It's not strange when you to talk with friends of Kaycee Anseth to begin to exchange Kaycee ghost stories. I have my own. Before Kaycee left the earthy realm, she looked forward to being a ghost. Her version of haunting is more in the friendly ghost realm. She often shows up as peacocks and foxes. For me it is in the hijacking of my musical playlists and a certain formation of clouds in auspicious moments. I don't question whether or not it is her; she told us she would be there.
You can see for yourself by reading her death journal, on display at Scalehouse in downtown Bend through May 25. Along with it is a collection of her work that is on loan from private owners — no longer available to see publicly on a regular basis.
I lived with Kaycee's work every day for many years. It often hung in The Workhouse and in coffee shops and restaurants around Central Oregon. I was always struck by the small details and had forgotten that until I got to see the work in person again. I had missed it.
Kaycee's medium can be an underestimated form. Collage is something all of us do at some point in our lives — when we are small in school putting together book reports, or as we grow into ourselves and create vision boards for our future. If this is how you think of collage, I encourage you to go see Kaycee's work in person. Kaycee took this medium to a new level, cutting and placing small fragments of discarded material and making it into something entirely new, unrecognizable from where it began and with story and meaning and emotion. Her work looks like painting; each piece of paper thought about and placed with intention and meaning.
As Kaycee passed four years ago, she processed rage and sadness, forgiveness and love into art. The resulting journal of this time, titled "Dying Days: An Art Journal About Such Things" hangs in Scalehouse. Her passing was the end of a valiant battle against cancer and one that didn't defeat her — because she out-created. Kaycee wasn't afraid to let her whole self be seen. To feel the world deeply and give it back to you that way. It is the exact type of art we need to keep us going.
"OutCreate" was Kaycee's battle cry, one that many of her friends still hear when the winds of inspiration call. Sometimes those winds can be accompanied by sadness, grief, misunderstanding, confusion, loneliness, but always with the promise that the transformation of them into art can set you free. Kaycee knew this and understood just how powerful the act of creating can be for each individual.
Before she left this earth, Kaycee asked a group of friends to create a nonprofit, the Kaycee Anseth Legacy Foundation, to give grants to artists for any reason they see fit. Artists need not apply or show any sort of result of the use of the funds — no reporting, no guidelines. Just money. The money from the sale of Kaycee's art goes directly to artists living in Central Oregon so they can continue to OutCreate. KALF has also recently been receiving individual donations.
To date, KALF has given over 50 grants and distributed over $25,000. It has gone to longtime artists in the community (myself included) to honor that which they have already created. It has been given to young artists, to help encourage them, give them something extra for new supplies, tools, education. The money raised has helped a local musician complete an album, a local filmmaker finish a film and a local artist to take a mural class so they could in turn create new murals of their own.
People can apply or nominate someone at the website at the KALF website. Anyone qualifies, really — all you need to be doing is making. It is the nurturing of the act of creating art — making it an everyday thing in people's life that drives KALF. The belief that this is an essential part of our own existence and it should be seen and honored.
When I think about KALF, it brings joy straight up and out from inside me. I can feel myself smile and feel hopeful. To think Kaycee is no longer in an earthly form on this planet and yet still, here she is, helping to create art in this community. To create something so beautiful from what might otherwise feel lost. OutCreate you did indeed, Kaycee.
Kaycee Anseth Legacy Foundation
kayceeansethlegacyfoundation.org
