Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brecia Kralovic-Logan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brecia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The Women’s Woven Voices project is an international, collaborative, art project that supports women’s empowerment though writing, weaving and sharing their stories. Women are invited to reflect on their life experiences and weave a “story cloth” that is then stitched into a collective tapestry. Currently there are over 1,000 story cloths included in the tapestry from participants from 10 different countries. I founded the project in 2017. I had helped to produce an event to celebrate International Women’s Day, and we had invited a group of inspiring women to share their stories. At the end of the day we had learned that 5 of the 6 speakers had experienced abuse as girls. The final speaker invited the audience to stand if they had been affected by abuse and most of the 300 attendees rose. At that moment I knew that I was being called to use art to shine a light on women’s creativity, power, strength, courage, and compassion. I shared the project with women and girls in art organizations, community centers, museums, universities, veterans networks, Girl Scouts, Girls, Inc, senior communities, church groups, refugee programs, schools, and with family and friends. I partnered with the Charter for Compassion, SARAH4Hope, the SHIFT network Visionaries Summit, Compassion Arts, NWCAVE Women’s Festival, the SD County Commission on the Status of Women, and the Front Porch senior communities.
The tapestry has been exhibited at Women’s Conferences, community events, Visions Art Museum, The SD Veterans Museum, the Front Porch Gallery, the Carpinteria Arts Center, at schools, and at the 65th Unite Nations Commission on the Status of Women NGO CSW.
I am now planning to drive the tapestry from California to Tennessee to be exhibited at the Hand Weavers
Guild of America international conference – Convergence in July 2022. I hope to create a wave of creative compassion as I travel across the United States and am inviting people to weave compassionate actions into their communities from July 8th – July 18th.

Brecia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Cultivating creativity and creating and sharing meaningful art are my passions. I have been an artist working with fiber for decades and I love sharing my joy through teaching and writing. My book, The Spiral of Creativity – Mastering the Art of a Spirited Life is a guide for accessing, claiming, and communicating your creativity. I teach workshops on knitting, natural dyeing, surface design, and basketry. My motto as an artist is: Play. Explore. Discover. When I was 13 years old I spent my summer teaching the neighborhood kids art classes in my backyard. As an adult I have taught and explored art across the USA, in Kyoto Japan, London England, Belfast Northern Ireland and Antigua, Guatemala. Over the years I have participated in many art projects that focus attention on important issues. In 2017 I founded the Women’s Woven Voices project as an international collaborative art project to support women’s empowerment through writing, weaving and sharing their stories.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Born with a highly creative spirit I found myself attending very structured Catholic schools for all of my life. I learned to keep my creativity under wraps and began to equate my value with pleasing adults by getting an “A”. This became a driving force in my life as a student. My report card and status as an “A” student drove my time in school so forcefully that I would quit a class if I didn’t think I was going to get an “A”. I got very good at following the rules and not taking risks. Outside of school I could let my creativity guide me. I am a Gemini so this duality was a part of who I am.

While at University, I took a modern dance class that changed my life. I embraced dancing wholeheartedly and felt it had transformed me. I felt so passionate about this art form that I wanted it to be my life.My practical side was unable to take that risk so I ended up getting a Masters Degree in Special Education and becoming a teacher. I spent a few years trying to weave my creativity into my work and then just gave up. I went to New York and studied dance at Martha Grahams School and then returned to California knowing that I had to put my creative life first. I have been able to dance, work with fiber, teach, sell, exhibit, and write. I became a certified Creativity coach, joined many professional art organizations, and became a presenter at international art conference across the USA. I now dedicate myself to helping others to claim their creative courage, access their authentic voice, and express their creative spirit.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The underlying theme of my art work has always been empowerment. Much of my work has focused on claiming and expressing my own personal power. My earlier work included creating wearable art such as capes, kimonos and boots that represented the power garments worn by goddesses. The silk collages that I create are abstract landscapes that I call Soul Spaces as they can remind us of our inner landscape of beauty and peace. My larger projects, like the Women’s Woven Voices project focus on supporting others as they claim their creative voice. I believe in the power of art to transform and heal and express in a way that other languages do not. I believe that peace and compassion must be cultivated within ourselves in order to manifest them in the world. Art aligns us with our inner soul.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.breciacreative.com www.thespiralofcreativity.com www.womenswovenvoices.com
• Instagram: kralovicloganB
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brecia.kraloviclogan/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk5t4HXHdRoFMlNSMiv-oAA

Image Credits
Natasha Logan