Black Bean Dyeing

Welcome to my latest obsession. You'll have to come back toward the weekend for the results but at this point I'm off and running. Went to the store last night and bought 2 pounds of black beans and alum. I already had the cream of tarter. Covered the black beans with warm water and read a ton of online recipes. John said it would be a waste to use the black beans from the garden. We don't intend to eat these beans (although if I weren't using a compost bucket we technically could). These are art supply beans.

This is the silk shirt I'm going to dye. It was all the way into the bag for Goodwill before it hit me that I'd love it if it only weren't so bright white. It has silk covered buttons too so it should dye up nicely. It's really cute cinched in with a little belt.

 So this morning I put the shirt into a stainless steel pot with 1 tablespoon alum and 1 teaspoon cream of tarter and brought it to a gentle simmer, then turned off the heat and sat the pot next to the dye bucket on the clothes dryer to cool. Now I have to wait another 36 hours for the next step.

Being naturally curious I dipped the end of a paper towel into the bean juice to test the color. This is what came out. A fairly gray sage green. (I wrote "fairy" by mistake but I like the term for this color of green). Anyhoo, 10 minutes later the color had changed!!

It turned into this color. Definitely green. Now I've read that I can change the ph to make it lean more toward lavender but do I want to do that? (soda or vinegar to change the ph).

I loved stirring the simmering mordant pot with my big, wooden spoon, feeling like a good witch, connected to all the other dyers who've experimented farted around with natural materials in the past to get color.

Come back on the weekend and I'll show you the outcome. I'm bound to learn something.

Sere Beauty

You could say January is why I love June.

Except that yes, it has its moments.

Cozy indoor activities.

Occasional forays out into nature.

Warm slippers, hot tea, quiet hours for meditation and poetic musings.

A time for filling the well.

New things being imagined.

Old things over wintering.

Hope in all her colors.

Shelter and patience.

Being satisfied with what is.

Namaste.

Down Under

Long time readers will remember when I had to cancel a trip to Australia several years ago to have a serious operation. That happened right after 2 other operations on a detached retina. What a fun time that was. I was set to teach 3 filled classes in Melbourne and had to turn those duties over to another teacher (thank you dear Jan) and go to the hospital instead. Since then there's been a big hole in my life where Australia was supposed to be. A big regret.

No longer. Tracy Verdugo has graciously offered to sponsor me at her location on the gorgeous eastern coast in the town of Huskisson. This is bucket list stuff. I've been staring at maps. Researching history, birdlife, wildlife, flora and weather patterns. I'm in love with the dream I have about being down under. Practicing the accent I hope I'll pick up in 2 weeks. Only I sound more like a pirate.

I'm not a "cool" person who takes travel for granted. I get all sweaty and excited.

Anyway, before I get too silly, here is the page with all the information. I hope my artist friends in Australia will be interested in learning how to paint with cold wax. It is incredibly versatile. I'll teach you everything I know including how to make your own cold wax medium.

Come and see me while I'm there. Oh, please do. I've met so many of you online. I'd love to see you in person. One love.

Roots and Wings

Thank you for not abandoning me. Really, I think of you all the time. It's just that I've been doing interior work, cave painting so to speak and am in a deep place of learning and change.

Well, aren't we all. I'm back in the studio after wrapping up all the videos and lessons for the Cold Wax Online class. Now I have a few weeks to rest, paint, write and reflect before another travel time. We're having a mild winter in the Pacific Northwest; John cut a rose two nights ago to put in a vase in the window over the sink; that night we got our first killing frost. Peaceful weather soothes my nerves.

I've been doing charcoal drawings. Have started back up on the 100 paintings challenge. I'm only up to #29. I don't count anything in cold wax because it's a different process for me and not nearly as difficult as picking up a brush. My current weakness is making the values work, making the composition as I want it to be.

Working with line and personal marks, symbols, shapes that express my experience of being alive. Up until now I've used subject matter to do that but this is a leap in a different direction. I probably don't need to tell you how hard it is to get it right. This is a language that is challenging to learn (or I should say invent) - like Spanish for me. Some people pick up languages easily; I read about spies who learn Arabic in 6 weeks and I feel very stupid.

This is my 29th painting. 40x48" on canvas. Not as free as the drawings. I'm working on that. 

The title is "Roots and Wings" and comes from this quotation:  

My heart wants roots. My mind wants wings. I cannot bear their bickerings.— E. Y. Harburg 

So that's what I'm up to. Making each day fulfilling with lots of studio time, reading, eating good food (chard from the garden! it gets sweeter in the cold weather and makes the best smoothies!) and loving my good man who has also gotten sweeter in the winter of our lives. 

Words to myself: relax. Let it be easy, it isn't a race. Work each day. Make each day about getting pleasure out of the routine. Eat something good. Hug somebody. Go outside. Be part of a community. Whew. Okay, I think I've got it. Ciao for now.

Some Good Tidings

Most of you know that I've been teaching at EncaustiCamp for the past few years and that I'll be there again in July, this summer. Well, I got a wonderful e-mail this morning from one of my former students there. Her name is Debbie Supplitt and she is a middle school teacher. Which leads me to mention that EncaustiCamp is now accredited for continuing education. We've always attracted a number of qualified teachers and expect that will continue or increase now.

So I'll let Debbie tell the story in her own words. Here is the e-mail exactly as I received it. The photographs are all hers with a little cropping from me here and there.

 HI Judy,
Well, I just completed my third Master's degree, and wrote my entire thesis on:  Fused: A Study of Cultural Encaustic Art, History, and Educational Strategies for Middle School Art Students.  The study basically was introducing middle school students, grades seventh and eighth, to encaustics.  Sooooo, I secured funding to purchase the setup for an entire encaustics lab to support 28 students for three periods a day for nine days.  85 people, including me, doing encaustics.  Plus, the heat pallets, heat guns, (no torches that's a no-no in the schools) brushes, tins and medium were supported with a PTA grant and District funding of over $3,000.

The super cool thing about this project that the encaustics lab becomes mobile and travels from site to site allowing each middle school art teacher to introduce encasutic art to their students.  A total of over 1,400 middle school students could know all about encaustics before the end of the year, or next.  

We had a teacher inservice where we introduced basic encaustic skills.  They were a bit overwhelmed, so I think we need a few more sessions of fun to develop the skill base.

Okay so the one of the ubber cool things about this is that when I was in your class during EncaustiCamp One, you whip out the Fayum mummy protraits.  First thing I blurt out was...."These aren't Egyptians"  your response was "Yes they are".  Wowzers, how can this be?  So I started to research the Fayums, root source, blah blah blah and low and behold, remembering my conquest routes  of the ancient Greeks and Alexander, and of course who could forget that tall dark handsome Mark Anthony who screwed his way towards the conquest of Rome by a seduction of one beautiful Queen Cleopatra. Which was as we know it the Fall of the Egyptian Empire...awwww....now I connected the dots....flash light bulb goes on.  Thus the birth of my Thesis Study. All because of you, so Thank-you for once again, your inspiration.

Ubber cool thing #2...so I send Trish a few visuals of the product that the students created (attached) and she donates her extra kits and medium to our program....holy smokes.  We are in medium for the rest of the year.  So generous, so very cool. 
So this is a humungo Thank-you from the bottom of my heart...without you my Masters degree from Boston University would have taken a different path.
Creatively Yours,
Debbie Supplitt M.A.Art Ed./M.Ed. (impressive initials after my name....whatever!)

Gosh this made me happy today. Who could have guessed the ripples would ripple out in such a way. 

Art. It's my spiritual path.

And thank you for all those lights as I drive through the dark, rainy streets this time of year. It has always represented hope to me; that the light is always there in the darkness and that if we can just be patient renewal will come. Season's Greetings. Love your neighbor. xo

Cold Wax Online Class

So many of you wrote to me privately expressing an interest in learning to paint in cold wax that I think you planted a seed.

After doing my best to resist the urge (so much work for this old girl who just wants to daydream and fiddle around in the studio) I realized this morning that it was going to happen in spite of my lassitude. It's what I do.

So here you go. Help me spread the word please. I'll include a button with a link at the bottom of this post.

And thank you for giving me the encouragement to share what I know. I love to help inspire artists and share what I've learned from others.

Although I'd started working in cold wax some time before I took a 4 day class at Telluride from Rebecca Crowell, I think actually meeting her and watching her work was what gave me permission to say I really understood the medium.

She's the guru.

So go here to read about the class which will begin on January 21st and go for 3 weeks with daily videos and lots of techniques to explore. One of the best things about a class like this are the other artists you'll meet online. We share information and encourage each other. We take turns boosting each other to the next level. It's amazing.

Oh yes, that button! Here it is:

My Happy Best Day

This is me and my daughter Stephanie. She's a whiz. Really. She recently asked me to come to her job as a manager of the make-up and fragrances counters at the downtown Portland Nordstroms to be the sitting sketch artist at the Jo Malone counter for a day. Wow. This is cool. Like bring your mom to work day. I was a little nervous.

 I paint. My sketching skills are rusty.

It was a little like on the job training. (shh, don't tell!)

Armed with a cheat sheet of London landmarks and the work of previous sketch artists who have gone before me I showed up for work an hour early, a little nervous and excited.

It was so darned much fun. Everyone made me feel at home. Stephanie's co-workers turned out to be as nice and welcoming as my friends in the mixed-media world. I could see that they were all so considerate of each other and so very kind as well.

The 5 hours passed so quickly and enjoyably that I didn't even feel like I was working. I was relaxed. Happy. Really incredibly happy.

The best part was seeing the pride on my daughter's face. It was just like the day I brought cupcakes to school for the entire class. (Do they allow that any more?) How my little girl beamed with pride to show her friends who her mama was. It was that. 

Only a mom could understand.

All the way home the trees were brighter with autumn color, the buildings looked more in focus and as I drove past the Willamette Falls I was faced with this extraordinary sunset reflecting on the river. I think I heard angels singing.

Thank you Stephanie Garber for the most amazing day I could ever imagine. My heart is so full.

 Mother is so proud of you.

Cold Wax Report

Here is some of the class work from the Cold Wax Group that met at Atelier SE over the weekend. Many of the attendees were members of the local encaustic group and so the transition to cold wax for them was a snap. We all got messy.

We only had two days together so many of our pieces were unfinished but it was impressive how many layers we were able to get down and I think these images speak for themselves regarding the high level of work that emerged.

I love to come to the classroom early and get everything prepared well in advance. The quiet room. Waiting. It's a time when I align myself with my intention to encourage. We all have the ability. We just need the courage.

Sometimes we undervalue the work we produce. 

A couple of years ago when I was facing one particular surgery that could have left me without the ability to create any longer, I walked through my studio and realized with surprise that everything I had made was suddenly holy. Maybe the last things I would ever make.

It puts things in a new light.

Suddenly you think about the time you wasted being critical of your work, your love of materials, your sincere efforts to give.

Really. The futility of being so hard on yourself.

We ate lunch right next door both days. Sharing our thoughts over lunch was another precious experience. 

It was all so beautiful. Thank you dear friends for joining me as we explored in unison. Paint, color and expression. It lifts me over every difficulty, it surely does. xo