Four States in Six Days

A couple weeks ago I was even busier than my normal schedule. I touched ground in four states in six days.

Early Friday morning I got on a plane to head to Plant City, Florida with a pit-stop in North Carolina to be with Plant City's First Baptist Church for Holy Weekend. As I landed around noon in Florida, the expected sunshine was missing and instead there was a torrential downpour. But it was still way warmer than the 32 degree climate that I had left behind in Kansas!

The worship pastor and friend of mine, Ken, picked me up at the airport with his son, Ashton. I was immediately welcomed into the Plant City community and made to feel at home. Throughout the weekend, I did a live painting Friday night for the Good Friday service, as well as paintings for Easter services Saturday evening and Sunday morning before hopping on a plane back home to Kansas.

When I do live painting gigs, I get to meet new people and communities. The people in Plant City embraced me with open arms. I so enjoyed talking to the different families and people who I was performing with onstage, riding in their car as they volunteered to drive me to the church, or those who came up after the service to meet me and talk further about my art. I truly had so many connections and meaningful conversations, it's hard to believe I was only down there for less than three days!

One of my favorite things after I do live paintings is hearing what people see in the paintings before the reveal or how my art had an impact on them. The congregation was so receptive of my addition of live painting to the worship service and many had stories to tell of their experience with the arts.

I came back from Florida feeling refreshed and full of joy and love. Then I had less than 24 hours - which happened to be my birthday - to finish and turn in two projects and sit through critiques before I turned around and drove out to St. Louis for ShutterFest 2016.

As I arrived to the hotel room that already had four people scattered about on Monday night, I had no idea what I should expect for the following two days.

ShutterFest is an UN-Conference that is "about growing as an artist and being around like-minded people who share the same love and passion" for photography. With Union Station as the stomping grounds, there were classes and sessions with peers and leading professional photographers and educators as well as spontaneous and scheduled shoots of all kinds.

I was there as a model and was chosen to model for two classes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. One was a fashion hacks class and the other was Dark Arts - both taught by photographer, Sarah Clements. I was styled for the first class in a red curtain for a dress, poinsettia flowers in my hair, and makeup completely done with just a tube of lipstick. For the Dark Arts class, I got to levitate. For both classes, a group of maybe 30 photographers were there to learn from Sarah and make cool pictures.

Aside from the two classes, I popped in and out of the hotel room that was cluttered with wardrobe, wigs and makeup, changing outfits and went back and forth to Union Station to connect with photographers. From morning till night, I networked and met so many creatives and made tons cool pictures on the fly.

It was energizing too be completely surrounded by likeminded creative people in this surreal hub; To be creating and improvising and not knowing who you were working with next was truly invigorating.  I made genuine connections with photographers from California, Missouri, New York, Virginia, Colorado, and probably more that I'm not even aware of. I made new friends. And I made some killer photos with really talented people.

Part of me was sad when I returned to Lawrence only to go right back to work at the dining hall in my hairnet and scrubs, but most of me was so thankful for those 6 days where I was reminded in Florida of the innate impact art can have on people and where I was fully immersed in the creative soul in St. Louis.

Looking forward to my next creative adventure,

Annika Wooton

Miss Wooded Hills 2016

Creative Sprint

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a guest artist speak of a group of us from the Design School at KU. His name is Noah Scalin, and he challenged me to do a creative sprint.

Noah pioneered a 365 day challenge for himself where he made a skull per day out of anything he could think of and get his hands on. This creative practice went viral. From his experiences in the art world and after completing a year of making a unique skull every single day, he has issued the #CreativeSprint art game challenge to anyone who is willing to accept.

So what is it? It's literally a global art game for anyone to join in on. "It engages a diverse group of individuals, businesses, schools and community organizations in 30 consecutive days of making and sharing," as it says on the website - creativesprint.co .

I've chosen the theme of circles to explore for my creative sprint.

To me, circles are pretty magical.

There's the thing where it's a never ending line representing infinity... or how people say, "if you love someone, put their name in a circle, not a heart, because hearts break and circles go on forever."... or circles of learning and circles of influence and the circle of communities that we are inevitably a part of.

That last thing - community - is a circle I am very fond of. I recognize very thoroughly that my success and progress in any field I am involved in is directly attributed to the communities who have invested in me and my passions. Equally, I made the active decision many times to engage with those who were investing in me so that I could learn as much as possible and also gain friends, mentors, and collaborators. I continually remind myself how thankful I am for the people I choose to surround myself with and think of ways I can use my talents to give back to them as well.

I am determined to be a life long learner and creator and to keep expanding my circles and the circle of influence I have among those I come in contact with.

Back to the Creative Sprint - I challenged myself to photograph circles that are innately around us in nature, architecture, design...anything. The circle as a tool of design is influential in its own right. So while I open my eyes to absorb and share the circles I find as I go through these 30 days, they will serve as reminders and thought provokers on how I can expand and utilize the circles and communities I am a part of through innovation, creativity, and fellowship.

Follow my art Instagram page to keep up with my Creative Sprint and follow the #CreativeSprint hashtag on different social medias to see what other people are doing. If you want to start your own sprint, sign up and join us on their website!

- Annika 

Miss Wooded Hills

The Journey Begins Again: Miss Wooded Hills 2016

Normally pageant preparation is a thing that I spend a good bit of time on. That's not a luxury I ended up having as I pulled things together for the Miss Leavenworth/Miss Wooded Hills competition just a few weeks ago.

I made the decision to compete on the Tuesday prior to the competition on the immediately following Saturday because I found out a contestant had dropped out and frankly, they needed numbers in order to award two titles. I wasn't initially planning on competing because it was the weekend right before exams began. But I figured...hey, why not. I can pull something together, if only to just get another good experience in.

With my schedule already booked with class or work till 9:30pm every night that week, I decided not to paint for talent with that short time frame. I borrowed a one piece swimsuit, I wore an $18 gown from Plato's Closet for my evening gown, and I sang a Christmas tune for my talent piece.

I truly was not expecting to clench a title with the lack of my normal preparation and not my usual menagerie of competition pieces. To my surprise, I was announced Miss Wooded Hills 2016 which would secure a place for me in the 2016 Miss Kansas competition in June of this coming year.


So my journey to Miss Kansas was jumpstarted earlier than I expected, but I could not be more pleased. I am now blessed with a wonderful board of directors, some incredible sponsors, and the one and only Jennifer Salva as my sister queen and Quinn Stratton as our Tri City Teen.

Wheels are already turning on how to improve and deliver this year. Even though I sang at the local competition, speed painting is definitely going to be back on the Miss Kansas stage. I am working with an incredible team of people to develop a new and improved easel and performance for yet another facet of speed painting that I am working hard to execute in the best way possible.

Keep up with my journey, painting progress, and community involvement on my Facebook page, the Miss Leavenworth/Miss Wooded Hills Facebook page, or my Instagram.

- Annika Wooton

Newly Crowned Miss Wooded Hills 2016

#whatwillshepaint

Miss America is in just over a week and I could not be more excited. We, in Pageantville, like to say that this is essentially the "Superbowl of pageants". So tune in to ABC on the 13th to see who will win America's heart and represent our great organization for a year of incredible service.

This coming up got me thinking (more than usual) about my upcoming future in competition for this year. I use the hashtag "#whatwillshepaint" in a lot of my posts as I share teasers about my painting preparation for each competition or event. The suspense is half the fun whether it's following the journey of creation pre-pageant or watching the 90 second performance live.

I often get asked, "Oh do you just make it up when you are up there or do you know what you are going to paint beforehand?" So far - I have not had an entirely spontaneous subject matter in a live performance. There have been elements I have added in on a whim because I realize I have more time in competition mode or I have come up with the direction of the image as I work with it over the course of a longer event, but I always have an idea prior to the brush hitting the canvas.

Contrary to popular belief, picking a subject matter is much more intense than you might think! I take into consideration a myriad of things: who is my audience; what is the age range; relevancy; who are the judges; can it be done in 90 seconds; will it clash with a large portion of the audience (Jayhawks vs. Wildcats); does it represent myself or my platform or my state; is it possible on the easels that I currently have built or am building; can it be done in less than 4 colors; how many different size brushes will it require; can I find good music to back it; is it campy or classy; will I enjoy painting it a million times in practice; will it be iconic or impactful?

...and that's just a start of the questions I mill over when going about this part of the process.

And the answers are different every time I revisit them. It depends on the time of year, locals vs. states, or what I'm interested in at the moment. I painted Batman in February at Miss Greater Wichita and a member of our Armed Forces saluting at Miss Kansas in June. I consider both successful.

For instance, the February competition was a tough one to come up with. I started down the path thinking of seasonal icons - a snowy cabin, cupid, Valentine's Day anything... and I was just not excited about any of it even though I was fleshing out the ideas fairly thoroughly. Finally, I think I said to someone, "I wish I could just paint Batman," or something along those lines and they said, "ANNIKA. PAINT BATMAN." Like, "Duh! There's your answer right there!"

Thus, the spark was ignited.

The image I painted of Batman evolved extensively over the month that I had to develop it. The revising and rehearsal paid off when I was awarded the highest score in the Talent division for the night. I tell you truly, to date, that is the most exhilarating and meaningful nomination I have received. (Unconventional talents just don't go over well sometimes, and it's so reassuring to have an incredibly esteemed panel deem my Batman painting that kind of status.)

If you go back and read either of the previous posts about the entire preparation process for the state competition this year, I explained the genesis of that subject matter and how it came to fruition.

So now you may be wondering to yourself (or not...), "What will she paint this year?"

WELL, let me tell you --- I'm not going to tell you ;)

Stay tuned and follow me on Instagram for hints and updates as I prepare to compete on November 1st a the Miss Kingman County competition.

Until then,

Annika

The New Rig: Now what do I paint? [Part 2]

If you read the previous post, then you get the idea of how this thing was made and maybe even how it functions. I was told it was kind of like a magic trick when I released the panels onstage.

Last year about this time, I posted a blog about how I came to the final image that I presented at the 2014 Miss Kansas pageant - a portrait of Theresa Vail. So here is what's looking to be that yearly post about how I developed the image that I presented onstage last Thursday and Saturday nights.

Like I said in the other post, it all really started coming to fruition when my dad and I were sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe right off of Times Square waiting for food. We thought about another Batman... we thought about Starwars, or a Jayhawk, or a celebrity portrait... but nothing really clicked because maybe the judges like a different super hero, or maybe they are Trekkies, or maybe (god forbid) they are Wildcats.

So we agreed on a patriotic theme. From here we thought of a bald eagle, the statue of liberty, a flag, recreations of already iconic art pieces, and a soldier. The soldier idea really stuck around...but I wasn't going to be sold on it until we found the right music. Anyone who saw my Batman speed painting at Miss Greater Wichita knows that it was accompanied by Hans Zimmer music and after painting to that kind of energizing music, I couldn't relinquish my background track to a soft country song about the red, white and blue... it had to display the same feelings bravery and heroism that I wanted to portray in my painting of the soldier.

(Please forgive the wrong sided salute... and wrong sided everything... I fixed it eventually.)














Dad thought about looking through some of the music from Captain America and the Avengers, and sure enough - the song literally titled, "The Avengers," was two minutes long full of building anticipation with the patriotic element built right in.

I don't have all of the sketches that I went through for this part, but I'll give you a bit of an idea...

I talked to some friends of mine in the Navy and Army, namely Joshua Shope and Sergeant Theresa Vail, asking how I could best represent a soldier, how to do it respectfully, and most importantly maybe - how to do it right in the fewest amount of brush strokes. Shope sat down with me for a while one day as we browsed uniforms and rankings on the internet, trying to figure out what kind of soldier to represent and how to make it a readable image for a  majority civilian audience.

My final sketch included a marking on the hat as well as some medals on the breast. We decided that though this wasn't a distinct version of any specific uniform, it would read correctly as a soldier and had enough visual cues to make a complete image.


As the weeks went by and the progress on the easel continues, sketches began popping up in the margins of my notes, on napkins, and in my sketchbooks. I had to decide how many colors I wanted to use, which colors those would be, would it be realistic or stylized, should it have natural skin tones or red, white and blue, do I do eyes or no eyes, what kind of hat? So many questions filtered through as I maneuvered through different sketches.

Once I had finally mapped out a full preliminary painted sketch that I was happy with, it was time to start making it happen on a grander scale - the easel.



I presented a live painting demo to one of my art classes for the final project and they suggested a pretty brilliant idea for practicing over and over again - paint on a chalkboard surface. Following their advice,  I had a few different sets of panels to practice with, one of which was primed as a chalk board surface. Utilizing that method, I was able to chalk out tracing lines for rehearsals and paint in water, which stayed dark enough on the surface in 90 seconds for me to realize the image, take note, and make adjustments before drying it off and doing another run.

As I went through cycles of the chalkboard runs as well as ones with real paint, I continued to make adjustments. You can see in this progression photo that it started in black and white, moved to blue and white, and then the final painting on the right was done in several minutes as a mini mock-up, but is when I decided to add in red.

The first black one was too severe, then the blue and white one looked like a blue print, so the red was added anticipating to use it as a mid tone accent color. You can also see which details started to be unnecessary to portray the image and how it gradually got cropped closer and closer. The chalk board idea was really helpful in committing the muscle memory of it all to memory and being able to work through kinks without having to re-prime the panels every time. Using real paint is certainly a time consuming ordeal - priming the panels, waiting for it to dry, doing the 90 second painting, waiting for it to dry, and then starting it all over again (in heels, of course). All in all, I want to say that I only did the full painting in real paint (successfully) as I ended up performing it onstage maybe two or three times at home...

Once I got to Miss Kansas, a new set of problems came up. While many of the women can practice in their rooms if they are singers or instrumentalists or dancers, it is pretty difficult for me to practice my painting in the dorm rooms that we stay in. So during down time between rehearsals once we were in the arena, I went over and did some "dry runs" with the easel and panels (dry runs are just miming the actions with no paint or medium on the brushes...like marking a dance on the floor). 

Among the first times I did this, for the first time ever in this process, the first two panels fell at the same time when I released the pin. The force of the fall caused themselves to wedge inexplicably tight between the catch piece and the back of the easel. Jerry, who runs all things backstage, tried to help me weasel them out to no avail. We literally had to break that catch piece to get them out and set it to glue overnight. Needless to say, I was terrified. 

For talent performance, we get two run-throughs onstage with the music and that's it before the actual competition. During the first one, the same thing happened but with the latter two panels. This didn't cause the easel to malfunction like that first time and I mended it within the performance, but it was not how it was supposed to work. The second run, the panels still didn't fall correctly but that was entirely my fault - I pulled the pins in the wrong order. So at this point - I had not done this thing successfully at all in about a week and I was competing with it in just a few hours. Once again, I was terrified. 

The sun descended in the sky and the competition was underway. After intermission, I slipped on my headphones and put on my "Miss K Pump Up Playlist" of motivating songs accumulated from friends and started to get in the zone. My paints were prepped. I'd tested the panels. All that was left to do was to deliver...

The music started and my brushes went flying and WHAM! The first panel fell without a hitch! The crowd erupted! Second panel - WHOOSH! Seamless. Third panel - SMACK! And I tilted the easel up to present it to the audience as I mimicked my painted soldier with a crisp salute and a bow. I did it. 

I had one more chance Saturday night as my name was called in the Top Ten to present the unique talent of speed painting to the Miss Kansas judges and audience. And again, it worked when it needed to. Not only that, but I actually had extra time and decided on a whim to add in some red and white stripes. You can see a video of the final performance here.

As I enter my second year as "the speed painter", I can say that live painting has given me a thrill like no other I have ever experienced. With just 90 seconds to present your best talent to a panel of judges who may or may not know anything about art, I am certainly taking a risk in whipping up some live art to dish out to this community. I want to thank everyone who has been so supportive of my work, those who helped me progress and build my ideas and help this all come to life, those who keep telling me to never give up, and those who invite me to your events and organizations to further share the gift of art.


Most of all, I want to thank those who serve and give themselves to our country in the armed forces. That's what this painting was all about. Thank you for allowing me the freedom to pursue my dreams and travel our great state to promote something I am passionate in. Thank you for giving your minds, bodies, and time away from your own homes and families so that mine may be safe. Thank you for your service to our country in every capacity that you give.

Stay tuned to see whatever crazy idea I bring to the table next year that I think can top this performance. Follow me on Facebook or Instagram and message me if you would like live painting at your next event!

- Annika Wooton

Miss Greater Wichita

Top Ten

The New Rig: From the drawing board to the shop [Part 1]

Miss Kansas is over for this year and I am back home trying to figure out where to put this massive easel rig of mine.

Many of you who were following my journey throughout the year and especially this week have seen pictures and video footage of the final performance. However, I thought I might let you in on the genesis of this whole idea and how the whole idea was formed...

It all started in New York City...

My dad and I spent a few days in NYC over spring break - mostly to spend time together in the Big Apple, but also with the mindset to come up with something stellar to present at Miss Kansas. We went to the MoMA as well as the Society of Illustrators museum in hopes of coming up with a grand idea.

It was when we were sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe just off Times Square when we broke out the pen and paper to really put down some concrete ideas.

Earlier in the year, I had posted on Facebook asking people what they wanted to see in a live painting. I was actually asking for subject matter ideas...but the people wanted multiple canvases. So for the upcoming performance at the time for KU's Got Talent, I embarked on the adventure to paint on three canvases.

So as we were brainstorming for the Miss Kansas pageant, the idea hung in our heads of how to manipulate the use of multiple canvases or panels without separate easels for each one. We toyed with the idea of painting on glass, or painting in glue with glitter thrown at the end, or simply doing the same rig I had last year. But of course that was really out of the question.

At some point in the brainstorm process at Hard Rock, we decided upon a patriotic theme with a tri-panel approach. (Forgive the salute with the wrong hand... I was ignorant to details at this point.) I don't have pictures of all my sketches, as they were on the back of a placemat and got lost at some point, but take a look at the very first visualizations of this crazy idea:

 What you see here, and will realize later on as you scroll through pictures of the real deal, is that even though my dad and I had NO idea how this thing would actually work, we had a pretty solid concept to start with that ended up being eerily accurate to the final product.

 

I returned to Kansas, not entirely sure how I was going to pull this off. I approached the man who runs the Common Shop in the art building, Cotter. I explained the whole idea to him in a long winded monologue and when I finished, he looks at me and says, "Okay... what's this for....?" And I said, "Well, I'm using it as my final for this one studio course I'm in but...end-game... I'm competing to be Miss Kansas..."

Okay PAUSE. Let's note that I was meeting with him between having an 8 am studio and about to go to the gym, so I was definitely nottttt up to pageant-par. 

So Cotter looks at me and says, "Yeah you sure look like it," in jest, of course. And then looks back down at the sketches and says, "We're gonna win this." Not only did I just attain an incredible mind to help me engineer this easel, but he proceeded to tell me how he lived down the street from Debbie Barnes, one of our Miss Kansas's who proceeded to win Miss America and how she babysat him as a child. Who knew!!

And the building process began.

I made a moquette out of cardstock paper to create a visual 3-D representation of what we wanted to happen. Following that display, I used a large sheet of foam core to develop the dimensions I wanted, the height, and make sure it would fit in the back of my Prius before we started building the actual thing.

I have to give all the credit to Cotter for materializing this rig and coming up with the engineering genius. Each panel is sustained on a separate track. There are three holes at the top of each panel that function with three individual pegs at different heights that are inserted from the back.

Each pin is pulled to release each panel at an isolated moment with a nib that catches the panel at the bottom so that it doesn't fall forward. The video to the left is the first time I saw it work. Apparently the first time Cotter released the first panel on our prototype version, the entire bottom edge blew off from the force, which is why you can see that is it reinforced in the version in the video.

I came in every day after my morning studio course to trouble shoot and bounce around ideas with Cotter. After seeing how this first version worked, we decided to elongate the entire surface so that the last panel drop wasn't so whimpy - and added a few more inches for it to fall in the final version.






The entire thing is assembled with only four pieces and two screws excluding the three panels and fits in the back of a Prius. This made things wonderfully simple as I transferred the rig to my house, back to the art building, back to my house, and then finally to Pratt for the competition.

I'll post another blog about the actual painting process... this is getting lengthy!

- Annika Wooton

Miss Greater Wichita

The 12 Days of Pageant Prep

So I looked down at my planner today and saw a daunting number scribbled at the top corner of today's block... 12. There are twelve more days until I head out to Pratt, Kansas for the Miss Kansas competition.

That's insane!

Sometimes I feel like it was just last weekend that I was crowned Miss Greater Wichita and then other times I feel like it's been eternity. I sat down this weekend and tabulated all of the places I've traveled as Miss Greater Wichita since February and figured out that I have traveled almost 5,000 miles from my home in Lawrence to various volunteer events, sponsor visits, promoting my platform as well as the Miss America Organization, and doing speed painting performances for events and organizations. I just kept truckin' along and didn't really realize how much I've traveled this semester.

As far as things go, I realize I haven't posted in a really long time. I finished out the spring semester of my Junior year at the University of Kansas successfully. I have officially decided to add a double major - previously I was only an Art Education major and now I have added on Illustration which I have been enjoying tremendously. It's been a TON of work but it is work that I enjoy and I have been able to translate into my speed painting as well.

Speaking of speed painting -- you can be sure that you will be seeing something new and thrilling on the Miss Kansas stage this year coming from me in the talent department. Cool story -- I went down into the Common Shop (the wood shop at the Art and Design building at KU), and started talking with Cotter (the man who runs the place) about my ideas and tentative design for this new easel that my dad and I had come up with over spring break. I wasn't even sure it was possible to make this thing, so after my explanation, Cotter asks, "Okay...so what is this for...?" And I say, "Well you know, I'm using it for a final project in this one class, but... end-game... I'm competing to be Miss Kansas." Of course I'm dressed half for studio work for my 8am and half about to go to the gym and he says, "Yeah you look like it," in jest. BUT then he proceeds to tell me how he grew up down the street from Debbie Barnes, one of our Miss Kansas's who went on to win Miss America and how she babysat him and about the banner that hung over Moran, Kansas saying, "Home of Miss America," for probably a decade.

How cool is that!?

So I have been working closely with him to bring to life an idea that was spawned in New York City with my father. If you keep up with me on social media, I post teasers here and there about my process and you can catch vague glimpses of a corner of the painting or the easel contraption. You can follow me on Instagram @annikanskywoker or my Facebook.

In 12 days I will be able to say I am entirely prepared and packed and ready for Miss Kansas 2015! Right now, I cannot say that. Mostly because this painting process is such a unique one and these 12 days are vital.

(Side note -- there will not be a webcast or telecast of the Miss Kansas competition this year... it's a bummer for everyone out of town, but I'm ordering a DVD that I will gladly share with you later!)

Wish me luck, keep up with me on social media, and I'll catch you later!

Annika Wooton

Miss Greater Wichita