Blogger Recognition Award

december__s

Sue Vincent recently honored me with a recognition award on her blog, and I wanted to acknowledge and thank her both for the mention and the support and inspiration she provides to me and the all those in her community.  I don’t remember how I first connected to her blog, but her weekly photo prompts have become an important part of my creative process.

How did my blog start?  My friend Nina and I, who worked together for a textile company in the 1970s, were trying to encourage each other to get back to making art.  Emailing back and forth wasn’t working too well, so we decided to start a blog to post what we were doing and comment to each other.  That was in 2014.  When Nina told me we had acquired followers I was surprised, and we both started looking around at what others were doing on WordPress.  It seems like connections rose organically–I don’t remember exactly how I “met” most of the people I interact with regularly now, although I do remember early on that Marcy Erb, who blogged on Illustrated Poetry, asked me to illustrate a poem for her, which certainly started me thinking about combining words and images.

This year Nina decided to take an extended break from MethodTwoMadness, and not wanting to do our joint venture by myself, I started kblog as a place to post until she gets back, keeping MeMadTwo going with the monthly draw-a-bird day.

I would definitely not be doing the work I’m doing now without the interactions I have with both artists and writers on WordPress.

My advice to new bloggers is the same as has been given by many others:  build relationships, comment and reply to comments, and visit other blogs.  Be open to things outside your comfort zone–I would have never predicted I would be not only both writing and doing art, but combining them in ways that weren’t even in my consciousness 5 years ago.  Prompts are a good way both to spur creativity and see how different people approach the same subject.  I’ve learned a lot from doing them.

The art at the top of this post was done for a call for calendar art (from an old calendar, not this year’s).  It was rejected (expect that with great frequency if you send your work out for exhibit or publication), which gives me the opportunity to use it for this December as we move from dark days to ones with more light.  I’m taking a blog break for the rest of the year, but I’ll be back in 2020.  And hopefully Nina will too.

Happy New Year to all, and thanks Sue!

17 thoughts on “Blogger Recognition Award”

  2. Time to say thanks to you too. The prompts are sounding boards, turning into ideas that we bounce back and forth. Your words and collage interpretations inspire others (me included) to fly off in unexpected directions.
    Have a great end to the year, by that I mean keep well and warm and in good company. See you in 2020.

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    1. Thanks Jane. I think those poetry prompts you did were my first serious attempts to really write poetry, and your art prompts gave birth to my postcard fiction with the collage box oracle. So thanks for that. And I’m sure those prompts were what introduced me to Merril–and look where we are now.
      I wish the same to you. See you in 2020.

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  3. You deserve the award, Kerfe. Great advice, too.
    I love the three witches and our Oracle cult. (It is harmless and seems more productive than other cults.)
    Wishing you a very happy new year–and all the stuff Jane said, too. 🙂

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  4. Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition, Kerfe. I really enjoy seeing your art and poetry together. Each brings out elements of the other.
    Here’s hoping the best for you in the new year.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Pingback: Blogger recognition award – Jane Dougherty Writes

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