Plaster Encaustic Fusion-The Evidence

Here's a peek at the incredible art that our students created during our Plaster Encaustic Fusion workshop held at Captured Moments in late Oct. and early Nov. It never ceases to amaze and inspire me how everyone takes our instruction and elevates it to new heights. Also worth noticing is how we all begin with exactly the same basic materials, and end with entirely different pieces of art - the alchemy of creativity and vision. This class was also a textural delight of beeswax, wood, wire, corrugated cardboard, acrylic paints, and exotic papers...and also the most fun and creative group of women around.



Marilyn and I are finished with classes for 2011 so that, like you, we can enjoy time with family and friends during the busy holiday season. We will return refreshed and inspired in 2012.

Thank you to all who pop in to see what's new, and to all of you who take classes. I am grateful to know you and to share this fabulous, messy, creative life.

Peace.

Footnote: Marilyn has also posted pictures of our class...stop by her blog to close ups...and also credits to our students (I too planned to credit our students but I am still under the mistaken impression that I will remember things without writing them down... and then I remember...oh, that's right...I forget things! ;o)

I see a bright light, casting shadows through my window...

Could it be?
Yes, it's the sun!!!! Me so happy!!!

During the past couple of weeks of rain and generally dismal end of summer weather, I did treat myself to an online art class by Christy Tomlinson (her blog link is in my list at right). It was my first-ever online class, but I can see this will be a wonderful way to pass the long, long winter in upstate NY!!!

Here's my first canvas from Christy's She-art workshop, which was an amazing bargain -- dozens of class videos with amazing mixed-media, drawing, painting and texture techniques and PDFs available for download. Thank you, Christy!!

Sweet Sixteen!

This one was created for someone special...



detail:

Here is something about art and being in the moment that I always find magical, no matter how often I experience it. I had been thinking about this painting (a 16th birthday gift), for awhile. On the day that I had finally carved out time to make it, I started, as I always do, with my baskets (many) and bins (also many) of collage materials -- mostly paper but also all sorts of ephemera and found objects. And what I continually find amazing is that without alot of searching among what is admittedly an overwhelming amount of (artful) stuff, the right pieces landed in my vision and my hands with almost no effort to bring this artwork into being. It was like I had willed each piece of ephemera into my hands to create this very personal piece.

I know that this is a common experience among anyone who has ever had an idea and allowed that idea to germinate. It both grows roots and reaches for the sun, and all you have to do is water it with your imagination and something both expected and surprising emerges.

Oh, to be 16, and or sweet again!

The heart remembers

Summer is usually a time for me to regroup and redirect my creative energies outdoors, but some recent rainy days have been a great time to hang indoors and paint. (beats cleaning!)

14 x 11
plaster, mixed media and collage on canvas

Use your stuff!!!

On Sunday, my good friend Marilyn and I taught our first class of the season, entitled Let's Get Plastered. Below is my sample, created in class. I shared my technique for using drywall spackle to create texture, form and dimension, and Marilyn did a great texture study, using found objects and textural elements. (my sample for this technique also pictured below).

When we teach, Marilyn and I always come laden with boxes and bins of "stuff" to share with out students during class - things collected through many years of art making: collage papers, one of a kind books and ledgers, buttons, vintage lace, dress patterns, stencils, beads and charms... whatever we think might be fun and useful during class. And our students are always excited to look through our "stuff" for the perfect elements to enhance their creations.

Frequently, they marvel at our ability to part with such treasures. I will admit that there was a time when I hoarded my "stuff." Even now, I do have a few favorite finds that I cannot bear to use OR share -- for now. But one of the many things that I have learned as I make art and collect the found objects that make their way into my art is that there will always be more "stuff." And that allowing my favorite finds to gather dust in my art room does not do them the honor that I envisioned when I found them.

I don't want to be the one who dies with the most toys (or stuff). For me, that's not winning. Really, I don't want to die at all, but so far, I haven't figured a way around that one. So, in the meantime, I will share my "stuff," as well as my ideas, and my passion for living a full and creative life, with everyone I am blessed to know.

Let's get plastered!

My good friend and artist, Marilyn and I are getting ready to teach spring workshops. The first, entitled Let's get plastered, (apropos, I know) will be held on Sunday, March 13, from 10 am to 3 pm at Captured Moments, one of our favorite places to shop and gather for creative inspiration.

The two canvasses below are examples of what students will learn to make in class -- an 8 x 10 mixed media piece made with spackle, acrylic paint & collage.

For more information or to sign up, send me an email (listed on the sidebar at the right.) We will send you a full class description, materials list and payment information as each class is planned.

words.

Words usually come easily to me. These days, I find myself choking on them. I suspect it’s because the thoughts and feelings I need to express are not pleasant, and I don’t want to put them on paper and make them real. Own them. Admit to them. I am an expert at pushing it all down and putting on a happy face, but if you don’t own the bad stuff along with the good, it comes up with a vengeance, like a projectile vomit of bad words and feelings that leave a horrid taste in the mouth and a feeling like a boulder pressing on my chest.
Wow. WTF? Did I just say that?
Someone made a comment over the weekend that really pissed me off.I am not sure if it was intentional and mean, or just stupid and thoughtless. Either way, I should have said something at the time, but the circumstances were such that I chose to put it off for too long. And now it's festering inside me. If I say something now, it seems like way too little too late. So instead, I take it out on canvas.

Drowning.
8 x 8 mixed media & collage on canvas
This is one of two pieces that will be in the next Art de Cure exhibit from July 19-Oct 15. The theme is "Make a Splash."

Holy Toledo, it's ta da list time!!!!

Where did the month of April go? As usual, I have bitten off a bit more than I can chew these days, and I am looking at my calendar with feelings of both joyful anticipation and dread at the same time. Does this happen to everyone, or just me? I think I am going to have to get into the habit of actually penning onto my calendar some down time, and scheduling the act of doing nothing in the same way that I schedule everything else.

In spite of how daunting my calendar looks these days, I am really feeling exhilarated by life lately. I don't know exactly what has changed - me perhaps? Could that be? I just know that the more distance I put between me and my marriage, and life "before," the better I feel, about everything. I feel like I am becoming me, more and more. And truthfully, I had no idea how un-me I had become -- how much energy I invested in reacting to someone else, instead of living my own life.

So this is what's been keeping me busy this month...
I taught art journal class number three with Marilyn;
Designed a new logo for my friend Brenda's business..."Cleo's House of Crafts/Home Collection";
Experimented in monoprinting (and a flip video) using Elastack;
Made plans for a fabric-paper workshop with Marilyn coming in June;
Participated in an art exhibit called Art de Cure to benefit diabetes research (and sold two out of three pieces so far!!)
Enjoyed a wonderful art date with my friend Peggy to make heart paintings (super fun day!!);
Created a swap journal page for/with my friend Melanie;
Began a new web design with Melissa from Stampassion (it's coming, I swear!!);
and,
Hung artwork for a new exhibit that opens Friday at the Albany Art Room (called Alternate Substrates)...

These are two of several pieces that will be in the show.
Fly Home

18 x 24, mixed media assemblage on window screen



Letters Home
9 x 12, mixed media assemblage on mailbox door

Art connects us...

Late last week, I received word that another of my pieces in the Art de Cure exhibit had sold. This time, the note came from the person who purchased it, and I was truly moved that she had taken the time to write to me, and to share with me that she identified with this piece.

My art is an extension of myself - a visual expression of my ideas and beliefs, my experiences, my thoughts and feelings - and when someone wants to own a piece of it, I feel so connected to our source, to our common experiences.

And I feel so grateful for living my true life and doing what I know I was put here to do.

Sold!

I was thrilled to learn that one of my pieces sold on opening night of an exhibit that benefits Art de Cure, a local charitable organization. I am usually pretty comfortable participating in art exhibits, but I was self-conscious as I left my pieces for this show, as my work is mixed media, and very non-traditional. When I looked around the room, most of the other work that I saw was very traditional --matted and framed paintings -- and I felt as though my pieces would stick out like a sore thumb and looked too casual and haphazard.

So it's nice to know that someone "got me" so to speak.
See the listing at the right if you are interested in visiting this exhibit, which will be on display until mid-June.

Begin. Reach. Act.

Peace

Series of three.
5 x 5 acrylic, collage & mixed media on canvas.

Works in progress...

Started some 5 x 5 mini canvasses this weekend. Not sure if they'll be hearts or something else. With V'day coming, hearts are the logical choice. But art is not logical. We'll see where the muse takes me.

Also a picture of my favorite guy - Max. Playing coy - really just looking away from the flash. He'll be six years old at the end of February. Time flies.

A digitally altered painting...

Always...

Just a little Photoshop fun - wide swings of color balance, a little typography, and some transparent layers. Here was the original painting, in greens and yellows, and below is the altered version.

Painting as therapy...

I had a bad day at work yesterday. My bad days at work are very few and far between, but nonetheless, it was not one of my better days. At 5 sharp, I left hastily, looking forward to wrapping some holiday gifts, lighting a fire, and watching tv with Max curled up at my side.

When I pulled into my driveway, it was 5:30-ish and dark. I glanced across my front lawn and thought, "What's all over the lawn?" As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I figured it out. It was most of my split rail fence. I live on a main road, and for the second time in less than a year, someone crashed into my fence. The first time, there was just minor damage to one post, but this time, two-thirds of my fence was spewed like matchsticks all over my lawn. This was not the way I had envisioned my evening to begin. But a couple hundred profanities later, I was over it.

I mean, first of all, the person who hit my fence was obviously having an even worse day than me. And according to the accident report, she wasn't injured, which was good news, and a miracle, given the condition of my fence the auto debris that she left behind.

So I walked Max, lit a fire, ordered a pizza, poured a glass of wine, (and then another) and finished this painting, which is a gift for a friend who has been doing some interior decorating. I stayed up way too late, because I was totally in the zone, but it was the perfect ending to a much less than perfect day.

Heart lock...

Heart lock - 10 x 14 acrylic & mixed media collage on deep set canvas

...and speaking of hearts...my niece Avery's new heart continues to beat perfectly and there are no signs of rejection. She's been out of the ICU and on the regular cardiac floor for several weeks now, and is up and about every day, with her energy and humor and spicy personality intact, so it is just a matter of time (a short time we hope) before she is able to go home! Nutrition, eating solid foods and balancing her meds are all that keeps her there at this point.

So once again, my own heart is full of gratitude to all of you who have kept her in your hearts and minds for most of the last full year. My heart bursts with thanks for the basic goodness and generosity of humanity.

Light hearted

Lighthearted - 12 x 12 acrylic & mixed media collage on canvas.

This piece is very whimsical to me. I've had that light bulb in my stash of found objects for years, and it fell on the floor as I was digging through a basket for something else. The colors in the painting matched it perfectly...so that's a perfect example of how I find inspiration. If I had dropped some old teeth on the floor it would probably have gone differently, but fortunately it was a cute little pink light bulb.

House of love...

I recently went on a wonderful scavenger hunt at the local salvage warehouse with some fellow artists...I am already planning a return trip -OMG - what fun!!! Like an indoor yard sale of discarded house parts!!!. Among my finds were the escutcheons and keyholes that now adorn this piece of fence post...the fence post itself was saved from a previous junque outing...I just knew that I'd find a use for it one of these days.

I also brought back some larger pieces - shutters & window screens, perfectly distressed with age, which will find their way into some future projects. I love old things -- well some old things. Actually some things are not so good old. For instance: computers, underwear, milk, Danny Bonaduce, water pipes and teeth all come to mind.

So it's probably safe to say that you won't find any old underwear (or teeth) in my mixed media pieces. Or Danny Bonaduce (or old teeth) in my underwear. I just thought you should know.

Some believe...

Some believe - (trio) 5 x 5 acrylic, mixed media & collage on canvas.

I am in a mood today, or more accurately many moods. They change by the moment. I am uncomfortable in my skin when I get this way, but I know I just have to ride it out.

Do you ever ask yourself if you are enough? Or simply why? Or how?

True...

True - 10 x 10 acrylic, mixed media & collage on canvas.

There is major construction taking place on my regular route to and from work, and it is virtually impassable during commuter hours these days, so I took a side road into work today. As I wound this way and that before being deposited just above the traffic jam, I gave a moment's thought to the creation of roads, and how some of them go straight from point A to point B, while others, like the one I was on, have dips and curves, meandering this way and that before reaching their end.

It could be that winding roads are that way because making them straight would have meant plowing through rock or impossible terrain, but I like to think that some creative soul made them that way because they make the ride better - more rhythmic and fluid.

Either way, it also reminded me to take the side road more often - just for the change in scenery and the enjoyment of the journey.

Home...

Home - 18 x 24, acrylic & mixed media on canvas

This is a gift for a friend who just bought her first home. As any of my regular blog readers know, home is a recurring theme in my art and a very important symbol in my life. It represents security, family, comfort, love, and acceptance - the one place I always feel grounded and real and safe.

I wish you all a good weekend and a place to call home.