It's been seven years in the making and now cancer survivor Sandee Bartsch is inviting the women of Prince George into the arts studio she has created in her home.
"If you build it, they will come," Bartsch said. "I know it's from a movie but that's how I feel. I want people to feel comfortable and accepted, to know they can't do the wrong thing here, because there's no wrong way of making art. And why can't art just be for fun? For healing?"
Bartsch, a twice-certified life coach, writer, miniaturest, and a founder of the Prince George Stitchery Guild, has built an in-home studio that takes up most of her basement.
Bartsch has her personal art room and the crowning glory in it is the mask she had to wear during her throat cancer treatment, an ever-present reminder of where she's been. During treatment, Bartsch endured 35 rounds of radiation and three rounds of chemotherapy. She's got the scars to prove it.
There's a reason it took a while for Bartsch to take the leap and build the community art studio.
"I was too scared," Bartsch said. "Too scared to listen to my heart, too scared of failure, of rejection - all those fears that artists and entrepreneurs face. Now two years in remission, I am no longer afraid."
Bartsch has assembled, collected, and hoarded thousands of found items, including buttons, bells, ribbons, bedazzled trinkets, stones, stamps, beads, and keys of all kinds. The soul purpose for the collection is to be shared with like-minded women who wish to be art makers.
Bartsch lives by a message from Pablo Picasso: The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
"I believe I have found my gift," said Bartsch. "And now I am ready to share it with the beautiful women here in Prince George, my home of 25 years."
To make sure art is not an intimidating thing, even if her guests have never picked up a paint brush, or even attempted to be creative before making their way into her studio, Bartsch offers several different ways to visit the studio. The Butterfly Sisterhood is a weekly gathering to create, connect and inspire. Best Friends Forever is for those who wish a more intimate event where two besties can learn together and Technique Tuesday is to learn something cool.
To find treasures, to explore art like you mean it, to be encouraged by Bartsch to be your own inspiration, visit soulpurposeartist.com.
