creating|processing

from one of my flood damaged journals
words are from a book I was reading on Vincent van Gogh

Art making has always been a part of my life, even before I ever even thought of dedicating myself to it. Making art for me has always been about helping me to process the world and my life. To say here I am, this is who I am, and this is my experience. To make sense of me and the events in my life.

I write because it helps me to get my thoughts down before they bubble over. I love words, stringing them together to form a thought, drawing something tangible from what swirls through my brain. I make things because creating is what I do. I love the idea of creating something from nothing. I love to see the handiwork behind an object, the care that went into actualizing a vision, an idea, a whim. And I make images to express what I cannot put into words.

There are so many times in my life that the creative process has helped me to heal from loss or grief. Creating is always what I turn to.

I was happily surprised to find that my art and my words were featured on the Cloth, Paper, Scissors blog in an article titled Meditations From An Encaustic Artist last week. I was so honored to be featured in such a heartfelt article.

Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch has a new book called Encaustic Revelationwhich I believe will be out this summer. I was supposed to teach at EncaustiCamp last summer, but with the flood destroying my studio as well as turning my life inside out, I wasn't able to attend. The chapter I wrote for her book is about one of the ways I make book art using plaster and wax and also my thoughts behind bookmaking, which also touches upon my creative process in general. I really do think that art is not just about connecting to oneself, but to the world outside the self. To me that is when a piece is successful, when another person can recognize something of themselves in something that I have made.

I love that.