Play time!

This last weekend I participated in the largest art tour of the country, Art-A-Whirl. I am, nearly always, inspired by such an event; I love sharing and telling with others about the creative path I find myself on and the work that has resulted from this journey. In turn, I learn about new ideas, thoughts, and perspectives - all of which I find invaluable. It can be from a fellow artist down the hall or a someone I had never met.

My inspiration started earlier this time around. I left Friday evening with an idea from such conversations and went home to research the encaustic world further. With the whirl of the weekend, and then work, I had to put my play time in the studio on hold for a few days....

Jump forward to yesterday when I visited a local gallery to specifically see the work of Bethany Kalk. Combined with her wonderful imagery (inspired by nature - what could be more wonderful?) and painting with wax technique (oh! the layers and delicate line highlighting select forms) I was ready to jump in and play (though it was hard not to be fearful after seeing such work).

The following images are the result (please excuse the glare! (I may need to recapture to give justice to, what I think is, my progress made.....)):

I explored layers and colors

in a very different way than before.

      

But of course, there's a Tiny Little House....

The completed 6" square painting on wood.
I wonder.... what shall its title be?

What do you think?  I would love to know!

I'm curious to give this combination another try.... As always, stay tuned  :)

"Artist" redefined

Over breakfast the other morning I was reading the most recent Surface Design Association Journal. I was drawn to an article titled Affinities ~ Fiber and Wax by Joanne Mattera. Having myself explored the two mediums individually, I have been curious about the idea of combining them together within one piece and so it was a natural fit to start reading..... I didn't get very far into the article (only to the 4th paragraph)  before I had to stop and let what I just read, sink in:

....."Neither Johns or Bourgeois is identified by materials but by ideas---a good reason for all of us to eliminate the adjectives we use to define ourselves as artists.".....

The whole idea that it is the idea behind it all that could define myself as an artist, verses the materials I use to create my work, is a breath of fresh air! Not that I needed anyone's permission to do what I may, I still find her perspective quite freeing.   :)

Regardless of the mediums, the underlying thread (my desire to accurately portray the passion I feel for my sources of inspiration through texture, layer, form and color) has always been there. So onward and upward I shall continue not as an oil painter dabbling in textiles or as a textile artist who paints, but as an artist giving credit to the natural world around me through the use of different mediums....

What fun!

Glorious Milkweed

"The milkweed pods are breaking,
and the bits of silken down
float off upon the autumn breeze
across the meadows brown."

- by Cecil Carendish, The Milkweed


I came across this poem the other day and thought it was delightful in its verse and image. Especially since I had just picked a fair number of pods that day (from my own front yard milkweed grove). So that I could  appreciate them just a while longer, I arranged them in a glass bowl. It is here, indoors, that I can regularly observe their green-turning-to-brown hollows and ridges - I find the exterior so appealing in pattern and texture.  And certainly so different from the inner silken down.....