RESET after RELEASE ♥ Collection Review #1

Note: This is the first blog post in a series devoted to reviewing past painting collections by Katie m. Berggren. 

 

Coming off of a big collection release, such as the Seed & Sky Collection, I always have urges to clean and dust the studio, perhaps rearrange some furniture and RE-EVALUATE. I usually want to de-clutter spaces in my house, removing what we no longer need. 

 

This ritual of RESET after RELEASE

has become an accepted part of my process

 

 

That’s where I am now: cleaning up, resetting 😊 I was referred to some disposable dusters by a youtuber that I recently discovered and like (she's quirky and full of good info!). 

 

I Don't Love Disposables...

 

 

We don’t choose plastic baggies, paper towels or napkins… but I’m going for these dusters. Because on Friday I went through FOUR of the heads just getting all the dust my previous washable duster has been missing all these years. And the air in my home feels cleaner! SOLD.

 

Okay, onto artsy things…

 

 

Last Thursday the final drop for Seed & Sky was released (not counting the owls) and on Friday I packaged up paintings and got them out, destined for their new homes. That is a wonderful feeling.

 

Little treasures to be unwrapped

by many different loving hands.

 

And now I’m RE-EVALUATING… looking back through previous collections, just to revisit friends whom we haven’t looked at in a while. 

 

So starting today, for the next several Thursdays, I plan to give you a little tour of some earlier collections, a Collection Review ♥ 

 

 

Insights Into The Ideas & Stories

Mistakes I Made

How Successful The Collection Was

Puzzles, Gifts, & More

 

 

Today we are starting with the Graceful Nature Collection, which was released in July 2024. 

 

 

 

 

In my journals, I had sketches for "tall women" paintings... ideas I had set aside for years, just waiting until the concept was fully formed. I used these sketches when I began this collection. 

 

15 paintings created with so much heart. Each painting had a story that was long and autobiographical and carefully written. I painted and wrote about elements from my past including being spanked as a child, losing my father, playing in fields and woods, and being dumped by a good friend as an adult. These paintings were what I needed and what I felt art should be: truth, heartfelt glimpses, slices of a life.

 

It took me A WEEK just to name this collection!

And the connection with my collectors 

was really beautiful.

 

 

Looking back after a bit, I shortened some of the stories, realizing I may have been TOO autobiographical. Though the pieces felt like a communion with my younger self and even my father, allowing me to unravel stories from my past, I was worried that readers might be turned-off or overwhelmed by my verbosity. I pulled a “felt thoughtful, might delete later” kind of thing.

 

Was truncating the stories

 the right move? I don’t know...

 

Of the 15 paintings in this collection, 6 of them have been claimed, with a couple living in Taiwan! One of my favorite pieces in this collection is Of Our Nature.

 

 

Want to read her ORIGINAL story (before truncating)? Here it is:

 

I will let you down; donate your secret favorite toy, fumble. There will be days where it seems I’ve forgotten your brilliance, the pure fresh miraculousness of you – but no. Though I will ache to find the ‘me’ in us, I will always cherish the ‘you’.

 

We are connected deeply and at the surface, our beats in alignment, our journeys tethered.

 

Fortune’s arrows and swords will enter our lives, but let’s together use them to weave a tapestry, a loamy carpet for forts to sit atop of. Despite dissatisfaction, let us find our paths and learn our lessons, staying true to the nature of ourselves and of humanity. People exist for one other, my darling, it is of our nature to assist, to wonder, to benefit. But also, realistically, to dig unnecessary holes.

 

Forces outside nature’s benevolence seek to separate us, to ‘other’ us, to paint those around us as ugly. May we help each other to see humanity as pleasant despite the mistakes and flaws, to find where we can be helpers. We are all connected. The Earth’s forests and seas may be prettier from a distance, but people are easier to love up close. We are connected.

 

From Katie: I live in the Pacific Northwest and was raised on 9 acres of fields and forest. Ferns grew all around us in the country and I knew their names and their textures (bracken, sword). I used an actual sword fern from my current yard, painted it, and pressed it against my canvas, to get the outline for this large design on Of Our Nature. 

 

Adding whimsy and color to it, not to mention the bouncy, dancing mushrooms, was a true delight! You may recognize the forest in the distance as inspired by my book A Silent Story, a graphic novel about friendship loss and heartbreak. You’ll notice other pieces in the Graceful Nature Collection that play with this theme.

 

 

A Gift For You

 

To THANK YOU for getting this far in the email, I’m giving a special gift. For any purchase made in the Graceful Nature Collection (prints and/or originals), through next Wednesday, I’ll send you a free copy of the Graceful Nature ebook – which shows all of the paintings and their stories, including behind the scenes images and details. 

►Just type the word "BLOG" in your order comments, through Wednesday, and the gift is yours.