we are all connected

we are all connected
encaustic, 14x14 inches

I thought I had finished this piece last week, but today I just had to add a few more markings in the black before I called it complete. This painting is part of my exploration of the prairie series I have been doing, but pushing it a little further. Expanding to thinking about how we are all integral parts of our environment. The impact we leave on our environment and how it affects our health and our lives is coming more and more to forefront of the issues we need to deal with now and into the future.

I wish the markings in the black showed up better. Here is a detail:



I have been working larger these days and it has been really freeing in that I have more room to explore, more markings, just....more. I am still working on my small 6x6 inch pieces to use up my clayboards that I already have. But once those are gone, I think that's going to be it. At least for now.

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With my computer meltdown last week, I forgot to mention that I was interviewed by Leah Piken Kolidas in her Creative Everday blog on how nature inspires my work. Thank you Leah!

Today I went to the first meeting of an encaustic group that is just now forming for Chicago artists who work in encaustics. The group is called FusedChicago and nine of us met today for breakfast and discuss objectives of forming a professional encaustic network here.

Shelley Gilchristsparked off this gathering and I am excited to be part of it. The west coast has strong encaustic groups in both California and Oregon. Texas has one via Texas Wax. Then there is New England Wax. I believe there is a mid Atlantic group as well. But none representing the Midwest! So here we go...

transitions

It feels like it's been a long time since I last posted. We took a family trip to Maryland to visit my family and attend Preakness and had so much fun. When we got back, it took me a bit to readjust back to our daily routine...and then my computer had a meltdown! So I was unable to get on the computer for several days during which I actually got a lot done. Gives me something to think about there.



Transitions
oil and mixed media
36x18 inches

I recently finished this oil and mixed media painting that I have been working on since the beginning of this year. One of the things that I have set out to do is use up my canvases that I have in stock, and that includes painting over some of my very, very old works. My husband thinks that is a bad practice- painting over old paintings. I understand his argument and I am selective over which paintings I paint over. The original painting under this one was really horrendous though! It was something I painted in my early 20s when I was going through a hard time, feeling disconnected from myself. I started painting a little then, in our cramped, ugly studio apartment that we lived in. The painting was more like therapy than anything else. Anyway, it served its purpose, there was no way I would ever sell it, much less show it to anyone, or even hang in my house. So what's the point of it taking up space in my storage closet? So, it got painted over and became "Transitions".

Anyway.......

I began this current painting in January when I was working on my commission piece. It was inspired by this spread I created in Seth Apter's book. As you can see it took quite a turn! As I've worked on this painting it became a meditation on my transition from our life in the Pacific Northwest to Chicago living.



detail


It's been a rough transition. I do feel like I have adjusted to living here, but life feels a little more rushed here, a lot more gritty. But I am definitely feeling more at ease than I was a few months ago. I think what marked this easing into my life here was when I started my series on the prairie plants and studying the environs of the midwest. If it's showing up in my artwork, then it means that my environment is getting a hold of me. Or at least it's my way of accepting it.



detail, bottom center

This detail above lies in the center of the painting and it is a prairie plant.

april.26.09

4.26.09
studio journal, left side

quote says:
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself ~rudyard kipling


4.26.09
studio journal, right side

happy mother's day!

While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about. ~Angela Schwindt

I hope everyone is having a lovely mother's day! My life has expanded in immeasurable ways since I became a mother. And I am grateful for it everyday.

Every Friday Noah and I go to the Y for a class called Messy Masterpieces where we make craft projects with other little kids. At home, he and I are more free form with our paints and crayons, but in this class we follow directions. More or less.


my first crafted mother's day gift

We made flowers on friday together as my mother's day gift. Does it count if I helped?! :) We also made a picture frame covered with glue and sprinkles. But I'm supposed to finish the back and haven't gotten to it yet.


at home, last week, watercolors and crayons
noah surveying our work, before the socks came off and feet got covered with paint while tracing our feet.

This morning we went out to breakfast and then came home and worked on planting flowers in windowboxes and pots. Now my little guy is sleeping and I am going to paint. My husband got me a torch to work in encaustics for my mother's day gift. Hurray! I will experiment this afternoon.




I recently bought the white ceramics cup as a mother's day gift for myself from Diana Fayt's etsy shop. I love her work. I have to take medicine every night that I hate taking...so I thought I should at least have a pretty handmade cup to take my medicine. It does make it go down easier! The pottery pieces on either side are things I made myself years ago.

For the Time Being

For the Time Being
encaustic and mixed media
11x14 inches

Sometimes when I work on a painting, the title comes to me as I work. Other times, I flip through my journal, through quotes, sometimes even dictionaries after the work is done. Often the title encompasses the meaning of the painting whether it's the mood, or the image. Other times it only really has to do with something going on in my life. That's the case with this one. Issues I am dealing with in my personal life. {In my head, this piece is also titled: the cheese stands alone- but that didn't seem appropriate. ha!}

I had a hard time photographing this painting. Sometimes capturing the luminousity inherent in the wax is hard to get on camera. I have some detail shots at my flickr site, just click on the image. I had been working on this piece for a few weeks now and just finished it up last week. It reminded me of one of my first experiements with working with wax. When I first started I couldn't afford the paints or the set up, so I first started playing with a hunk of beeswax, my tack iron, an embossing heat gun, and then oil pastels. According to this blog, this was the summer of 2005.

I always recommend starting out experimenting like this to people who are curious about working in wax but don't want to invest in encaustics without knowing whether they like it or not. If you like it, then I recommend taking an encaustics class or workshop to really get a feel and learn about safety issues as well.

This painting was one of my early pieces created that summer.


cabin, 2005

This little guy below was a thank you gift I made for my sister for her help with my wedding that summer.


eternal fern, 2005

Those days seem so long ago, but it was only about four years ago. Four years of heating up wax with only one long break during my pregnancy. I have come a long way and now have a heated palette, a "real" hot air gun, and encaustic paints. Now onto getting a torch........


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Thank you all for sharing your insights and experiences with me on my question I posed in my last post. It really gave me a lot to think about. I loved how Karin said that her art is instrumental in bridging my joys and sorrows. That really resonated for me.

where memory resides

Where Memory Resides
encaustic on clayboard
8x8 inches
-sold-

Got to work on Sunday and had the wax going almost all day. Still working on my prairie/seeds pieces and now I have this one to add to the group. I have really been working on layering my colors, then scraping back. Fusing can bring surprises. A color I had forgotten, long buried, peeks through.


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I was looking through my file of art quotes and came across this:

"I think most artists create out of despair. The very nature of creation is not a performing glory on the outside, it's a painful, difficult search within." ~ Louise Nevelson

I do agree with her statement that creating is a search within. And it does seem like a lot of creative types have been through the fires of life. I think that it is often the experience of hardship- mental, spirital, physical that hones the spirit, attuning it to feel more, to see more, express more. Perhaps. Everyone's story is different. I think that my experiences have made me more sensitive to what is around me.

For me, I create to find my peace. Maybe it is the same.

I find peace in my son's laughter, in the solitude of nature, and in my art. Not the final product, but in the act of creating. I find that the chatter that goes on in my head, quiets itself. I need that.

How about you?