POLLY ALICE MCCANN
Picture Book Editor
I’ve been working as an independent Editorial Illustrator since 2018. I've been a children's book author since 2008. I have an MFA in writing for children and young adults with my thesis in picture books. I studied with and have had mentorships with award-wining authors like Jaqueline Briggs Martin, Phyllis Root, Jane Resh Thomas, and Claire Rudolf Murphy. I have also studied poetry under several award-winning poets and authors and with my undergraduate degree in art, I am able to give you really helpful advice to create a professional quality children's book to send to agents, editors, or straight to the printer!
Bio Writing Workshops
"My friend read the artist statement you wrote about me and she said it was more like me than anything she had ever read. You really get me." Judy, Artist
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"I'd like to meet the man you wrote about in my artist statement. He's one helluva guy!" J.C., Architect
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"Thank you for taking the time to listen to the work that I do and put it into words my clients can understand. You really listen."
K.T., Client
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"I feel so incredible reading about my art this way. Is that really me? I sound so awesome."
C.S., Artist
The best way to show a clarified vision,
reach your dreams
and grow your audience
starts with your bio!
"My specialty is getting the long story short and making the short story hit its mark with full impact."
What would it be like to finally have a writer help explain your story, your work to the world? Someone, to translate your artistic creations and ideas into words that curators, judges, grant writers, and buyers can understand?
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Are you constantly shuffling around your written descriptions but still getting responses that don't fit your vision? Maybe you need copy written or edited for your Wikipedia page, website, artistic journey, personal stories, blogs, articles, book jackets, album covers, bios, even particular creations, and projects, let alone products?
If your answer is, "Yes!" Why not have an artist who is also a biographer and copywriter, write for you? As a personal branding specialist. Hire me to build up your brand, with words about you that truly explain your passions, your creative work, your projects, and connect with your market so you can go farther, faster.
With clear writing about who you are what you do, you can connect right away with the audience and projects that fit your creative vision. When people understand your vision, they can take part in it.
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My specialty is getting the long story short and making the short story hit its mark with full impact. I've taught writing in colleges, community ed, and to young people for over 10 years, and have been editing for over five years. I have training and experience in
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writing for nonprofits,
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writing mission and vision statements
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bios,
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press releases
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about me pages
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artist statements
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show statements
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curative writing
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Wikipedia pages
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press releases
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Bios I've written from interviews
James Calcara
Artist
JAMES CALCARA, Kansas City’s well-known architect helped shape Power & Light District and Valencia Place, but did you know that Calcara has been a long-time artist. He is a true painter’s painter. Whether it’s landscape, still life or abstract figurative work, he serves up a rich color palette and a subtle sense of humor and playfulness in the studio. Where does he get his amazing color sense? “I credit that to architecture,” he says. As an architect “you learn composition and line and a little sense of drama. That’s where the color comes in.” Visit his studio at InterUrban ArtHouse or online www.JamesCalcara.com
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Judy Crissey
Kansas City Painter
Award-winning artist, Judy Crissey pushes the limits in acrylic painting with her process-driven inspiration and practice. Crissey’s abstract work is rooted in a neo-feminist abstract expressionism, or what the laywoman could call "arguments without words."
Crissey taught young people for fourteen years at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art which reinforced to her the idea that art is about process over product. Additionally, Crissey was influenced by her studies at the Kansas City Art Institute with Tucson-based painter, Josh Goldberg, and Phillomene Bennett of Kansas City. Spending many years out west, and the warm desert hues emerge throughout her body of work.
“I let the painting navigate my journey and together we often reach a destination that I had not intended. On this journey, my passion is the action of putting paint on a canvas. The repetition of patterns, line, shape and color art become intuitive as I release control. The unity of opposites, dark versus light create balance within the painting with the combination of medium, makes for one exciting trip. Through this mysterious release, I allow the painting to be what it wants to be.”
Art by Judy Crissey, it’s not just mixed media, it’s a dramatic range of emotionally driven journeys; conversations about traveling through dark and stormy places and into joy and light.
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Alex Eickhoff
Muralist/ Illustrator
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Alex Eickhoff, Muralist/ Illustrator
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What is his art like? “Idea bubbles simplified into singular objects,” he says. “I create thought verses a story." These iconic mish-mash of ideas are things fans can’t get enough of. What is his thought process like: "So, what would a toad sitting on a stool sitting on a toadstool look like? What would an animal look like if he was posing for a class photo?" Alex plays with words, idioms, and the subconscious field of images, hand painting his designs in a limited palette on a dark ground. His works eerily juxtapose images like a live heart in the root of a tree or bring humor and intrigue: “I sketch with paint. Let the paint be the paint, and see what happens.”
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After he finished his BFA in art in 2015, Alex Eickhoff moved to KC and worked as a fabricator to build custom interactive displays and decor in a big sign company sculpture department for a few years. Then he decided to go on sabbatical. After a year, the "sabbatical" continues. Alex is a full-time artist with a studio/ gallery space at InterUrban ArtHouse in downtown Overland Park. He is an aspiring new muralist on the KC scene, so call him if you have a wall! Check out his work at eyecough.com.
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Marcia Streepy
Artist
Marcia Potucek Streepy creates "pastel" paintings: intimate landscapes and cityscapes or figure work to evoke a sense of atmosphere and immediacy to "reinterpret" the wonder of everyday moments. Her pastel work harnesses the energy of a painting with the power of supersaturated mineral pigments of pastel to evoke a realistic image. Her oil paintings continue to glow with the power of contrasting neutrals and fluid concentrated hues in an ever-changing perfect balance.
"My work is not about realism but the impression of the space, time, and spirit of the object through the medium of art," she writes. Beginning her career as a nurse, Marcia later studied art under nationally known artists such as Wolf Kahn, Albert Handel, Doug Dawson, and Lorenzo Chaves as well as courses at KU and Johnson County Community College. She is influenced by Wayne Thiebaud, Mary Cassatt, and the legacy of her mother, artist Pat Potucek. Streepy's work is in the New York Art Center, Bank of Blue Valley in Overland Park, KS, and in many private collections around the globe as far as Sweden, New York, and Japan. She is a member of the MidAmerica Pastel Society and the Kansas City Artist Coalition. She has exhibited and won numerous awards in various national and international juried art exhibitions for over twenty-five years; she is married and has two grown daughters.
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Hope Houtwed
Graduate 2020
Hope Houtwed, originally from Grand Island, Nebraska with her BA in
English, Creative writing. She's so excited to be a new part of the Kansas City writing and publishing scene as a summer intern at a local press. Her goal is to work in customer service because she enjoys helping people in a busy and energizing environment. She is also an aspiring copyeditor!
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KÄ“vin Callahan
Poet
KÄ“vin Callahan, author, artist, traveler hails from Drake University, and both the Chicago and San Francisco Art Institutes KÄ“vin Callahan is an “accidental poet" and author of "Road Map: Poems, Paintings & Stuff" by Flying Ketchup Press. His award-winning artwork hangs in collections throughout the United States, and in Canada, Europe, and Israel. After a career in graphic design, he spends most of his time painting his distinctive modern portraits and figures, now shown worldwide including creating his line of handcrafted wood items at Prairie Primitive.com. He maintains a studio and gallery, the Elegant Line, in Parkville, MO.
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Karen Carmack
Massage Therapist
KAREN CARMACK is a Board Licensed Massage Therapist, a graduate of Corestar School of Energy, and an Essential Oils Advocate and Trainer with DoTerra Oils. She is certified in Level II Kundalini Yoga, Whole Life Coaching, and Hypnotherapy. She is a true blue optimistic POSSIBILITARIAN and lover or life, friend to all. She believes laughter is the best medicine and working from the heart is all that matters.
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Find your Balance with Energy work, the heart of Anahata Wholehearted Wellness. Energy work is a one-hour re-set to balance your body’s seven energy centers. Re-balance your mind, body, and emotions when you set a focused intention. Be heard. Just the right aromatherapy designed for you. Enjoy soothing music with healing energy touch to your feet, back, and head. This dynamic healing session restores your mind, body, and spirit to a more balanced and positive state. What will you do with more energy? Take a journey to wellness today.
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What does the Personal Branding Process?
What does the editing process look like?​ I'm a people person. My favorite thing is to interview creatives and talk to them about their work. What I like just as much is to write those stories down. Contact me to set up an appointment to get started right away or a short chat to help you decide your next step.
In the first consultation (in person or online) I interview you about your vision for your creative work for about an hour or more. Sometimes I come on-site to see your studio or work in the gallery, read your book, or visit your shop, etc, so I can capture accurate expressions of how you speak about your creative art or business. While you share your journey I'll be taking notes and getting to the heart of what you do.
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The second step is your Branding Report & Proposal: I will send you a compilation of all the relevant writing I can find about your online: your LinkedIn page, bios, websites, mentions, articles, statements, social media, and more. I will write up our interview notes and this online information taking what I feel is the true motivation and direction of your work.
From there you'll receive all the research as well as my draft writing. Your personal branding statement will come in a set of different lengths: 25 words, 50 words, 100 words, 250 words, 500 words, 1000 words, and possibly a longer version if needed.
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Unlike a lot of copywriters, however, you will get another consultation to revise and refine the draft of interpretations and insights to decide what is right for you. We will edit that work to align it even more with what is most comfortable, true, and accurate to you.
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Lastly, You'll receive your final personal branding statement and any additional copywriting you request modify and use as you need it. Most people use this work right away on their website and social media pages or to send to their marketing team, their publicist, interviewer, press room, grant writer, curator, agent, etc.
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My Personal Branding Package means you'll get two full consultations as well as ten hours of research and copywriting for $499 for one creative. You save over $280 dollars from hourly consulting. Contact me for packages that include multiple people or groups. Or ask me about your project, press releases, articles, or product copywriting, *Some people hire me to add on a website, logo, logo applications, and product writing to their package. Or ask me for a referral and I can refer you to a designer or web builder that suits your needs.
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I'm wasn't sure what to call the stain glass art I made. They are sun catchers but also look like dream catchers with feathers. Then Polly had an idea to call them Day Dreams: Feather and shine"