Guest Interview with KC Willis

In a way KC's life has always been about Cowgirls. As a child growing up in a small midwest town in the 60's, she was surrounded by her father's love of the old west. They listened to Sons of the Pioneers and watched Roy Rogers, John Wayne and every western that made its way across the screen of their little black and white t.v. While other little girls played with Ken and Barbie, KC and her sister played with Jane and Johnny West dolls and the sheets from their beds were used as covered wagon tops more than once. Her idea of the perfect life was to be the only daughter of Ben Cartwright (imagine being Hoss and Little Joe's kid sister!) and spend her days riding around the Ponderosa. As she grew older, she immersed myself in the stories of western life and fell in love with Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, and the idea of heading west.

 

 

We are excited to share with you our very own cowgirl of the art world.  She is known for her fabric embellished collages, but KC has many talents as you will read in our interview.

MP:  Can you tell us about your heroes, the Women of the West?  What they mean to you and how they ahve influenced your art?

I really can't recall a time when I wasn't in awe of the women of the west. When I was a little girl I was drawn to more of the pioneer women. Later the sassy, strong girl with a gun drew my attention. I discovered the Little House books when I was in 3rd grade. I loved the whole idea of a covered wagon and imagined myself many times living in a sod house on the banks of Plum Creek. My mom loved to read and my dad played the fiddle, so I figured I wasn't so far off from the Ingalls girls really! Later I loved to read the diaries of pioneer women and was reading one of those books in the weeks before I made my first fabric collage. I also had the Time/Life Western series books and vividly remember reading a story on Cattle Annie and Little Britches, two female outlaws. From the get-go I knew I wanted to write my own words for the cowgirls and I guess I was drawn to the outlaw girls because they could say anything and get away with it. I was kind of a  fearful child and the fearlessness of these women always appealed to me.

MP:  How did you get started as a fiber artist?

It had been my intention to be a painter, but I got sidetracked with the idea of layers and textures and at the time didn't know how to achieve that in paint.I knew that what I wanted to do would require putting layers together and that it even might mean sewing. Problem was I didn't know how to do that. I gathered up some unprimed artist canvas that I had in my little paint studio, a couple of pieces of cardboard and a couple of cotton blouses whose fabrics I didn't mind sacrificing. Strangely enough my husband at the time, had a little $100 Sears sewing machine in his workshop where he would make little pouches for all the electrical cords he took out on the road with him when his band toured. I had to read the manual on how to wind a bobbin. As it turned out, the imperfection of my sewing was perfect for the rustic, old look I was going for. He also had some photo-transfer paper on hand from trying out photos on t-shirts before the band made them to  sell. Basically, I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew I wanted to tell a story and the basic ingredients were there. Textures, words and image. I have always been a storyteller. Singing is a way of doing that, writing certainly and now my art. I love to create things that weren't there before.

 

MP:  Please share with us your life as a country music singer and an author?

Well each of those things involved many years of my life, so it's not so easy to answer. Let me just sum it up in a nutshell if I can. I opened my mouth when I was about 10 and this big voice came out of this little body. So I sang. Church. School. Family Functions. When I was 18 I cut a record. When I was twenty I hit the road with one band after another until I married my bass player when I was 25 and moved to Los Angeles. I quit singing mostly because I didn't like the lifestyle that went with it. I was a homebody. My first husband, the bass-player, became one of the great bassists in the jazz world, so I got to have my music business career vicariously. I wanted to sit in my house and write...a pot of coffee on the stove and a dog under my feet. So I did that. I had a novel published by HarperCollins-it was even put into Italian, but it was such a long drawn out process. A year to write a novel, two years to sell it and another two before you held a  book in your hand. I did NOT have the attention span for that. I am enjoying writing again with my blog and am in talks with a publishing house about writing a book of humorous essays. We'll see. Maybe I'll write again after all. I definitely won't ever sing again professionally. That was fun in my 20's. Not so much in my 50's. During the years I was living in LA and writing I discovered Georgia O'Keeffe and studying her life opened up the world of painters to me. I still want to be a painter.

MP:  “The Women – The Flag” is in the permanent collection of The Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth TX .  Can you tell us about the flag, what it means and how it found a home in Fort Worth?

Right after Sept. 11th EVERYBODY it seemed was doing their take on the flag. I thought well I'm a fabric artist and the flag is fabric, surely there's something of my own I could do. I talked myself out of it for awhile, because I thought I just didn't want to go there. But I had this idea for 50 women for the 50 stars and the idea just wouldn't let me go. At that same time I had been invited by The Cowgirl Museum to do a piece for an auction they were having for the opening of their new building, so I knew a few folks there. When I made my first flag, called The Women-The Flag," I e-mailed a photo to them. They snatched it up immediately. They unveiled it on September 11, 2002 as their one year anniversary tribute. I was totally humbled. I get orders for about a dozen of the flags every year. It's still an honor to make them.

MP:  If for just one day, you could be anyone from anytime in history, who would that be?

Georgia O'Keeffe. I would love to live inside her head for just one day. To grasp that discipline and to see the shapes she saw.

 

MP:  Are there artists whose career you follow?

I'm an art history buff, so I study a lot of artists who aren't around any longer, mostly painters from The New York School of the 30's and 40's. As far as living artists go, I keep up with Helen Frankenthaler, Guido Frick, Rodney Hatfield, Kelly Moore to name a few. I love Jane Desrosier's textures and am always interested in what she'll do next.

MP:  Is there anything you would like the art world to know about you or your art that we did not cover in our interview?

My voice, my writing, my art are all gifts from God. Why he gave them to me I don't know. At one time or another I have made a mess out of every single one of them, but he loves me anyway and keeps giving me second chances. I am grateful.

MP:  Do you have any up coming projects/books/events/etc we can look forward to seeing in the future?

Yes, definitely. Besides the book I am working on the thing that has me so totally excited right now is my in-person Studio Retreats that are going to be held at my studio here in Colorado. I have loved teaching my on-line video workshops so much that I just had to take it to the next level. I can't wait to teach these workshops. They will be held on an on-going basis just about every month. There are 2 day, 3 day and 5 day versions, as well private one-on-one sessions. And some very cool artists like Sarah Fishburn Tristan Blakeman, and Lesley Venable, to name a few will be scheduled for 2010. You can get all the info at www.studioretreats.ning.com.

MP:  You recently started “Collage Camp ” and “Mixed Media Mania"  and one thing you have stressed, is to make it your own.  Can you elaborate on “making it your own”?

I have seen this done so beautifully by quite a few of the Collage Camp "Campers." Taking the techniques that they learn and putting their spin on it. Different themes, different finishing touches. Everytime you touch a piece it will have your signature on it. Your choices of fabrics and embellishments will be your own. The way you organize it will be to your taste. Don't be boxed in by what I do. Let your imagination run with it. One time at a gallery where my work was showing, this wonderful young man who worked there, noticed the same 2 ladies had come in day after day and were standing in front of my work whispering to each other about how I did this or that and how they could do the EXACT same thing. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and in his usual outspoken way he said, "Ladies you can technically do what she does all day long, but you'll never have her fairy dust." True. And I'll never have yours.

The original "Old Hope and Glory" flag above was one of the winners in a national Art for Obama contest during the 2008 election.  In November it will be featured in a coffeetable book being put together by Shepard Fairey called "The Art of Obama."

To learn more about KC visit the links above, her website and Blog, Lipstick Ranch.

Images courtesy of KC.

KC, thank you for taking time away from creating your gorgeous fabric collages to give our readers a wonderful interview.

Comments

[Elaine Brady Smith]

KC, I have always loved your "Cow girl" art. I enjoyed reading this interview...thanks for being here!!!
Elaine

[Brenda Wampler]

I admire KC, and the fact that she has such a love and has stood by that year after year. She is wonderful at it, and her love for it shows in her work. Thank you so much for a tiny peek into her world.