It’s been a busy week of packing and shipping two encaustic monotypes and sending them off to their next show.
“Four Directions” is headed to Santa Fe to be in the show “Making Your Mark: IEA-EAI Joint Juried Exhibit”
9 3/4″ x 12 1/2″, encaustic monotype
“Break of Day” is headed to Petoskey, Michigan for the 2016 Fine Arts Exhibition at the Crooked Tree Arts Center.
20″x17″ encaustic monotype on Kitikata paper
It takes a lot of time to package up the work for shipping, including shooing my feline studio assistant Jeffrey out of the box. Nevertheless I find it immensely gratifying to send these pieces out into the world to be viewed by a larger audience.
I’ve been creating work for a show that opens tomorrow night in the Chicago Arts District on the 1800th block of South
Halsted. Instead of a traditional gallery, the spaces are called ‘Show Pods’ and are small store fronts that allow the artwork to be seen 24/7. The show “Dots” is the work of 14 artist members of FUSEDChicago. Much of my work, encaustic monotypes on paper, is subtle and intimate. So my challenge was to work in encaustic on board, creating a bolder look that would show well in these illuminated windows.
To begin, I started with what I call ‘creation soup’. I use a tray and put paper or board down first. Then I use various papers (lots of circles like coffee filters in this case) and pour watercolor, ink or dye through the papers to create patterns on the papers and boards. Instead of letting all of that luscious dye go to waste, I add layers of dry silk and other papers on top to soak up the excess. This gives me a color coordinated stash of fabric and papers to create my mixed media encaustic work.
Here is a quick photo of the tray as it is drying. The hardest part is leaving everything alone so that the wonderful patterns dry into the fabric and paper.
layers of papers and silks soak up dye
I created my first video to show you the layers as I pull apart the dried papers and fabric.
And here are two of the final encaustic paintings utilizing the colored silk for background and the coffee filters as ‘dots’.
Satellite I and Satellite II 20″ x 16″ mixed media encaustic on board
I don’t remember the year that I found the magazine ‘Stone Voices’ by Shanti Arts, but I do remember the magical time spent lingering over the beautifully printed images and reading the words of artists writing about art and spirit. The layout was spacious and the images were enhanced by the quality of the paper and the printing. I always dreamed of seeing my own work in this stunning publication.
When I subscribed to ‘Stone Voices’, I also subscribed to their online gallery, Still Point Arts Gallery. I watched the calls for entry come and go in my inbox. It never seemed the right time or theme to enter. In the spring of 2015,when I noticed the call for the quarterly show, the time was finally right. I entered a portfolio and won Best of Show for Portfolio. You can see a picture of it here. When I was asked to submit a portfolio, biography and artist statement for print, I asked about submitting it to ‘Stone Voices’. However, this was the year that the two publications merged into ‘Still Point Arts Quarterly’. The merged journal was still about Art, Nature and Spirit and just as beautifully produced. Last Spring it took me six weeks of hard work and lots of hand wringing to write the Biography and Artist Statement. I also had to assemble the images in the correct format. And to my wonder, my portfolio is featured in the Spring 2016 issue! My encaustic monotypes are artfully arranged, with my words carefully woven around the images.The images are beautifully and accurately printed. And the words, written a year ago, still ring true.
As promised, I melted some wax and started playing with encaustic. I know now why I’ve been procrastinating-there is of course a learning curve and that comes with some frustration. Anyway, these are the two pieces for my first experiment. As I am most interested and fond of line, I think this medium might be a challenge. Next plan is to try some monotypes on paper.
