Aleah Chapin

February 4, 2015 Nichole McVeigh

I came across Aleah Chapin's work a few months back, and was moved by the life in her art. The realism, combined with her use of colouring, had a real impact on me. Aleah has been an artist since she can remember. She remembers her mother (Deborah Koff-Chapin) showing her how to draw a face, and her father teaching her how to draw a cube in 3D; and sees those experiences as the foundation of her work today. Aleah started drawing people at a young age, progressed to sculpting around 10 years of age, and painting when she was 14. Once painting, Aleah had the opportunity to use a local artist's studio (Pete Jordan), and spent a few hours weekly working there.

Aleah wanted her art to make a positive difference in the world, but that lead to a lack of direction in her work. She struggled a while to find her voice. While in graduate school at the New York Academy of Art, she realized that she just needed to use her own voice to talk about things she knew - she could definitely add value to the conversation in that way. And, what value she has added. She decided to start her Aunties Project, which has grown to an even larger project, including more and more women. It has shown her "the power of a simple image, the strength of vulnerability and the connectedness of individualism."

Creative Spotlight: Mollie Kellogg

December 24, 2014 Nichole McVeigh

Embody Your Muse - Mollie Kellogg - Three faces of Mollie Kellogg’s Incognito Witch Project, fine art and short films celebrating hidden magick

I came across Mollie Kellogg's work through a post on Facebook! Her style and use of colour immediately drew me in, and I am incredibly inspired by Incognito Witch: Paint My Life. What a great reminder to live all that one is, instead of hiding the inner magick we all have. And, I am not the only one inspired; Mollie says that she has come to find that the message in her art has helped viewers with self-empowerment, self-love or body issues.

As a child, Mollie tried her hand at painting on her mother's works-in-progress when she wasn't looking (what a patient, supportive mother!). Through life experiences - among them, theatre, children, and life-threatening health issues - her work has become conceptual, sometimes blurring the line between what is imaginary and real. "I believe that this accessible humanness combined with the imagination, strong concepts, consistency, and the ability to find humor in painful or embarrassing situations is the Incognito Witch magick formula."

Creative Spotlight: Veronika Bond

December 17, 2014 Nichole McVeigh

I met Veronika Bond through, yet again, Jen Lee's Indie Kindred Community. If you can't tell by now, this is a very vibrant, creative community! Since meeting Veronika, I've found that she writes for Rebelle Society, a favourite online magazine of mine! Her latest post is "7 joys of living your truth". I hope you'll check it out!

On her website, Veronika says that she spent the first 40 years of her life searching for a home in various cultures and countries and eventually found what she was looking for within herself. The last 17 years of her life have been spent mainly writing about the creative process, but she doesn't write about the process in the way of ideas; rather, the ways we constantly create our own lives and the universal principles of the process of creation. She is working on a series of books that will be four volumes in all when finished (plus workbooks) - The Solo System - that speaks of human consciousness and the creative process happening naturally within us. She says it can be used as a companion for the heroic journey.

Creative Spotlight: Anastasia Parmson

December 10, 2014 Nichole McVeigh

Embody Your Muse - Anastasia Parmson - Maiken Staak

I was lucky to meet Anastasia Parmson through a business mastermind, and was immediately drawn to both her and her work. She has such a bright personality, and it is definitely mirrored in her work. Having worked in some form of art since childhood, Anastasia realized in adult years that she absolutely loved travel, and her art was suffering because of the time put into travel. She knew she needed to make art again as well, and decided to make art based on her travels. I love that she is intentional in this way about her work.

I am personally grateful that Anastasia has inspired me to see everything as travel, whether it be travel to another country or county. She believes that what might not feel necessarily like travel for one person, is most definitely for another, and I've carried that belief with me since meeting her. A local river may be my "normal," but someone from Fiji may never see it. I travel constantly, and appreciate it in a different way than before. Anastasia started #ThinkLikeATraveler on Instagram - I hope you'll check it out!

Creative Spotlight: Jennifer Chenoweth

December 3, 2014 Nichole McVeigh

Jennifer Chenoweth is an artist inspired by evolution...by becoming and being. Her artwork progresses as she changes and grows, and she marks her experiences along the way, in both her internal and external worlds. She is inspired by a myriad of things - forms, patterns and colours, especially - and collaborates with professionals in other fields when she needs their expertise to follow through with her initial intentions for pieces.

Jennifer works with a variety of mediums; mainly paper, metal, and fabric, and she has a diverse body of work. Her work can start as a quick sketch and evolve into large sculpture, and you can see some of her current work here. I love how Jennifer describes her work. "My work includes gestural marks as a unique movement of my hand and ideas that are ignited by my experiences. My art process is evidence of my inner life-- the transcendent, the sensual, the hard to pin down. My artworks are devotionals, like portraits, to ideas I have considered before, was always considering, am now considering more deeply. I am ripening into something in my deeper truer nature, what I am becoming more of."

I am ever inspired by artists who start creative nonprofits, and Jennifer Chenoweth is one of those artists. She started Generous Art in 2011, and when you purchase fine art from the nonprofit, the sale is split between a donation to a charity of your choice, the artist, and Generous Art. What a great way to make the process of purchasing art even more meaningful!