Kittie Beletic

Artist, Author, Motivator
By Jonathan Ment

Work as an author might pose enough of a challenge for most, as would co-founding a theater, writing more than 50 musicals that have gone on to be produced around the world from Sri Lanka to Texas, or penning over 500 songs.

Acting, creating visual art and performing as voiceover talent, might each also be sufficient creative outlet any one artist.

But not for Westkill artist Kittie Beletic, president and designer of kittiebgoods. Beletic has basically done it all, and she has recently combined most all of it into her new venture, Kittiebgoods, an outlet for the more tangible fruits of her labors.

If this makes only limited sense to you, consider what the company cites as its inspiration: fine arts and gifts celebrating life and creativity. “To us, this means we create with the idea of gift giving, customized, personalized…conceiving images, expressions and gift ideas that are meaningful, tell stories, reflect the most heartfelt dreams,” the company explains in its online welcome message. Everything you’ll find at www.kittiebgoods.com is for sale, and if you don’t find something you like, you’re invited to offer ideas.

An Artist is Born

“I’m an artist and I’ve just done art all my life—mostly music. I turned to the visual arts about 12 years ago, when someone put a paintbrush in my hand,” says Beletic.

Beletic previously launched a small greeting card line and focused on it for about a year, she explains. “That’s all I did. I had made them for my friends, hand drawn, and went to the national stationary (trade) show and sold some. I found printing sold better.”

When a buyer found her cards in a showroom, they asked to carry a line of original art by the artist who created the cards. “They ended up picking up children’s art,” says Beletic. “I still sell it. These are part of the Kittiebgoods line. They’re giclée ( a French term for the way the ink is applied) prints.”

“There’s also textile work and books,” says Beletic. “I hand created and hand stitched a fairy tale in three-by-five-foot museum quality tapestries, hand stitched with organic materials and found objects such as manzanita bark, native to California.”
The Catskills as Muse
Beletic says her inspiration comes from everywhere and is often captured in a notebook, or handheld digital recorder during frequent road trips. With a studio in Westkill, NY, at what Beletic calls Marmalade Manor, and another home in Dallas, TX, it’s easy to see how she might spend a fair deal of time traveling.

“A lot of the messages behind inspiration come to me when I’m driving, when you have alone time and your mind is doing something else,” says Beletic. “I’m not a big meditator, but I am a knitter. You have to focus on that and your mind can go elsewhere.” While much of her inspiration comes from these sources, “my great muse is up in the Catskills,” she says.

“I’m pretty much fanciful and always have been since I was a little girl,” says Beletic. “I’m interested in people and subject matter and see it a lot. My inspiration comes from my daily life. I’m constantly creating new lines and that seems to be where a lot of my joy comes from,” says Beletic.

The Evolution of Creativity
All of this organic evolution of creativity, one thing stemming from another, has been a common thread in Beletic’s life.

The Repertory Theater Company, in Richardson TX, grew out of the children’s theater she co-founded when her own children were young.

“There were three of us,” she recalls. “Our children were little and it grew quickly, largely out of the need for self-expression. I was there for 17 years and that’s actually where I started my writing. I wrote musicals for families and for children. About half are full-length.”

Beletic says she has been called an expert in encouraging creativity and she knows from her own experiences that inspiration can come from so many places. “I often say life is an art party, because you can always paint over it,” she says. “Creativity is a messy process. Even there there is a lot of order to it, it’s like chaos theory. You have to allow the mess to happen to actively participate in it.”
What Color is Your Dream?
The latest venue for all this fanciful creativity is What Color is Your Dream?, published by Dallas-based Brown Books Publishing (www.brownbooks.com). The book was a winner in USA Book News’ fourth-annual “Best Books 2007” awards and spurred the inspiration for the creation of Kittiebgoods.

“When the book was published, and it was just more than I could handle, I met Amy Jordan, who happens to be a neighbor,” says Beletic. “What Color is your Dream? is about finding your dream, living in it, being passionate to it and not listening to nay sayers. I had just moved to a new neighborhood in Dallas and the young woman next door (Jordan, now marketing maven for the company) kept offering to help sell the book. About two weeks later she came to me and said ‘I’m not living my dream and what I’d really like to do, is to do this full time.’ It’s a very good example of what the book is about.”

Beletic says the book was classified by the publisher as a children’s book, for those five to eight years of age, but children already know or understand its message. “The book was really written for adults,” she says. “I wrote it 10 years ago. Life happens and I had other things to tend to.”

Kittiebgoods describes it as “a whimsical story that takes readers of all ages on a journey into possibility, exploring the process of creativity and the driving force behind it, inspiration.”

Beletic says it is selling very well as an inspirational gift, and will be offered at the January Gift Show, a to-the-trade event in Atlanta.

There’s also a new DVD version of the book animated from Beletic’s illustrations with music by a Dallas native, Milo Deering, and edited by David Powers.

In November, an exhibit centered around the book went on display in Dallas at the Janette-Kennedy Gallery. “Ten artists besides myself are involved. They have created images inspired by the book,” says Beletic.

Kittiebgoods is approaching distribution of the book on several fronts, including dealer trade shows, through a small sales force, and through multiple corporations that could pick the book for gifts. It’s also available through major book retailers and via www.kittiebgoods.com.

“At the Texas Book Festival a customer came up and said ‘this is just the prettiest book at the festival,’ a couple of individuals have started crying when they read it,” says Jordan. “When they have that much emotion, you know they’re at a transitional point in their life.”

Whimsical Gifts
In addition to the book, Kittiebgoods has a knitwear line for women and children and a large giclee print line including some items for men (“But not so many, because my art is so whimsical,” says Beletic). There’s sculpture, acrylic abstracts, handcrafted rag doll-type dolls and more. Much of the textile work is done in Westkill.

“We’re (Kittiebgoods) a lot about spirit and heart. We’re also about handcrafted,” says Beletic. “Most of the things are handcrafted, other than the prints. The card line is printed on very fine paper. We really inspire to quality and customer service.”

“There’s a style…ours is very whimsical but elegant,” she says. “Also a subject matter. We sell mostly to families, so we tend to be mostly not on the dark side. We’ve heard from customers that it’s inspirational and makes them feel good.”

“The line is at the moment completely mine,” says Beletic. “My dream is to have a place where artists—sculptors, potters, watercolorists and other painters—are supported. I met a sketch artist who’s extremely talented and when we’re ready, he’s interested.”

More about Giclée Printing
In the fine art world, the term giclée has replaced “ink jet” to describe a printing process where ink is sprayed on to a surface.

“The term ‘giclée print’ connotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclée printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction,” according to Gicleeprint.net.

For More Information
For more information about What Color is Your Dream, or about Kittiebgoods, visit www.kittiebgoods.com.