New Year Launched!

Posted on | January 4, 2010 |

It’s a brand new year and we got to celebrate with wonderful friends!  2009 was very hard for so many people around the world.  We are mindful of that, especially having just seen the brilliant film, Up in the Air, in which George Clooney fires people for a living.  There’s something wrong with our current economic model, for sure.  But we were fortunate and are counting our blessings.  No one lost a job and we were able to carry on as before.

It was a year of very hard work for me.  I finished writing my book, The Confident Creative, and sent it off to Thierry Bogliolo at Findhorn Press early April. A couple of weeks later he wrote to accept the book, which made me very happy, I have to say.  Thierry is a wonderful publisher—kind, intelligent, hard-working and knowledgeable. He also gave me a deadline for its completion—September 1, a mere 4 1/2 months away.  At that point, all I had was the text.  I’d hardly had a chance to think, even, how it might be illustrated. I’d imagined I might do many of the visuals myself but, that first week, I saw how the book would be so much richer if other artists contributed.  But who?  I had no idea!

I began by asking my 2 studio mates, Deborah Putnoi and Kaetlyn Wilcox.  They both do work that is full of experimentation and imagination—the kind of work I wanted in the book. My aim is to encourage true creative exploration through the practice of drawing.  But these were just 2 artists and there were many pages to fill.

That next month is almost a blur.  I set my intention on finding new artists as I sat down to actually design the book.  I’ve done a certain amount of design work over the years but have primarily worked as an illustrator and now artist.  I made the decision to hire Matt Jatkola, a young graphic designer with a great eye and deep patience!  Then I asked the Universe for artists to rain down on me!  And down they came in quick succession—some through visits to open studio events in Boston, some through word of mouth and one through scouring the internet. Into the mix came a few old friends and the members of my spring drawing class.

Putting the book together was a totally organic process. One thing simply led to another.  I basically worked 7 days a week for 4 months but it never really felt like work, I have to say.  In the midst of it all, I designed the cover.  In July, Thierry came to visit and gave me the thumbs up on everything.  Early September, I sent him the files and in November the first book arrived in my mailbox— a day of great sweet happiness!  I still carry it around with me everywhere!  A bit silly, I know!  It’s available for pre-order on Amazon now but will be officially released in the U.S. on April  Fool’s Day! Fun!

After the book was finished, I got a chance to make some more art.  I’m really excited to have learned how to make gelatin prints from one of the great artists in the book, Julia Talcott. It’s a brilliant medium—all about spontaneity and focus and I love the results—pure energy.  In the last few weeks, I’ve put together a new site dedicated to my art of the last 5 years.  It’s an active site and will be updated as I do a new art project this year, which I’ll soon say more about here.  And I’m launching the site at the beginning of this new year, which I hope will be a year of new awareness and peace for all of us on this planet.

Good wishes to you all for a truly fulfilling and wondrous new year!  I’ll be posting more regularly now and I hope you’ll visit again and say hello.

www.catbennettart.com

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