Dream Totem

Dream Totem
mixed media and encaustic
12x16 inches

Last fall I took an Intuitive Painting class taught by Melanie Brown at Lill Street Art Center. I posted some of the paintings I made during that class here. I changed the title of this piece when I finished it this past Sunday.

Originally this painting came to be during a loosening up exercise on the first night of class in which we did an Exquisite Corpse round robin. We folded up a piece of paper into thirds. I drew the head, then folded it over so it couldn't be seen. Melanie did the torso, then folded it, and passed it on. Another woman in the class finished the legs. We had to use ink with brush, ink with a stick, and charcoal-switching it up on each turn. Everyone's results varied from hysterical to incredibly imaginative. But we didn't stop there. Melanie had us cut up our Exquisite Corpses and then create a separate collage on another substrate, using the exercise drawings, plus paint and miscellaneous papers that were in a scrap bin.

While I was working, I felt a shift within. Really, I did! I remember during the critique I talked about that. I was really excited because the purpose of taking this class was not just to get out of the house after chasing a toddler all week, but also to tap into my personal symbols in a deeper way. And I felt something click that night.

I brought it home and I knew it wasn't finished yet. It may have taken me 6 months to return to it and finish it, but now it's done and I am happy to have this painting hanging in my studio. To remind me of that feeling of excitement, of discovery.

I finished this piece with encaustics and oil paint.

This detail below is one of the reasons why I love encaustics so very much:



Lately I have been turning to my ceramic tools- such as my pin tool- to draw into the wax. Scribble, doodle, write words, make my mark. And then I fill it with oil paint and wipe away.

Here is another detail of the second bird in the torso:




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Thank you all for all your supportive comments left to me on my previous post about my encaustic barbie. I really appreciate it! I had a blast creating her and am thinking about returning to my ceramic roots, but adding the encaustic element....ah, if only I had more time!

the messenger

A few weeks ago I posted about my experiments with altering a barbie using plaster and encaustic. Well she's done!






close up of branches

The hardest thing with working on a sculptural piece with encaustic was the fusing. I had to be thorough but quick when I applied my heat gun so as not to have all the wax drip off.




This was definitely out of my comfort zone as I have never altered a doll before and I don't normally work in 3D. But I just really loved working this way! I used to work in clay a long time ago, in high school, which in my mind doesn't really count. But back then I was always incorporating trees and branches into my sculptural pieces. And the love of branches and trees continues...



a poem inscribed on her back

If you want to see more detail photos, or larger images of the photos shown here, just click on the images and they should take you to my flickr site.

Thank you to Patricia Anders for the kick in the butt to do this!

pieces of

Pieces of
oil and mixed media, 6x12 inches
available for sale

A few months ago I was reading Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. This novel is set in the Pacific Northwest and while I was reading it, I felt nostalgic for the moody landscape. And so I was nudged to begin this painting. I have another one that goes along with it that I finished last week, but I have yet to get an image of it.


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I had a whirlwind weekend as I flew to Maryland to get a quick visit with my family and to attend my 15 year high school reunion. For so long with all my moving and seeking these past 15 years, I have often felt like a stranger even places that I made into my home. Being around familiar faces and voices was such a nice feeling. And an odd feeling too.

Trying to catch up with everything still. But chasing after a two year old takes up most of my time these days!

I am happy though that I finally updated my etsy shop and my amanobooks art section with prints that are now available for sale.

contexture: hidden meanings

Much to my relief, my package arrived at Jen Worden's doorstep this week after being in transit for over 2 weeks!! I was so worried that our collaboration was about to come to a screeching halt due to the package disappearing somewhere in its transit to Canada.

Thankfully, my page made it to her and now I can share my spread that I created in Seth Apter's book, Contexture in our previous exchange.

To recap:
My book: "Book of Trees", a book made of plaster pages
Seth's book: "Contexture", altered book
Jen's book: "Shine", metal pages which will become a prayer flag



my spread in Seth's book

My spread was the first one to go into Seth's beautiful book. I approached this spread with wanting to just play and explore. His pages are already a beautiful base to start with as they are pages of an old book that attached with eyelets. At first I thought I would do a page full of textures and layers...but then as I worked, I went the other way and toned the texture down. I wanted to keep it clean and simple. The "layers" instead became metaphorical. Layers of personal meaning.


detail

While I worked on this I decided to create a large painting based on this composition. It measures 36x 18 inches. Quite a leap in scale! I am still working on it and it has transformed tremendously. It no longer looks like this spread. I am curious to see how it turns out.

the seed is hope

The Seed is Hope
encaustic on clayboard, 8x8 inches

I put this encaustic painting up on my flickr page on Sunday and Angela noticed that my recent paintings had more earthtones and wondered if it has to do with me living in the prairies now. Well, I would say that definitely I am using more earthtones in my work and I do think it is an influence of my environment. When I was in Seattle I painted with a more blue/gray palette, reflecting the moody water environment that I lived in. But the funny thing is, I don't live in prairie lands now! I live in a pretty concrete world called Chicago.

But the colors here are different, for sure. This weekend we trekked out to Middlefork Savannah Forest Preserve in Lake Forest on our "family day". We try to have one day during the weekend dedicated to family activities since I work all day on Sunday. We had a lot of fun running along the trail, listening to frogs and birds, and just being out in the open air. It's been a long winter.



golden pods?

From these photos, the earthy browns and ochres are apparent. So different from the deep greens and gray blues of the Puget Sound area of Western Washington. Anyone know what these beautiful golden pods are? I've never seen anything like that before.



running away from mama
it's so flat here!




crazy how my baby is not a baby anymore

encaustic barbie?!

Today has been a wax day. I finished up two encaustic paintings that have been in the works and I also started experimenting with altering a barbie with encaustics. Yes, that's right, a barbie!

My friend and talented artist Patricia Anders is curating a show called Barbie Redux. As a faithful reader of her blog I saw her call and thought -that's interesting and sounds like fun- but didn't give it much more thought as I don't normally work in 3D and would never think of altering a doll, if I did. But then Tricia challenged me to expand my horizons and give it a try with encaustics. After a couple of emails and her pushing me along I decided to heed her challenge and see what came of it.

I found two barbies in a bin at my neighborhood thrift store for 90 cents. I really only wanted to buy one, but thought getting two was better planning since I have no idea what I'm doing. I wasn't sure how I would get wax onto her as wax on rubber and not good matches. I came up with wrapping her up in plaster. I also added some wire I had to form a larger surface to work on as well as to hold her up.






adding encaustic medium to the plaster


adding encaustic and paint


definitely not looking like perky Barbie anymore!

I'll see how this turns out. If I like it, I will submit it. But if not, it was still fun to play with. It's funny because when I was a little girl I was NOT a barbie type of gal. I was a tom-boy through and through. My favorite place to play was in the huge, ancient Magnolia tree in our front yard. I did have barbies though and being the youngest of four girls I had inherited my sisters' dolls. But after being in my possession, their hair usually ended up being stubble or a mohawk or with their heads totally lopped off. I have this vague memory of giving barbies spa treatments in the toilet! ewww. My best friend though loved Barbie and would have to force me to play "barbie", which I did not get. Asides from playing with toilet water, I guess I still have that little girl in me- destroying Barbie! haha!

{The art that you see on the wall to the left of the top Barbie are printouts of paintings of an artist who I LOVE. Jeanie Tomanek's images make me still and quiet, yet evoke many emotions inside. I have her images up on my studio wall as inspiration.}

Edit: Adding this for those who are interested in altering your own barbie now- go to Patrcia Ander's Blog and go through her archives. She has several links to You Tube videos on barbie alterations. If you go to You Tube and do a search you should be able to find demos too to go about altering a rubber doll. You have to do all this prep stuff to the rubber to get paint to stick to it. Have Fun!

a barbie link on Patricia's blog

hold fast to dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly…

~Langston Hughs



hold fast to dreams
mixed media, 6x6 inches



Been thinking a lot about my dreams. Not the sleeping kind. I will hold onto my dreams even if they are not for Now. Or if I only do bits of it here and there. And I am happy with that and wouldn't change a thing. But still, I will hold onto my dreams. For what is life without desire?

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Check out this week's journaling tip over at the amanobooks.com blog. U.K. artist Vivien Blackburn has been so kind to share one of her books over there. I have several links over there that will link to her fabulous work. I love getting to sneak peeks into her sketchbooks. I have been writing some journaling tips that deal with creativity. Hope it is helpful amd gets you journaling!