Passion For The Portrait: Tara Deetscreek

The Artist in her studio

The Internet is a magical place at times. I enjoy connecting with people online and thoroughly enjoy the positive social networking side of the Internet. I love Instagram and sharing images. I had the pleasure of connecting with an artist recently who's gift's I would like to share with you.

It was this image that I shared which sparked some inspiration for Tara.

She transformed this 1950's Dior model into the ultimate shoe maven Sarah Jessica Parker and surrounded her with various SJP Collection Styles

Tara Says, "My love for art began at a young age.  I started to draw everything in sight around the age of 8 and my obsession continued through adulthood.  I ended up pursuing an art studio degree and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree with my focuses being in drawing and ceramics.  I have always worked in 2D and 3D, loving different qualities about both.  It has always been a struggle trying to keep art a priority alongside being a wife and mother, and with different seasons I have focused on different mediums with varying degrees of time commitments.  

Since graduating about 15 years ago, I have done everything from murals, to pottery shows, to custom work. After raising my 4 boys and keeping my art career more on the side lines and being a mother in the forefront, I decided in 2014 that it was time to let art take more of a priority in my life than in past years.  This meant deciding to look at it more like a job and committing to work every day creating in my studio and searching for my personal voice as an artist.  It has been an exciting year for me, because even though I have created my whole life, I feel as though this year I have become an "emerging artist" in my own sense of the word.  

I looked within and searched within myself for the things that were always there.  I looked to inspirational artists, Bo Bartlett, Frida Kahlo, Alphonse Mucha, and Gustav Klimt, to name a few. I have always been inclined to draw people and love capturing a feeling, mood, or characteristic about a person.  Telling people's stories through portraiture is my passion.  Nothing excites me/ terrifies me more than creating someones likeness, and if I can capture something more about the person I am painting or make them feel beautiful through my work then its even better.  I have always been kind of a dreamer and my work tends to have a strain of fantasy in it.  Fabric and pattern have also been influential in my work, as have nature and everything vintage.  

Self Portrait

As I searched for my voice, I also searched for the perfect medium.  Drawing with pencil and painting with watercolor have been my mediums of choice, but I was frustrated at the size limit of a sheet of paper.  I found the perfect mixed media for me which is working on canvas with fluid acrylics (which act as watercolor) combined with colored pencils. I feel like after finding this medium combination I have been able to develop my work and have some consistency which is so exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing my work continue to develop and to learn people's stories along the way!"

When the UPS delivery man knocked on my door on Friday imagine my surprise to receive the most AMAZING portrait from Tara.

 She even gave me a peek at her process

I feel so honored that she used her time and talents to create this portrait for me. In the image I was in the Hearst Castle gardens of hydrangeas wearing a headdress from The House of Kat Swank. I love this moment and am truly thrilled it is now captured forever. The addition of the peacock feather is perfect for me too and I truly adore every element of this piece. It will proudly be displayed on my living rooms magenta accent wall.

Thank You Tara! 

Commission your own unique piece for your home or as a gift from Tara!

Connect:

EMAIL

WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

Eileen Kramer: 100 Years Of Creative Energy

Eileen Kramer in 'Indian Love Song', 1952.

I have recently become familiar with the name Eileen Kramer. She is a 100 year old dancer and creative artist who refuses let age or vision/health limitations stop her creative process or cease her creative energy. She is trying to get her newest show ("The Early Ones") to the stage and has started a crowd funding page to do so. With 6 days left and $14,072 dollars to raise to reach her goal of $26,000 she has totally inspired me to share her story and make a donation toward her dream.

I see so many women, myself included making excuses for things we did not do or won't do. Eileen is a shining example of someone who has let their passion fuel their life and not not let excuses, like age for example stand in the way of her creative process or her dreams. She is also a beautiful link to the history of dance, choreography and costuming in this genre.

Watch Eileen and learn about her project here:

At 100 years young she maintains creative control of her vision from the choreography to the costumes. The funds raised will go to pay the fee of the 9 dancers in her show, provide costumes, pay musicians and composer in charge of the music.

As an original member of the Australian Bodenwieser Dance Company, a pioneer in contemporary dance she has been performing for the past 75 years. She shows no sign or intention of stopping or even slowing down and and from her creative soul to mine I am left in awe in completely inspired. 

She has even written an autobiography about her journey of self realization as a creative artist.

Buy it

Back ground image: Photo of Eileen Kramer and Jean Raymond in Bodenwieser's „Waterlilies“, around 1940.


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VIVA FRIDA: Part 1

On this day in 1907 one of my SHE-Ro's was born in a small suburb of Mexico City (Coyoacan) - Mexican Painter Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón AKA Frida Kahlo. Her life story began in the same place where it ended. She was born in her parents home in Coyoacan, known as Casa Azul or The Blue House. Pain and suffering was the backdrop of her life from the early age of 6 when she contracted Polio and suffered at the hands of bullies and critics for her "bad leg" which she hid under pants and later long skirts for the rest of her life.  

Frida age 12: 1919

At 18 (Sept 17, 1925) she was involved in a bus accident that nearly took her life but after surviving it left her with a lifetime of injuries. The bus she was riding on with her then boyfriend collided with a trolley car.

Frida age 18: 1925

Due to her immobilization after her accident she began to sketch and paint to occupy her time. She spent months confined to her bed in various body casts.  She would return to bed and the casts over the course of her life as her health deteriorated. Always with paint brush in hand.

Frida painted her first self portrait in 1926 

"Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress" 

Once "back on her feet" Frida's next life milestone came in the form of famous Mexican Muralist painter Diego Rivera, 20 years her senior, a mentor, a lover, a tragedy, a husband, and a friend. 

They met in early 1928 and were married (for the first time) August 21, 1929 to the total disgust of her religious mother. She commemorated the event in a portrait.

"Wedding Portrait" - 1931 

Currently at the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art

She was a VERY multi-faceted individual. She was intelligent, brave, and courageous. She was an eclectic mix of the masculine and feminine. 

She was openly bi-sexual, she drank, smoked and cursed like a sailor in a time where "ladies were ladies" and such behavior was seriously frowned upon, especially in her conservative homeland of Mexico with women's traditional roles.  Her dress defied the "trends" of the time. I will talk about Frida's fashion in another piece where I can get more in depth.

Check out this 3 min synopsis video about Frida!   

Want to see the real thing??? Here is a list of the the locations of Frida's Works and where they are today!

LEARN more about Frida:

WATCH:

The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo - PBS Documentary

A&E Biography: Frida Kahlo

Hollywood Bio-Pic: Frida *Watch all the special features too - AMAZING how they made this*

READ:

Biography of Frida Kahlo By Hayden Herrera

Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self Portrait

Frida Kahlo: The Paintings By Hayden Herrera

VISIT:

Frida Kahlo's Home - Now Museo Frida Kahlo

Frida & Diego's Home/Studio

Largest private collection of Frida & Diego's work: Delores Olmedo Museum

*I have been to ALL 3 of the above places in Mexico. AMAZING! A MUST see if you love and appreciate Frida*

VIVA FRIDA PART II  - will examine her later life, more of her work and her relationship with Diego up until her death.