My Favorite Golden Nugget Moment by Guest Kate Endle

Here is a golden nugget moment that I love to tell artists about. I worked at Seattle Art Supply for about ten years. During this time I was freelancing here and there in my painted style (collaging hadn't started yet) for children's materials. As I was doing this, I was collecting decorative papers from the art supply store. I had no use for these sheets of loveliness and the last thing I needed was another mass of unused art materials. But, I hung onto them. During this period, I had a chance meeting with glass artist Dale Chihuly. It was an exciting meeting which resulted in a possible children's book collaboration and some other really fun project ideas. I was over the moon! This felt like my big break! After our meeting, Chihuly was hugely generous and gave me a ton of Golden Fluid Acrylics and a whole pack of Arches 300lb watercolor paper. Once again, I had another pile of supplies that I might not ever use; I graciously accepted his gift. To make a very long story short, the collaborative projects fell through and I was devastated. This was one of many personal and professional disappointments. I was tired and sad and depressed and tried to take this black energy and turn it into something bright. I tried for years. One day I unearthed the watercolor paper Chihily gave me, the paints, and the collected papers from Seattle Art Supply. I colored papers, cut papers and glued papers. Then, the art supply store started to carry thick edged prestretched canvases and I was off and running. I started a new style that has resulted in projects I had never dreamed off. Finally, those tough times and disappointments made sense. Sometimes you just don't know where things are going......Here are a few samples of those very first collages on paper:

6 comments:

Kathryn said...

Thank you so much for sharing this moment! I'm definitely at a point in my life where I'm not sure exactly where I'm headed, and it's so good to remember to take things one step at a time, and you never know in what wonderful place you might end up.

Pigtown*Design said...

Arches??? Dale Chihuly??? YOU ARE SO LUCKY!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this story, I would love to see more of your artwork. The collages are wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Hoorah, I love the collages and have been so inspired by this blog and your posts. Like Kathryn commented, I too am at a "transition" and these stories have really helped. It's good to know none of us are alone, to keep on going, to save things for later, because you just never know!

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing that. You just never know when your moment will come, do you...

Your collages are so gorgeous! I saw them on stephmodo awhile back and think you have such a gift!

Kate Endle said...

So glad you enjoyed my entry. I love hearing about artists' toil and trouble stories- kinda makes me feel like we're all in this together.

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