Dancing in the weeds

   For days I've been waiting for my VIDA collection to arrive...every day waiting in anticipation....and yesterday it finally did! My daughter, Summer, and I held a LIVE broadcast of us looking at the artful swag on my Facebook group Crisawesomeness Designs.

Please join it for updates! Lots of times I hand down savings given to me by VIDA on there. We had so much fun, we decided to make a regular habit of it and include my You Tube channel.

      We are planning a runway project with local make up specialists and representatives as well as hair dressers. I really think that's going to be a great networking, fun and creative process for us! Good times lie ahead!  Look for more details of that soon!
   My fall line is being developed and you can look forward to rich tones. In the meantime, enjoy!

Blessings!

Living the Dream!

   2017 has been an exciting year for me! My lifestyle changes have paved the way to the birth of our rainbow baby, Finn...I no longer have to be on a synthetic thyroid and have healed my thyroid...BIG STUFF! I've had some long term goals and plans come into fruition, one of which I'm proud to blog about today .......

My Spring/Summer Curated Signature Collection for VIDA  went LIVE at about 7:00 p.m. MST! What this means is that models are wearing the accessories that I designed. I am now an accessories designer :)
I am so excited about the pieces being featured. The whole project has been amazing and one that I have been able to enjoy as I am staying at home with our daughters, Summer and Finn. The featured piece entitled Nature's Open Heart is being spotlighted on the main shop section on the VIDA website. It is quite an honor to be featured in their shop all section and something I have dreamed about since being contacted by them about displaying my artistic talents.
   This collection includes some of my acrylic artwork as well as photographs from our area and promotes the beauty of nature and highlights South Dakota living. The featured pieces are actually shots taken in one of my favorite spots in this world---our backyard in South Dakota in the USA. Nature's Open Heart  is a photograph of a native South Dakota flower with beautiful attributes....tall and proud, lightly fragrant purple flowers, food for our state insect, the bee. It is known by many names Old Settler Lilac, Skyrockets, Firework flowers to name a few. These flowers always remind me of my grandparents on both sides of my family, the Andersons and the Halls. The little purple petals bring warm memories bubbling up to the surface. The fragrance washes hugs and kisses throughout my system....warm fuzzies!

Look at our finished Look!!

I'm so proud of it!

   OK let's talk about this whole designer curated process....in one word, AMAZING! I was contacted by VIDA about possibly featuring a few pieces with their models and I jumped at the chance. From the comfort of my home, I met with my design team online. First I was given the choice of which of my products I wanted to highlight. I quickly picked my favorites and next up was picking the models....the choices were difficult. My thoughts turned toward color of hair, style of hair, the complete look-very exciting and daunting! Once that was complete, poses of the models and how to display the product was addressed. There were so many factors to think about! I strolled outside to visit with my husband and father-in-law about the many creative choices. They were knee-deep in assembling a new basketball hoop but threw some chuckles my direction as I contemplated the project. There were several times during the process that I just couldn't believe I was getting to actually do this! I think I smiled through the whole thing! The last decision to be made was the backgrounds for the models ... again, thoughts trying to wrap around the whole picture. I think our final images are a big WIN. I absolutely am thoroughly pleased and more importantly, proud of this work..
   In a few weeks, I will have some of my pieces available for purchase offline...that's right! I will have pieces on hand available! We are planning some fun social media events and we are making my presence known at small venues like our local Farmer's Market during this summer season.

   And now I proudly present my Curated collection. Click HERE please and share this collection like crazy!

   Blessings!

Enjoying the South Dakota sun with Finn & Chica

my hammock is filled with the best!

My first SIGNATURE COLLECTION went live!

   Yes friends from around the globe...my art has taken on WORLDWIDE status!

My Designer Label

I have finally  hit the mainstream! It wasn't expected, I wasn't strolling down that avenue really---it just happened!!! My first official SIGNATURE COLLECTION of bags and women's accessories went live last night at around 8:00 p.m. MST. Preorder my designs and VIDA will make them!

PLEASE CHECK IT OUT HERE!
Enjoy 15% off your purchase using code Welcome15
OR
Enjoy $50 off your purchase of $250+ using code Welcome50
Expires in just 7 Days, on 12/07/16.

  
   I am beyond  thrilled ---maybe over the moon--- to share with you my latest collection on VIDA!
This collection represents some of my best artwork from over the past two years and is very authentic to who I am as an artist. I'm really proud today to share this work with you. It includes selections from my canvas artistry to my photographic elemental collection.
  I'm really excited to collaborate with VIDA for this collection. VIDA is a new kind of fashion ecommerce company that connects artists like me all over the world with producers to bring our work to life. For every product sold, VIDA hopes to provide the gift of literacy to the makers they work with. I'm very proud to be in partnership with this company! A percentage of every sale goes to an artist like myself, to the manufacturer and also to the employees in the small facilities they work with to provide the skills for them to learn to read, write and do basic math. Many of these employees are women.  To learn more about VIDA's story, click this link.

I hope this post find you and yours well as we in the Northern Hemisphere close in on the Winter Solstice bringing the promise of the light and those of you in the Southern Hemisphere with thoughts of the romantic longer evenings ahead of you.

BLESSINGS!

Reiki: power up!

     My healing Hashimoto's  journey has led me on some wild paths, some terrible journeys, some silver-ladened cobblestone corridors and some dark places sprinkled with blazing embers. I've learned so much about myself and ...and I am a champion because of it.
  

      My healing journey has expanded my mind, challenged me and my team to think off of the page, to really make me get acquainted with myself. I turned to art again to unlock any feelings or doubt or fear, I found the Eastern side of life. Yup, I did. What exactly does that mean? It simply means that the Western world may not have the answers I've been looking for....we are, after all, connected to the entire world, the universe, which incidentally seems to be far more vast that our little Western technological equipment could see!

    I really turned to yoga for a great exercise during flare times and it always had some wonderful benefits (like quieting my mind) and the philosophies taught are solid building blocks to a better you. The use of my massage therapy has also been a staple of keeping my inflammation in check as well as the amazing thing simple touch can do....which brings me to my latest and changing thing I've ever done. On June 30, 2016, I was attuned and am a Reiki I practitioner. In simple speak, I can channel the universal healing energy through my hands. This healing technique has been 'handed' (ha-see what I did there?) down from the dawn of time, this ancient healing method is life changing.

   During my Reiki I certification process, I spent hours on meditation and focusing on the chakra system of the body. What are chakras? Chakras are energy centers in the body that govern certain systems. Sometimes, when people go through tramatic events or focus too deeply on negative energies, chakras can become "blocked" or less open, making the person behave

certain ways or become ill with specific illnesses. This way of thinking makes sense to me. I've seen and felt Reiki.  During my attunement process, I completed also a series of paintings thst focuses on keeping chakras open. It helped me keep focused on my Reiki journey.
   If you would like to know more about this ancient healing technique, please do not hesitate to get a hold of me by commenting or emailing me! I'd love to be a part of your journey and help you get centered again. Look into finding practitioners in your corner of this world.

"Crown enlightened"

"Solar Plexus"

   My journey to the ancient healing techniques of Reiki has changed me forever. It was spiritual, it was healing, it was unWestern, it was destined. My life has become richer in so many aspects and not only does it help me, it helps my family, it helps my pets, I have helped people over distance. We are all connected.
Namasté  

Book it!

Art in motion: My Art Legacy Experience #RCArtLove

   The past few weeks, I've been preparing for an art event called The Art Legacy Project, where stories and art come together. It's about connecting, working together and inspiring others, it's highlighting someone's passion and after it was over, I know I was meant to be chosen for this event. A huge thanks first off to the sponsors The Elks Theatre, Simpsons Printing, The OWN, The Rapid City Arts Council and the Suzie Cappa Art Center.....and all the wonderful people in the audience who were hopefully impacted by this event in some way.

My display area featuring artwork,

my travel coffee table book, photography

Copyrighted by Sydnie Ness

Along came Judy.....I was first approached by a member of the Art Legacy Committee in January/February if I would be interested and wow was this in my realm....a storyteller is weaving a tale while I'm illustrating live with 20 minutes to start and finish a painting?! Yeah, this project could be amazing!
As many of you know, my recent diagnosis of Hashimoto's has been a big breakthrough and I'm still learning how to handle all those situations that life throws at you. Your endocrine system is critical in handling social situations, body temperature, heart rhythms, metabolism, controls your growth, critical thinking... it has a huge impact on your body and your life. I have been striving to operate at full capacity and sometimes my body still  questions me. I kept focus on my day to day and for a change, I thoroughly enjoyed this moment. My anxiety was low and with the help of my family, my Hashimoto's didn't stand in the way of  my day.
During a quick meet and greet at the offices of the Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, South Dakota, a month before the schedule event, I met my storyteller. He was late for the initial meeting and when he entered the room, there is no way a guy of that height can enter undetected!

Fred and I looking at my creation after his story was told

Copyrighted by Sydnie Ness

He started talking about this woman he admired,  his coworker and it struck me because he wasn't her brother, husband, father....he was a man admiring this woman  who impacted his life with her quick wit, can do spirit and drive to succeed. This sounded like my kind of woman! There was a big connection.....There has never been a challenge I shirked away from and especially with my Hashimoto's, I quickly became my own advocate and began learning all I could, when I wasn't sleeping, that is. My husband would attempt to keep up with my research and watch with supportive tones. I want to paint Judy's story!
Judy Bialka was her name and over the course of two meetings with Fred, I learned they were in the sanitation business together, she built her own company, she had a successful 'pink cart' campaign and that she commented how she would "kick cancers ass!" . A woman in that kind of business is a strong one. And she built bridges with her mouth to get things done. For 10 years., I was an aquatic director and head of the maintenance of the pool (that my friends is overwhelmingly dominated by men). Another similarity. He talked about the great lengths she would go to help people. She was diagnosed with melanoma cancer and fought for six years! My father-in-law whom I've grown to love and admire is on the war with melanoma...another sign for me that this match-up was destined.

"United against cancer"

By Cris Ness 2016

I spent my free time painting almost daily when I wasn't serving tables or serving beers.  My husband would ask in the mornings, "so, what are you going to paint today?" He quietly sits in the same room and occasionally looks, and when I'm done, he always get a giant grin on his face and hugs me...I love this kind of artistry reward system! Lots of great things came out onto the canvas....but I still didn't know how I could bring to life this woman who Fred so admired for being a trailblazer, a whirlwind, a colorful woman to admire. Days ticked by and a week before the event, I still just had a blank canvas going on in my brain with fleeting images of pink garbage cans, a colorful whirlwind, and a pig and a chicken putting on a breakfast together.
Fred, Anne who was our Black Hills Storyteller liaison, and I again had a coffee meet. A week earlier, I had shown the duo my style of work. In  the winter months, I started this random candle light series...and it made my family go hmmm, made my dog bark and growl at the painting, of which I exclaimed, "Honey!!! I pulled  emotion out of  the dog!!!!" They looked at the woman and stared.

My very own bookmarks "Into The Night" :)

I JUST LOVE HER!!!

At this last meeting, Fred had been thinking about my candle series and how that might just be a good focal point for the painting. I had gone to that meeting with that very thought in mind. Earlier in the day, I had been talking to my husband about Judy (I didn't mention much about what this story was going to be about before then.) and he quickly uttered,"that candle stuff you were doing a few months ago would be perfect".
I decided to work on the background some more. I looked up her obituary online late one evening  and Fred had described her perfectly and this other background information filled in gaps as far as her achievements throughout her short life. Judy was a mere 47-year-old youngster when her fight was over. She was vivacious, victorious, tenacious, winning....how do you put that on canvas???

"She would come into a room like a whirlwind...and that's the feeling of how it is now that's she's gone..."---Fred Folsom

This quote from one of our meetings continually clicked in my mind. I painted a storyboard filled with all the images jumbling around in my mind. The next morning, I popped out of bed and began painting vibrant colors on the black...and then thought of tears washing and dimming that spirit away. My dirty dish sponge was the first tool and boy did it work brilliantly! The "tears" streamed down the colorful spirit, dulling the shine....and then a single candle appeared. This fit perfectly....and I could easily complete the entire art piece in that timeframe blowing away the viewing audience with the creation forming before their eyes. I knew what I was doing and I had four days to spare! Life was GOOD!
My husband was my stage hand and handled all my artwork and setting up---we woke up the morning of the show and made table easels out of sticks from our backyard, giggling and chatting about "my big day". He is so awesome!
Before I knew it, the display was up and people were taking their seats, the show began and after I took in the two pairs ahead of us, it was GO TIME! I've performed musically for several audiences, been in large orchestras, had the honor of being first chair in orchestra and have had the honor of being passed the conductor's baton...OH THE POWER!!! But I speak through my music, through the written word and if I get a microphone in front of me I lose my mind really...it's just blank LOL. Fred on the other hand is a chatty booming man who has a story for any occasion.

The process began...the colors came out, Fred's words rang in the darkness, I can hear people reacting behind me as the water trickled down the wet canvas and the colors ran down. I pulled the
lines through. Then Fred's voice cracks and I tune in for just a second and I can hear him taking a gasping breath and a slight pause to regain his composure. I tune him out and sink down in my chair...this man whom I just met and shared coffee with, has shared his soul with me and I him through my art and I'm going to get emotional. The candle begins to appear and before I know it, we are headed to the center of the stage and he gives me a big Fred Bear hug!

"Judy's Light", Cris Ness and Fred Folsom

Photo by Sydnie Ness

WE DID IT! And I think everyone in attendance will remember Judy, or in the very least remember
someone they love like that. We created a wonderful remembrance in honor of Judy, and Fred challenged everyone to be a Judy,-be that colorful person who never backs down.