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We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

• Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
• Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
• Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
• Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

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Quote of the week:

“What makes you different or weird- that’s your strength.”

-Meryl Streep

Inspirational Artist of the Week: Frida Kahlo

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón(Spanish pronunciation: ​[ˈfɾiða ˈkalo]​; 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954) was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, ​self-portraits​, and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico. Inspired by ​the country’s popular culture​, she employed a ​naïve​ ​folk art​ style to explore questions of identity, ​postcolonialism​, gender, class, and race in Mexican society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. In addition to belonging to the post-revolutionary ​Mexicayotl​ movement, which sought to define a Mexican identity, Kahlo has been described as a ​surrealist​ or ​magical realist​. She is also known for painting about her experience of ​chronic pain​.

Hand Lettering inspiration of the Week: Ben Shahn

• Prior to World War II, Shahn was a lead practitioner of what has come to be called Social Realism. Such art works are narrative, figurative, and illustrative of the poor, oppressed, or those who live at the margins of society. The guiding spirit of Social Realism is a commitment to humanism.
• Ben Shahn brought together different forms of visual culture to break down the barrier between mass media and fine art. In opposition to what Shahn called “the rules for pure art,” the artist consistently inserted words, texts, and quotations into his artwork to emphasize the didactic nature of his art.
• Because of Shahn’s apprenticeship and friendship with ​Diego Rivera​, ​Frida Kahlo​, and other prominent artists, he upheld the supremacy and universality of art over the false boundaries of nation states. Through his work with Rivera, Shahn serves as a conduit between the United States and the arts of Mexico which were all the rage in the 1920s and 1930s, but fell out of favor until its revival in the 1980s.
• Despite his rise in fame and prestige, Shahn remained committed to his audience and subject matter. Shahn never spoke down to the American people, rather he stood amongst the crowd and fought the same fights as they did.

The idea for this conference came from hosting many creative retreats at Richwood on the River….a magical property. It came from a deep desire to serve and uplift others and encourage them to live their very BEST LIFE. It came from three friends who share a vision for inspiring others. Colleen Sutton… the owner of Richwood… with years’ worth of experience hosting weddings and events. Cara Fox… the owner of Little Golden Fox in Madison… a mover and shaker!! and Lori Siebert… a mixed media artist, teacher, and creative retreats host. Together, we carefully curated a group of presenters who are inspiring, dynamic, FUN, AND KIND!!

We dream of REALLY helping those who attend to go away recharged and ready for exciting new things to unfold!

We are offering a Buy one/Get one for 20% off until August 30th. We hope that you will come with a friend to share this magical experience together!!!

All the details can be found here!

And you can go straight to ordering your tickets here!

We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

• Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
• Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
• Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
• Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

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Quote of the week:

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Inspirational Artist of the week: Vanessa Bell

Vanessa Bell (née Stephen) was the daughter of Sir Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep Duckworth, and the elder sister of famous modernist author Virginia Woolf. From an early age Vanessa’s calm, sweet disposition was overshadowed by the tempestuous Virginia. An amazing talent in her own right, Vanessa has gained notoriety as an artist and interior decorator whose influence can still be felt in the world of decorative arts. Additionally, Vanessa served as an important source of comfort and inspiration to many of her more illustrious peers.

Incredibly close to her younger siblings (Virginia, Thoby, and Adrian) Vanessa sold the family home in Westminster, London shortly after their father’s death, and moved the family to Gordon Square in Bloomsbury. It is here that they met and began socializing with artists, writers, and intellectuals. The individuals who would form the Bloomsbury Group.

Hand lettering inspiration of the week:

Antique script penmanship book pages…let’s recapture a skill of the past!!!

We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

• Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
• Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
• Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
• Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

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Quote of the week:

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.

— E.E. Cummings

Inspirational Artist of the Week: Lydia Corbett

In the 1950s, Lydia Corbett was introduced to Pablo Picasso at Vallauris on the French Riviera. At this time, Picasso was breaking-up with his wife Francois Gilot, and Lydia’s presence brought a new and positive phase to his work. She became the model for a series of forty works of art. She was known then as Sylvette David, but changed her name during this period. The ‘Heads of Sylvette’ a series of moulded metal sculptures which Picasso worked on through this time, introduced a new major innovation in this work.

In 1968, Lydia decided to move to England and gave all her creative energy to painting. She has been exhibiting ever since and has had numerous shows in London, Europe and Japan. The Anthony Petullo Foundation, one of the most influential collections in America, has a collection of Lydia’s watercolours. In 1993 the Tate Gallery staged a major exhibition of Picasso’s sculpture and paintings. A documentary film on Lydia, and her friend and mentor, was shown on BBC2 at the same time.

Lydia’s beautiful paintings in both oil and watercolour sparkle and take on many subjects. Her fluid lines bring new life to these familiar themes, infusing them with warmth and sunlight. Her ‘assured and gentle approach to the human figure’, as one critic put it, recalls the work of Marc Chagall.

Her pictures are highly distinctive and immediately recognizable. She is very much an international painter and has many fans in the UK and abroad.

Hand lettering Inspiration of the week: Julia Warhola (Andy Warhol’s mom!!)

Julia Warhola was born Juliana Justina Zavaczki to a peasant family in the ​Rusyn​village of Mikó, ​Austria-Hungary​ She emigrated to the United States to ​Pittsburgh​, ​Pennsylvania​.

Julia enjoyed singing traditional Rusyn folk songs and was artistic. She loved to draw, and her favorite subjects were angels and cats. She also did embroidery and other crafts, such as bouquets of flowers made from tin cans and crepe paper. During the Easter season, she decorated eggs in the ​Pysanka​ tradition.

As a widow, she moved to New York City in 1952 to be near her son Andy.He often used her decorative handwriting to accompany his illustrations such as the book ​25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy​ (1954).In 1957, she also wrote and illustrated her own book called Holy Cats. She won awards for her lettering, including one from the ​American Institute of Graphic Arts​ for an album cover for The Story of ​Moondog​, featuring the musician ​Louis Thomas Hardin​ in 1957.

In 1966, Andy made a movie called Mrs. Warhol (it was filmed in color and played for 66 minutes). The film featured Julia in her ​basement apartment​ in Andy’s house playing “an aging peroxide movie star with a lot of husbands,” including the most current spouse, played by Andy’s lover Richard Rheem.Andy follows her with his camera as she goes about her daily domestic routines.

We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

• Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
• Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
• Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
• Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

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Quote of the week:

Use your voice for kindness

Your ears for compassion

Your hands for charity

Your mind for truth

And your heart for love.

Inspirational Artist of the Week: Kari Christensen

Kari Christensen was a leading Norwegian ceramic artist, born Feb 1938 and died 5 Feb 1997. She was educated at the National College of Art and Design, Oslo between 1956-1961. Between 1961 and 1965 she was employed as a designer at the Alumina factory (Royal Copenhagen) where she was one a group of 6 designers who worked on the Tenera range developed by the then art director Nils Thorsson. In 1967 she set up her own studio in Oslo. She was also a visiting lecturer at the National College of Art and Design.

Hand lettering Inspiration of the week: Howard Finster

The Reverend Howard Finster was a religious outsider artist. Because Finster realized that his congregation did not remember his sermons even minutes after he had finished, he published religious songs and poetry in local newspapers in the 1930s and hosted a radio prayer show in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He claims God charged him to illustrate his religious visions in 1976 when “A warm feeling came over me to paint sacred art.”

Finster began building his everchanging environmental sculpture, Paradise Garden,on swampy land behind his house in the early 1960s. Composed of walkways and constructions made from cast-off pieces of technology, the Garden assembles individual monuments to human inventors into an all-encompassing “Memorial to God.” Much of the building material in the garden was accumulated from Finster’s television and bicycle repair businesses and his twenty-one other trades.

We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

• Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
• Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
• Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
• Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

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Quote of the week:

“I dwell in possibility.”

― Emily Dickinson

Inspirational Artist of the week: Françoise Gaime Gilot

Françoise Gaime Gilot (26 November 1921 – 6 June 2023) was a French painter.​ Gilot was an accomplished artist, notably in ​watercolors​and ​ceramics​, and a bestselling memoirist of the book Life with Picasso.

Gilot’s artwork is showcased in more than a dozen leading museums including the permanent collection of the ​Metropolitan Museum of Art​ in New York and the ​Centre Pompidou​ in Paris.​ In 2021 her painting Paloma à la Guitare, a 1965 portrait of her daughter, sold for $1.3 million at ​Sotheby’s​ in London.​

Gilot first made her mark in the post-War milieu of artists who redefined the European artistic landscape; her career then went on to span an impressive eight decades. Delving into the realms of mythology, symbolism, and the power of memory, Gilot’s work explores complex philosophical ideas with spontaneity and freedom.​

Gilot is also known for her romantic partnership with ​Pablo Picasso​ as well as her later marriage to ​Jonas Salk​, the American researcher who developed the first safe polio vaccine.​

Hand lettering inspiration of the week: Photo taken by me in my travels