I'm a Published Artist & Writer!

Cover of first issue and
personal note from Marit.

There's a new Artist's magazine that came out this month with it's first issue. The magazine is named "Featuring" and I'm lucky enough to have written a three page article for this beautiful and highly entertaining artist centered magazine. The article is about The Butterfly Project, I've talked about this project many times because it's such a wonderful labor of love for the Holocaust Museum Houston. I was thrilled when both my article and artwork (along with the work of three of my artist friends) was accepted into the premier issue of Featuring. I spent over a month talking back and forth with Marit, the Editor-in-Chief. Featuring is (in her words) her "baby" and I'm so happy to congratulate her on it's successful launch, it's beautiful, interesting, informative and highly readable. I can't wait for the second issue. 

First page of my article showing Pavel Friedman's poem

The Butterfly Project is focused around the effort to remember the children who perished in the Holocaust. Holocaust Museum Houston is endeavoring to collect one and a half million hand made butterflies from around the world, each butterfly represents one of the one and a half million children who died. The idea to use butterflies came from a touching poem written by Pavel Friedman, a teen who died in one of the concentration camps. The poem speaks about the beauty of a butterfly and laments the fact that there are no more where he is. There's still time to contribute, if you'd like to send a butterfly for inclusion in the art installment planned for 2014 then click on my butterfly button in my sidebar. It will take you to the the Project's website page where you can get all the relevant information and where to send your hand made butterfly.

The butterfly I submitted to The Butterfly Project. It's such a thrill to se my artwork published!

My article is centered around where each artists' (Tracey Fletcher King, Diane Rank, Dion Dior and me, Jennifer McLean) inspiration came from for their painted butterfly and how the Project influenced their art. A heartfelt thank you goes out to each of my artist friends who told me their inspiration and so graciously let me submit their artwork with my article.

Tracey's butterflies: bottom left
Dion's butterfly: bottom right
Diane's buterfly: top right

Tracey said that her inspiration came from her daughter who was studying the Holocaust in school. The enormity of the losses was one of the most difficult things for her daughter to grasp. How does anyone truly let those kind of numbers sink in? Diane  said that when she learned about the Project she was reminded of her first teenage crush. His mother was a survivor of the concentration camps and she pulled from those feelings when she created her butterflies. Dion found that as a mother she was horrified by the loss of innocent life at the hands of such evil. When thinking about the Project and what I wanted to create, I found myself wishing I could paint a butterfly garden that all the lost children could have lived instead of in the camps. Participating in this Project was a deeply moving experience, I know all the participants would agree.

Article "The Gift", journals of Jill Zaheer & Seth Apter

Obviously there were many more articles other than mine in this exquisite new magazine. Here's just a sampling of what you could expect to read about:

• In the spotlight (Andrea Joseph, an amazing artist) 
• Hybrid Art (Rosie Rowe's Artwork)
• Very Important Project (how art is changing)
• Featured Blogger (Natalie Malik)
• Stepping into the Labyrinth
• Copyright dos, don’ts and risks!
• Sleep, Dreams, and Journals
• All about Etsy
• The Gift (Collaboration of Seth Apter and Jill Zaheer on art, poetry and a shared journal)
• Into the Studio (The studio of Michael Mew)
• Message from Swaziland
• Doodling
• Wanna Trade ATC's? 

The Featured Artist article on Andrea Joseph, a truly amazing artist.

If you would like your own copy of Featuring Magazine, it can only be ordered online. Go to the magazine's website www.featuringmagazine.com where you can order the premier issue that's now out. There will be four issues released per year but subscriptions will only be available starting in year two. Marit smartly decided to wait a year to gauge the popularity of her new magazine before promising subscription service. I'd love it if you'd all purchase a copy and support this wonderful new magazine. If you are an artist or are interested in new, upcoming art mediums like mixed media, art journaling and more then this magazine would be right in your wheelhouse!

I'll see you all hopefully throughout the week as you participate in my Special Edition Artist's Play Room. It's my Birthday Week so please come on back and participate, I really want to see you!
Talk to you soon,
Best,

I'm reading: I'm a Published Artist & Writer!Tweet this Post