Spotlight: Inspiring Fiber Artist

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Posted on July 24, 2013

“Art is literacy of the heart” ~Elliot Eisner

The first thought that comes to mind when the word publishing is mentioned is books. Art, however, in all kinds of forms, can be associated with the word publishing, also.

The other day, I met a fiber artist, Windy Karpavage, who became a “test knitter” for patterns of felted handbags and knitted flowers. The forty original test pattern designs were subsequently published in the book, “Noni Flowers” by designer Nora J Bellows. http://noniflowers.com/.

Out of Windy Karpavage’s experience as a “test knitter,” grew the business Kaire´ je Studio (meaning left handed)http://on.fb.me/13Btjv6. Karpavage makes felted handbags, totes and purses. Her home studio on Taylors Island, Maryland is filled with treasures for the knitter. Along with purse patterns of Noni’s designs, Karpavage creates some of her own original compositions. All the accessories that go with the craft are available in Kaire´ je Studio such as yarns, knitting needles, handbag clasps (including a growing collection of vintage purse clasps), along with patterns for knit dresses, artistically-styled cowls, shawls, scarves and more.

Photo Credits: Grace Batton

Photo Design above: Sue Batton Leonard

Karpavage also gives knitting lessons from her home studio and at a knitting group gathering every Friday morning at the DorchesterCenter for the Arts http://www.dorchesterarts.org/ in Cambridge, Maryland. She teaches right and left handed knitting.

I’d like to thank Windy Karpavage for sharing her art with me. She has inspired me to find a way to spend more time knitting this winter, after business hours. Who knows what yarn creations I can make if I put my mind to it in snowy Steamboat Springs, Colorado. My first project might be one of the great new artistically-styled cowl patterns, to keep my neck toasty warm on those frigid winter days. Perhaps a felted bag, such as the pattern Hearts on My Sleeve, to match the knitted cowl, for when I step out on the First Friday Art Walks during ski season would be a fulfilling knitting project also.

Above: Custom Knitwear by Windy Karparvage. Work in progress – Original felted handbag design.

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Artist Spotlight: Driftwood Art

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Posted on July 18, 2013

If we look at the world with a love of life, the world will reveal its beauty to us.” ~Daisaku Ikeda

One evening at the Second Saturday Artwalk in Cambridge, Maryland I had the priviledge of meeting Lynn Cegelski, an artist who makes driftwood art. Living so close to the shore of the Chesapeake, the material she needs to create her green art is readily available. She recycles a natural resource, wood that has been cast into the ocean, tumbled by the waters then discarded onto beaches. The wood is her canvas, and the shape provides inspiration for what she is going to create.

At her exhibit last week at the DorchesterCenter for the Arts http://www.dorchesterarts.org/ , paintings on driftwood of a bald eagle, an angelfish, and owls in a tree could not have been better suited for their subjects. No carving of wood was needed. Sometimes, Lynn says “her vision for the piece of wood is immediately evident” and other times, she brings the wood home not knowing what she is going to do with it, but with time, a vision for the piece shines through after studying the nuances in the wood. “Half the fun of her art,” Lynn says “is walking the beaches and along shorelines in search of her treasures.” It is a way of winding down from the stresses of life.

I enjoyed meeting this artist, from Denton, Maryland. She was warm, friendly and her passion for her art was evident. I wish her well in her endeavors as an artist. Her exhibit at the DorchesterCenter for the Arts was her first.

For more information on Lynn’s business, Fiddlesticks Driftwood Art, please visit www.facebook.com/fiddlesticksdriftwoodart or contact Lynn by email at FiddlesticksArt@gmail.com. A company website is forthcoming.

Pleasure to meet you, Lynn!

Return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling for another artist spotlight from the Chesapeake region. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Skipping Around with Images

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Posted on July 17, 2013

“Each one sees what one carries in the heart” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The assimilation process of language is interesting. It reminds me how important it is that parents watch their words to their children. One never knows what will come back to us from our offspring. Words of beauty, compassion and understanding, are better echoed by our children than words of hatred and intolerance. To learn more about language assimilation of children, please read this article http://bit.ly/133mukU.

I come by my interest in flowers and gardening, naturally, through my parents. I never realized how much knowledge I had assimilated about flowers in my formative years until I married a man whose father was a landscaper. Garden talk automatically became common lingo in our household when our lives converged. I am both surprised and delighted when our son whips out names of familiar flowers that have grown in our gardens. He has naturally ingested the names of many species.

I know what you are thinking. “Sue sure has gone out on a tangent this morning – Odd! Where is this subject matter coming from?”I am using stream of consciousness writing, today. http://bit.ly/117U99S. A beautiful flower that I photographed at my parents house started me down this path of thought.

This flower, digitalis (better known as foxglove) has always been present in my garden. But the blossom pictured, is the most beautiful of its kind I have ever seen. It could serve as a specimen plant because it is particularly noteworthy and deserves “center stage.” The stem is as wide as three stems fused together, and unusually flat shaped – a real treasure. Without the abnormally shaped stem, the heavy and enormous flower would topple over! When I saw it, it made my heart skip a beat.

Those are my fulfilling independent thoughts, words and views from www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com today. Come back tomorrow, perhaps my writing will be more cohesive.

Photo 1: Check out the triple width stem of the unusually formed digitalis.

Photo in Middle: Three ordinary foxglove (digitalis) and one hefty, atypical plant

Photo 3: Close up of atypical specimen of digitalis.

To read more about this species of flower, digitalis, please go to .http://bit.ly/11aZikG.

Honoring Nature and Roots in Photography

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Posted on June 12, 2013

Good art is art that allows you to enter it from a variety of angles and to emerge with a variety of views. ~ Mary Schmich

The exhibit, Creatures in Motion, is like looking out at the world through the eyes of a true nature lover. The photography of Linda Roy Walls is featured at the DorchesterCenter for the Arts during the month of June 2013. Images of living things (bovine, beast and avian) in their natural environment, is the focus of the exhibit.

It is evident by the images Walls captures, the artist believes in “living in the moment.” Scenes of her environment, wildlife, and all other things that catches her eye, through the lens of the camera, provides an even more extensive photographic collection on her website.

Walls has honored what is important to her in her life through the three photo books she has published. One book, “Ode to Ed” is dedicated to her father, a war veteran, who succumbed to leukemia due to Agent Orange poisoning after three tours of duty in Vietnam. Her other photo books “Riding Waves and Herding Cats” and “The Content Canines” call attention to more of what she has found fulfilling in living on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. Her travels to Ireland will be the focus of an upcoming publication.

Linda Roy Walls is also a writer for the column “Ponderings” in the Dorchester Banner and a contributing writer for other regional newspapers and magazines. Ever the artist, she is also involved in a portrait study of humble Eastern shore waterman and other locals who add flavor to the region in which her roots have been planted.

Stop by the DorchesterCenter for the Arts to see the photography of Linda Roy Walls, it is a limited but delightful sampling of her photographs. To see more of her images, read her artist bio and to learn more about her art, photography and writing, please visit her website http://www.lindaroywalls.com/.

We look forward to sharing more independent thoughts, words and views with you tomorrow on www.AllThingsFulfilling.com. This blog brought to you by www.cornerstonefulfillmentservice.com. A company specializing in e-commerce and e-marketing for independent publishers.

Providential Visit

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Posted on May 22, 2013

All that I know of tomorrow is that Providence will rise before the sun ~ Jean Baptiste Lacordaire

It’s a city rising, moved by philanthropists, architects, artists, bankers, shopkeepers and others who have engaged in The Providence Portrait Project http://providenceportraitproject.com/ to revitalize Providence, R.I. a city full of history, art, architecture. I enjoyed a day in this city last week when I went to visit my niece who is an architect at Union Studio Architects, and is currently involved in the design of a new library in Tiverton, Rhode Island. http://www.unionstudioarch.com/ .

I encountered so many wonderful sites in Providence that had to do with architecture, history, libraries, books, art, design and education that I will share what I saw through images, rather than words. Enjoy the pictures!

My next stop will be in a city of mansions where wealthy bankers, investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs lived in the early days of our country. Many of them invested in the railroad which allowed for westward expansion of commerce and thus, more prosperity for citizens of our country. Many of the castle-like mansions have become museums, open to the public for touring.

Do return to All Things Fulfilling tomorrow.

Above two images – my niece Kara explaining about the Providence Portrait Project http://bit.ly/14tLl1w.

The roof top garden above Union Studio Architects

Image above: Symposium Books, Providence, RI www.symposiumbooks.com

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

Image above & below: Athenaeum Library http://www.providenceathenaeum.org/

Twin Sisters (yeah, I know, it’s hard to believe) together at the List Art Center

Walter Feldman Book Arts Studio http://brown.edu/academics/visual-art/facilities

At the Gates of Brown University, Providence, RI http://www.brown.edu/

Image above: John Hay Library http://library.brown.edu/about/hay/

Three Images Below: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology

http://bit.ly/YXjcPb

Above: Catherine Bryan Dill Center for the Performing Arts http://bit.ly/16MpQN5

Above Image: The Edna Lawrence Nature Lab in Providence, RI http://naturelab.risd.edu/

Photo above & below: Strolling the streets of Providence looking at church architecture and steeples.

A beauty, isn’t it?

Image below: Grace Episcopal Church, Providence, RI

I found providence, grace and many more fulfilling things in Rhode Island! Thank you Kara, for being a tour guide and showing the sites.

Please return to www.AllThingsFulfilling.com tomorrow.

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Family, Faith and Travel

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Posted on May 20, 2013

“Each day I am thankful for; nights turned into morning, friends that turned into family, dreams that turned into reality and likes that turned into love.” ~ Ritu Ghatourey

I’ve been swept up in a whirlwind of fulfilling things since arriving on the East Coast. It all began with attending a social event of a book club group with women who reside in and around the historic area surrounding TaylorsIsland in Dorchester County, Maryland. The Grace Foundation is restoring churches and doing work on the island to preserve the history of the churches and schoolhouses. http://bit.ly/16Ezcex.

“The Postmistress” by Sarah Blake, a book I recently read and adored, is on the reading booklist for the book club for this coming summer. Based on a small town sea-side community during World War 2, the post office was a hub of activity, and the spinster postmistress knows secrets which if told, will change the lives of some of the residents. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it.

Then I traveled to the Boston area to attend the beautiful wedding of our niece on my husband’s side of the family. It was so wonderful to see the bride and her sister (our second Leonard niece), who are now both married adults.

We also spent a lovely evening in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and had dinner at Loretta’s. The harbor area in Newburyport has changed greatly since last time I visited many years ago. Full of wonderful restaurants with varied cuisine, we also went art gallery hopping. As a Mother’s Day present, my husband bought me a New England artisan-crafted necklace from Annie’s of Newburyport. Then we finished the evening with dessert at a fantastic coffee shop complete with musical entertainment featuring a sole independent musician playing the guitar.

Join me tomorrow on my journey back to Vermont, my state of residence for more than thirty years. I was greeted by “Miss America” of the independent publishing industry! She’s quite a package! Well-built, for future developments.

Here are just a few pictures from my fulfilling travels:

My favorite home away from home, my favorite writing place in the lighthouse

Hope for a bountiful catch

Rode my bike to the vineyards on the Island

too early in the season for fruit on the vine

John the Baptist Church, Peabody, MA for niece’s wedding

Beautiful bride (above)

and her maid of honor – her sister

Stained Glass Window

Dinner in Newburyport, MA at Loretta

Couldn’t resist this photo http://www.imarc.net/ for our son, Marc R Leonard.

He seems to be showing up everywhere!

My Mother’s Day Present – New England Artisan Crafted

Left my heart in Taylor’s Island, Maryland

will be back to get it before my trip to the East Coast is over!

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Stepping into New Territory

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Posted on May 6, 2013

Over the next few weeks, I will be taking a business trip, going to new places and visiting old haunts, too. Ultimately, in my travels, my goal will be to find fulfilling things in my journeys. They may be unexpected, and I’ll share the content digitally. Perhaps it will mean more photos than writing. We will see what develops!

Whenever you frequent this blog space, I encourage you to stay and explore all the other 1,100+ blog postings on All Things Fulfilling. There’s a lot of information about independent films, music and books as well as educational information about the independent publishing process. Other subjects such as writings on the arts, career motivation, self-improvement, relationships and business, and they can be looked up by category, on the right hand side of the page.

I’m not exactly where I am going to find myself in my business travels. Whatever I encounter, I’ll assimilate the experience, enjoy it and share it like an open book.

Return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, where sharing independent thoughts, words and views are all part of the business. This blog is brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Fulfilling an Interest

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Posted on May 2, 2013

Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it. ~ Unknown

As a representative of We Write Steamboat and a volunteer for World Book Night, I stopped by the Colorado State University Extension of Routt County http://bit.ly/16qQLxr to give out The Language of Flowers: A Novel

to volunteers in the agriculture department.

I took time to explain to the recipients that the mission of the World Book Night is to spread a love of literacy and I also gave them a brief history of the organization.

We purposely waited until May Day to give out a portion of the books from World Book Night to this group because a gathering of CSU Extension volunteers had just completed their Master Gardeners program, and were holding a breakfast burrito fundraiser.

When given the book, gratefulness was the overriding sentiment for a publication that so well-suited the volunteers interests. A few people I gave books to worked in another part of the office building, but were there to support the fundraiser and get breakfast. One person walked out with me as I left, and said “I have to get back to work, but I can’t wait to peak between the covers!” I had explained to her that there was a glossary at the back of the book that lists flowers and the emotions that are associated with each. During the Victorian period, giving flowers communicated feelings in relationships, the art of choosing an “appropriate flower” was very important.

My hope, as a World Book Volunteer, is that The Language of Flowers will help the volunteers of CSU Agriculture Department learn a fascinating new aspect about plants they had known little about before.

Happy Reading CSU Volunteers! I hope the snow we received on May Day disappears quickly so you can get out in the gardens and enjoy planting your passion!

Return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, where sharing independent thoughts, words and views are all part of the business. This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, author of Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected

Youth Learns about Publishing

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Posted on April 30, 2013

“Go confidently in your dreams, live the life you have imagined.” ~ David Henry Thoreau

Have you heard the inspiring story of Dallas Clayton? The author who is being touted as the next Dr. Seuss?

From his interview on the Jeff Probst show the other day, he revealed that he was a person without direction in his life until he became a father and decided to write a book for his son. The rest is history. He wrote an outstanding narrative that children could well relate to, and he discovered he had art talent and could do his own illustrations, also.

His first book, An Awesome Book of Love, which came out of wanting to communicate his love for his child, sold like wildfire. This print-on-demand title kept selling out. Eventually, he was contacted by large, mainstream publishing house, and they offered him 10%. His response to that was “Why should I sign a deal like that? I am already making 100%.” Long and short of the story – he was eventually offered a “sweet deal,” which allowed him to start a foundation for literacy “The Awesome World Foundation.” http://www.veryawesomeworld.com/.

Clayton said, in his interview with Jeff Probst,one of the biggest benefits that came with writing the book for his son, who was five when the first book was published, is that “his son saw what it takes to author and publish a book.” He saw his Dad involved in the entire process of the business – writing, illustrating, making mock-up books and even shipping the books from their living room when he needed a fulfillment company. Clearly, an eye-opening experience for a child who probably thinks books magically appear on library bookshelves. And it all began with independent publishing and taking a leap of faith.

I love these kinds of success stories!

Return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, where sharing independent thoughts, words and views are all part of the business. This blog is brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Hiking the PCT with Strayed

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Posted on April 4, 2013

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
~ Dr. Seuss Oh the Places You’’ll Go

This week I’ve hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a place I never thought I’d visit. I hiked it with author Cheryl Strayed
and saw bears, rattlesnakes, a Texas longhorn bull and more. At times throughout the journey I felt desperation set in, unimaginable fright, gratitude, inspiration, relief and grief. Strayed’s thoughts of accomplishing what she set out to do, were familiar.

No, Strayed was not alone in her story, good authors always find the company of readers who appreciate what their characters have gone through and can often relate. I decided to travel along with Strayed by reading her book, so that when she shows up in Steamboat, at the Bud Werner Memorial Library http://bit.ly/16nUuYj on April 11th, I’ll able to envision exactly what the Pacific Crest Trail looked like.

Wild is exactly the kind of book that reminds us why even when things are scary and uncertain, it is best to push through it, and accomplish the goal. Then we can look back and find the lessons within, and how challenges help us to rebuild our life.

Seuss’ words of advice are well-meaning. We need to do better job of teaching children there are so many fulfilling places to see and things to do in this world, and not to let obstacles stop them. Books teach children and adults that we never travel alone, there’s always a path thats been traveled and beaten before us.

“And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance

You’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

There are some, down the road between hither and yon,

that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.”

~ Dr. Seuss Oh the Places You’ll Go

Return tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling, where sharing independent thoughts, words and views is all part of the business. This blog is brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

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Category Archives: inspiration from nature