding more of this kind of writing to my blog plus update the pix I posted here once new ones come in (I had a nice group of photographers snap my booth). We all gotta start somewhere, right?

Lefty Display by Kathy Crabbe

Last, but not least, I created (and branded) this entire booth display and all the products in it in 4 days!  I went crazy at Michaels buying vintage, shabby chic props (in a record 10 minutes - they were closing) as well as absconding my husband's childhood desk (which belonged to his grandma before him), an antique caned chair and a really cool turquoise taboret from Ikea. I touched up my Lefty artwork scans using Photoshop and then printed them on Mohawk color copy card stock using an Epson 2200 printer and archival pigment inks. My prints (I only had 4) were printed on Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster which ended up suiting the Leftys better than the very expensive Epson Velvet Fine Art Paper. I only featured  Leftys I'd painted in the previous 2 years to keep things consistent design-wise plus I did bring some old copies of Lefty poetry zines and postcard zines that I had made in the mid 2000's.

First Friday Art Event Temecula

First Friday Art Event Temecula - Photo by Chad Woodward

Lefty Framed by Kathy Crabbe

FIRST EVER Artist's Circle meetup April 12 ~ Temecula

***Purchase Lefty Art Cards and Prints ***

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