Creative Ruminations: About

Bethany Kartchner is a self-taught freelance mixed-media and paperclay artist. Passionate about trying new techniques, products and ideas, she always tries to stretch herself in her work. Thanks to her artistic mother, Bethany has experience in just about everything creative. Because of this, she is known for combining seemingly disparate mediums with ease. Plus, she has a distinct ability to think outside-the-box and push products into new innovative uses.

Bethany enjoys working with many medias including fabric, paper and paperclay. Lately, her focus has changed from that of a die-hard scrapbooker, creating layouts to be placed in an album, to a mixed-media artist. This is a very exciting transition. Yet, whatever media she choose, her style can be defined as whimsical freestyle. The majority (if not all) of her work is cheerful and fun with bright colors and happy themes.

In the past Bethany has enjoyed working with manufacturers, kit companies and review teams. Currently, she is actively seeking opportunities to consult, publish and to exhibit. Her work has appeared in many magazines including Somerset Studio, Creating Keepsakes, PaperCrafts, Art Quilting Studio, Sew Somerset, GreenCraft, Somerset Gallery, Somerset Apprentice, Create with Me, Somerset Memories, and Scrapbook Trends. Bethany's work has graced the cover of both Somerset Apprentice and GreenCraft. She has also acted as a contributing artist to multiple books including Creative Foundations (F+W Media). She exhibits frequently with The Laveen Art League in Arizona and has had an exhibit at Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo, Colorado.

Bethany is very interested in freelance work, authoring, consulting, writing articles and product reviews, creating how-to videos, and in online teaching opportunities. She welcomes emails at kartchnerfamily@cox.net.

Education

MA in French Literature

with an emphasis in

French West African literature

by women authors

University of Arizona

May 2001

BA in French with minor in English

Brigham Young University

April 1999

Teaching Experience

DecoArt Make it Take it Project CHA-W 2012 (manufacturer)

Responsibilites include project design, teaching, tutorial creation,

video work, and interacting with customers

Teacher: Children's classes
South Mountain Community College Laveen campus, Laveen, Arizona
June 2011-present
Responsibilities include organizing and teaching art classes for children, registration, website design, marketing, project design, and lesson planning.

Teacher: My Creative Classroom (online classroom)

September 2011 - present

Responsibilities include lesson planning, project design, video work, tutorial creation and teaching. I work with MicroSoft Publisher, Windows Movie Maker and Powerpoint.

Shimmerz Endorsed Educator (manufacturer) March 2011 - present

Responsibilities include teaching with Shimmerz products, online marketing, video work.

Teacher: Stash to Treasure (online classroom)

April 2011

Teacher: Scrapbooks Etc (Scrapbook Store)

May 2010 - November 2010

Shimmerz Education Team Coordinator (manufacturer)

August 2010 - March 2011

Responsibilities include producing technique videos, managing designers,

coordinating sponsorships, marketing, video work, and product design consultation.

Shimmerz Education Team Member (manufacturer)

November 2009- August 2010
Responsibilities include producing technique videos and projects.

The Next Step co-founder (challenge blog)

May 2009-January 2010

Responsibilities included basic administration, website maintenance, writing tutorials and managing designers.

Professional Memberships

Laveen Art League February 2011 - present

LAL Vice-President in charge of Marketing September 2011-present

Responsibilities include online marketing efforts, social networking, creating children's activities for open gallery hours, advertisement design and press release writing.

LAL Children's Education Director June 2011-present

Responsibilities include online marketing efforts, registration organization, project design, teaching, newsletter writing

Design Teams

Shimmerz Education Team Member (manufacturer)

November 2009- August 2010
Responsibilities include producing technique videos and projects.

The Scrap Review (blog)

August 2009 - February 2011 Design Team Member (Review Team)
Responsibilities include one review every 4-5 weeks including 3-5 projects.

My Little Shoebox 2009 Design Team Member (manufacturer)

May 2009 - June 2010

Responsibilites include 3 projects each month.

Luxe 2008 Design Team Member (manufacturer)

June 2008 - July 2009