RE-BRANDING FROM SASS AND SLASH TO RACHEL RIECKENBERG

So many of you might not know that I recently attended an Art Workshop in Nashville with the wonderful One Fantastic Week group. The workshop was by far the best thing I have ever done for my art career. I got loads of advice from Artists I have admired through a computer screen for many years. It was great connecting and making friends.

On the other hand, it has made me think very seriously on my direction as an artist. One thing in particular is the Sass and Slash name. I love the community I have built around it, but I feel that after much consideration, that I would like to use my name to associate with my Art.

I am doing this for many reasons. First, I feel I have built Sass and Slash around a certain style that formed when I was working on Polymer Class pieces. Now that I have moved my focus to Pyrography and Paint, I think it is more fitting to us my name.

Second, I am about to expand from only posting my work online, to displaying at Art Shows and Conventions. Before I start getting into that world more heavily, I think it is smarter to take the step of changing the name now before I take this farther into the world.

Lastly, once I considered making the change, something inside me felt free. I know it may sound strange, but I believe that I was trying to work on things that kept me in the style that Sass and Slash was created for instead of working on the things that really mattered to me. I also finally felt like myself. It has only been a couple days since I started changing everything over and I already feel more like a person than a user name. It has allowed me to be open with the things I say and comment on other artist's posts and have them remember me based off my real name than trying to introduce my name and then my user name of which they might recognize.

So I know this was a long post, but I wanted to let you guys all know the changes as they were happening instead of just confusing everyone when the name suddenly changed. I have lots of new things to share with you all in the very near future based on the advice from the workshop. I can't wait for you all to join me on this journey! And thank you all for being such an awesome group of people to share my work with!