Hello friends! Long time, no blog. Since the last time you saw me on here I’ve taken some interesting and different steps, one of the most important of those steps has been to reevaluate my career path and my personal goals. This blog is about what has happened to me and my career as an artist since the start of the pandemic. If you’re, like me, a bit over that type of story then skip to the end, when the photos of Spokane turn into photos of me. 

The pandemic put my entire photography career on hold, a reality that still grips my daily life, and forced me to find something else to do in order to feed my family. I tried some…. interesting options, one of which was to back track all the way to my teens and attempt to work at Starbucks again (big mistake). I applied to a few hundred jobs and if the job wasn’t offering slave wages (or no wages at all) it passed on me because I don’t have a drone license or because I don’t have up-to-date gear or whatever reasons…. being a professional photographer is hard work, it’s especially hard if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t pay to play. Don’t let anyone anywhere tell you any different.  

So here I was, almost two years ago exactly to the day, crying a lot. Just desperately sobbing and reaching out to anyone I could to keep me shooting. I did a lot of it for free even though I was living with my parents and stealing their old food because we had absolutely nothing. I mean, we lived with $40 in our bank account for weeks. I thought maybe I could do some art, get some sympathy cash that way. I got a few dollars here and there (thank you again to anyone that bought art from me during the pandemic, you SAVED me and my family), but mostly it helped me feel a little better. Then something weird happened that I didn’t think was a thing… hardly anyone I knew, knew that I could also paint and draw. You all sent me messages and made these wonderful comments on my little doodles… It was encouraging and a hugely bright light for me during an extremely dark period of my life. If you did this, you kept me from giving up.

ANYWAY… *dabs tears* So I kept drawing and I filled an entire sketchbook with these doodles. It had been YEARS since I filled an entire sketchbook. For reference, each of the ink line drawings I do, without any color, can take up to two weeks to finish. With color, definitely can be up to a month depending on what I want to do. I am not a fast artist, this is primarily why I got into photography, it’s a very fast way to get out what you want the world to see. I make good art, I just needed to find a way to keep up with these young kids that make content, like, hourly! Photography allowed me to do that. I picked the genre that would feed my soul and my body.

Last summer I started getting offers to come back and start working as a photographer again. The pandemic was slowing-ish and people were done with the whole thing and even though I was still trying to piece together the fragments of the career I spent 20 years building, it was time to get back to it. Drawing was still dominating my daily life and when I boarded a plane in August to go photograph a wedding, I was nose deep in my sketchbook drawing the Monroe Street Bridge in Spokane. The man in front of me who looked oddly like my father stopped me and asked me a question that has, so far, completely changed my life… “Is that a coloring book of Spokane?” 

So… the life changing part. If you’ve skipped, let’s go ahead and skip some more! Right to the meat of it since I’ve bogged you all down with my sob story. That dad clone’s question lead to a bombardment of questions from other passengers about me and what I’m drawing and “why don’t you make a coloring book?” “You could totally make a coloring book” “Did you know we have great art funding here in Spokane?” Each one was just this perfect roadmap of what to do next and how to keep the momentum going. Since I returned from that trip in August I have been diligently working on a hand drawn coloring book of the city of Spokane, Washington with the awesome support of a little Facebook group I was referred to and it has been an AMAZING experience! 

Now, the part I need you all for… the reason you skipped the sob story and just zoomed to this bit. The Spokane Coloring Book is halfway finished and I need funding in order to get to the end, the part where it’s printed and available for purchase. I am not at all far from the end goal as I recently received some FANTASTICAL news from one of our local organizations as well as support from our local power company, Avista. I AM SO CLOSE!!! Would you please help me get this baby to the end? We could have coloring books ready by the end of summer, just in time to buy them for your family as Christmas presents. 

I am also asking as part of the requirements to receive funding from other sources. Often times grant issuers and public donors want to know that the community is willing to contribute to a project, a guarantee that the project wont run out of money halfway. So those of you who have offered to contribute in the past, this is your chance to do so! I’m hoping to pull in just $1000 more dollars, we can do this! 

And then there’s this last part. Do you know a business (or are a business) in an iconic building that would like to sponsor a page in The Spokane Coloring Book? As a way to get that final $1000, I’d love to partner with any local businesses that want their storefronts to appear in The Spokane Coloring Book (anyone know the marketing manager for The Davenport?). Your business will also receive a digital copy of the page for use in promotions or even just as a kid’s coloring placemat. 

I have 15 pages down, 15 left to go. This has been a crazy, wild ride fueled by pure… MAGIC! I can’t express enough love and gratitude to everyone that has supported and believed in this project. I wouldn’t have even thought of the idea if it weren’t for those Spokanites going on vacation in August… if you’re reading this, you completely changed my life. 

I am not a fan of Go Fund Me (I would run one if it made Spokanites more comfortable about supporting the book, leave a comment if you think I should do this) but I do have a Paypal link here where you can contribute directly to getting the coloring book finished. If you would like to sponsor a page, please hit the “sponsor” button above. I also made this page that talks all about the Spokane Coloring Book AND you can now follow the progress on Instagram!  

I’m really really excited and so so grateful to all of you and I will never forget the love and support you have offered along this insanely rocky road. 

Thank you so much.

Kel