Revisiting a Friendship

I've had a house guest since Sunday and we've had a great time together. We knew each other in the 60's (college) and 70's (marriage and children) but then after divorces for each of us lost track of each other for some 35 years. We found each other again after Emma saw my photograph and feature article in Cloth Paper Scissors and tracked me down via the internet.

We talked on the phone and I was reassured by her voice. We arranged a visit. It was amazing. The same 2 people but 35 years of experience and change behind us. As a sociology experiment nothing could be more interesting. Each of us showing the signs of age and yet the same sense of humor, the same sharp observations of life, same political positions, same - same - same.

We romped around Portland visiting Powell's Books, the Goodwill Bins (oh goodness did she load up! We had to UPS her treasures home as there was too much for the plane), lots of restaurants, home cooking, art making, plaster smearing and chocolate eating. She loved John and he pronounced her "a good soul".

During her time here I created the painting on plaster in the photo above. I'll have it at Artfest but not a whole lot else. What can I say? I'm not spending enough time in the studio. But that has been my choice. People first. Honor the goodness of wise women and men who surround you.

Of course there was a lot of Mexican food involved. Emma and I knew each other from Mesa, Arizona, where we both attended school and where her father was a teacher. We have some stories between us.

She looks pretty innocent, doesn't she? You would not believe what is behind that little look of innocence. She's the live wire she ever was.

That was then. Both photos taken around 1967. We had matching haircuts and somehow she got me in a 2 piece bathing suit at her house.

She's one of the few people that can talk ME hoarse. We stayed up late partying and kept busy in the studio. She deconstructed a stack of tins with wire cutters and was game for every kind of mayhem; she's been antiquing and arting all these years while I've been painting and whatever it is that I do.

We each made an altered book to commemorate our reunion. This is mine. She found the cutest little skeleton transformer that I coveted so I made a mold and cast mine in plaster off of hers and painted it to match as well as I could. So we had sister momentos. The little fence is a piece of train track that someone gave me in a trade at Artfest one year. Everything else is plaster, paint, the usual suspects.

After I took Emma to the airport I spent the day going from art store to art store gathering supplies for my classes at Artfest. Since I am driving I have the luxury of hauling 3 gallons of gloss medium in addition to a load of other weighty stuff. Now I have a few days to organize and pack everything. I haven't had time to read blogs or feel caught up but that's where I am right now. Calmer days are coming but not very soon.

More than ever before I feel like I have to do all the things I put on hold to have a family, security, and to prepare for this moment. Now this moment is here but alas! time has moved on. It is a poignant truth; we only have so much time. So in this pensive mood I leave you; thanks again for honoring me with your presence here. Ciao.

IEA Meeting and Demo

Last night we met at the studio of Andrea Benson and had a wonderful demo of how she builds up her dimensional figures in wax. Notice the clever clips she attaches to her tins of color so that she can lift up the cans and move them. Gotta get some. And the trim sealing iron - a new goody she got online that allows you to melt a line of wax directly on the substrate much as you would with a tjanting tool only letting you use hardened wax instead of melting it first.

Here is the new tool. I have a tacking iron and think I can do the same with that. It was a revelation to me to see the process in action.

We had a discussion of the fragility of frozen wax so Andrea froze a waxed board so we could do a drop test on it. We'd all heard a horror story of a shipment of encaustics that sat outside a gallery overnight and how all the wax had frozen and fallen off the boards. So Andrea dropped the waxed board 3 times in a very abusive manner.

Et viola! Only surface chipping on the corners where the board landed on the cement. Really, your work would never be subjected to this kind of abuse. We all felt better about the durability of our work after that demonstration.

Sorry, guys, candid camera - but I thought the walls of Andrea's studio were nice and you can see a few pieces of her work hanging. She is a huge inspiration to me and she teaches too so if you want to learn how she does her marvelous work you can contact her through her website and set up a date for a workshop in her studio. She even does individual tutoring.

Last Day With the Kiddos

Excuse me while I linger over a last good-bye. This week has changed me. It was so rewarding; facilitating these art students. I wish I could bottle their can-do spirits - they inspired me to be more open and more inventive.

This deer is getting a thick, sculptural rack of antlers courtesy of beeswax and damar. She's building up the thickness with brushed on layers, burning in after each layer.

Waxing over a stack of colored tissue papers. There are so many ways of introducing color.

This girl brought in leaves for her wood nymph. She looks like she's rushing toward her future.

I thought the painted background looked beautiful. This is what turned into the wood nymph.

Look. They don't need no steenkin' aprons. Me, I had goobers all over myself, even with an apron on. Humphf.

Serene. Restrained. The colors of the east.

Ganesha isn't finished yet but he looks promising already.

I watched this one come together over several sessions. I didn't see where it was going until she carved out the bird silhouettes. Oh, how I love work that alludes to avian navigation. One of my favorite mysteries.

This is a clay jellyfish that one of the 3-D students created. You can almost see it pulsing it looks so real.

Texture, color, composition. Notice the broad variety in approach and subject matter.

A trip on an airplane. The window seat. The meandering highways or rivers below.

Then sometimes it's just beauty for beauty's sake. The lush colors and surfaces. You have to enlarge this one and look at the detail.

If you've seen encaustics you know that they seem to glow from the inside. It adds so much to the beauty of the color.

And then there is the waxy dripping and crusting. That has it's own allure.

Shapes cut out of paper. Relationships between shapes. Contrast.

Investigating the properties of the medium. What does wax do that paint alone doesn't do? Shall I keep it looking like wax or shall I work against that property?

So many personalities and approaches. Juggling all those questions, all those possibilities.

I want to hold on to these guys forever but I know they are fanning out in a couple of months across the world to start their college careers and their lives. I wish them all the success and happiness possible; I feel both protective and confident that they are well equipped for the next challenge. I have to stop getting so attached to everybody. I'm pretty sure it's not normal. Bye, kids. Godspeed.

Student Work in Encaustic

I just have to share the work these kids are doing with someone. Their inventiveness amazes me; they jump in and work, they love the wax and pigment. The work they are producing is wildly successful.

To really appreciate the rich detail of the textures you have to make the images larger. The secret ingredient in the one above is apple cider powder and 2 coats of amber shellac mixed with black pigment over green and red wax, fusing after each layer. Shazam!!

The board above has a tea bag on the left side dunked into colored wax or waxed with color after (I'm not sure). Two of the students have set up a home studio already and did this piece there.

I like the 2-D effect of the thick wax on the flags in the piece above.

I wish I knew the names so I could give credit where credit is due. Lots of different techniques on display.

Cut and fill wax technique above. Great spatial depth and contrasting textures.

Tiles and colored wax in the grid above.

Tissue paper, colored wax, bronze or copper pigment, drawn images in ink.

Detail of a large piece showing amber shellac, texture achieved with sprayed water and heat, melted wax, pigment and the ground burned completely through.

Did I mention that these kids can draw? No? Well, these kids can draw. What an experience for me this has been. I just circle the room and watch what they come up with; fresh ideas, brilliant approaches, original solutions. I'm inspired.

Stream of Consciousness Journaling

Doodled this page while listening to Obama's speech this morning on racism in the USA. Had watched a wonderful video the night before on Betty LaDuke's work with Heifer.org to help supply cattle to the impoverished people in Africa. Her work was so inspiring to me; how artists can use their influence to help others who profoundly need it. The beautiful healthy faces of the children who just want to eat. The mother's look of relief that her child has a meal. We're just people here. Some of us nice, some of us dreadful, independant of race or religion. It's simple, isn't it? Why are some of us so afraid?

Rested Up

My beautiful Amaryllis has revealed her splendor at last. Thank you, Sky, for filling my studio with beauty. What a magnificent flower.

I love the paper that I used in my newest journal. I think most of it is Stonehenge. It is lovely to write and paint on. And my pen-of-the-week is one called Sarasa by Zebra. It writes on the painted pages beautifully. I am a collector of pens and next to Ace Hardware my favorite stores are office supply stores where I can caress the forms, rubber stamps, staplers and see what's new on the shelves. I never leave without a new pen or two.

Of course my thoughts have been circling around Artfest too. But before that I have a house guest for a few days and that is good; if not for her I would be obsessing and putting too much energy into getting excited. I am excitable.

Back to school for one more week with the encaustic students. I think I'll stay mum this week (blogwise) and try to get some work done to take to Artfest. Beside that, the weeds are growing around my roses; maybe I'll get out in the garden and spend a day out in the sunshine. My senses cry out for a day playing outdoors and smelling the loamy fragrances of the earth. That is such a quiet, contented pleasure. Maybe I'll plant some sweet peas. It's good to rest up and go slow.

The 3-D Kids

Friday I worked with the students in the clay studio. I wanted to give them a grounding in mixing pigment with wax on the hot palette as I did the other groups. For me, this is the foundation for working in encaustic - to be able to achieve the colors you want instead of trying to control the highly saturated colors that you purchase pre-mixed.

I think once you work with your own color mixes it is easier to switch to the commercially prepared colors and to use them judiciously; in other words, lots of clear wax and small amounts of the brilliant color.

After the portraits, I introduced the fun stuff that everyone can't wait to try. Collage, intaglio, cut and fill, transfers, scraping, using clay tools and dentists' tools, all that fun experimenting with photographs and found images.

It was a week that left me feeling changed and strengthened. It was really great watching the successes and course-corrections that come with any new skill.

Overheard conversation:
Boy 1 - "I love it" (my painting).
Boy 2 - "Yeah, like a mother loves her baby" . (implying a face only a mother could love)
Boy 1 - "Yeah. Me and the teacher; we're the only ones who love it."

It was so obvious that the kids were proud and knew they'd made something beautiful. They were so excited about the process, the whooshing torches, the fragrant wax and esoteric history of the medium. All the same things that I love come to think of it.

One more week with the kids. Journal pages coming as soon as I catch my breath.