Double Duty

The studio has been Dog Rescue Central this week.  Our rummage sale for Friends of Retrievers Rescue is happening on the front lawn….and side driveway….and back lawn.  We have a very successful day with tons of volunteer workers and TONS of sales!  

And the money raised is for dogs like this one.  This is Little Red, my foster dog.  he’s 18 lbs of bubble and bounce — and he was in a kill shelter and wouldn’t be alive today without the support of our foster home group.  Write a check to your local rescue group.  We do unbelievable work to raise money to pay vet bills.  Your help makes a difference!

Monday I’ll go back to work at the encaustic table.  I’m looking forward to it :).

Traveling

These aren’t custom boxes but they sure work great!  After carrying heavy watercolors for so many years, this is really a change.  I really hate to add more plastic to the world but until I come up with a better idea, I feel like they’ll travel safe in the van this way.   

A New Crop

I finished framing a new group of encaustics yesterday — and they’re loaded to travel.  I’ll deliver them to Blue Spiral on Saturday, along with a couple of pieces from my last group.  I had to hang on to a few pieces last trip because they were submitted to an exhibition.  Results are in and I can release some of them now.

Framing is one of those things I dread, then enjoy.  I tend to finish a piece and slide it into my bakers rack until it’s time to frame several.  Then I scrutinize them all over again and fresh anxiety bubbles up because this is IT.  Once they’re framed, I’m letting them go…or letting them be as is.

It’s important to frame them and move on though.  Frames are expensive but it’s the only way work will move forward and see other people than me.  They have to grow up!

And this is Sugar, who spent the day with me at the studio yesterday.  She’s a gentle spirit and absolutely won my heart.  Quiet and a little fearful, she’s met some unkind humans in her life.  She’s settled in a wonderful foster home now, receiving the attention she deserves.  

Framed

Yesterday was….crazy at the studio.  I framed encaustics while socializing a very frightened dog….while answering the phone….all the the middle of rummage sale chaos.  My rescue group, www.FORrescue.net, is having a rummage sale to pay vet bills for our homeless dogs.  The sale will be held at my studio so I’m GROUND ZERO right now.  

I’m going back in.  If you don’t hear from me again, somebody send help.  

Gearing Up

I did something today I haven’t done in ages.  I surfed for exhibition opportunities. Looking forward, I think it’s time to explore what’s out there and start responding to calls for entries.  I don’t think I want to ship my encaustic pieces, so I’ll be more selective than I have been before, but it’s time to get back in the game.  

Applying to exhibitions at art centers and museums is one of the most motivating things I can do.  Having a deadline hanging out there, a few months away, gives me a goal without too much pressure.  I focus on the satisfaction of applying -having two or three pieces I’m proud of, sending the images and form off on time - then releasing it.  THAT is the goal and the results are secondary.  Whether I’m accepted or not, my work is in front of a juror and that’s where I leave it.

Someone told me a long time ago that exhibitions are like applying for jobs - send off so many resumes and fill out so many applications that it’s impossible to put all my eggs in one basket.  That made sense and led to my strategy.  Success is in putting my work “out there” because I can control that part of the process.  Acceptance or rejection is out of my hands, so it should be an afterthought.  

Exhibitions are a tool for me.  They help me work steadier, focus more clearly, and use my time wisely.  

New Girl

Today was Rhoda’s first day at the studio.  The worried look on her face is because she’s spending her first day without her Mama.  I kept her busy and she’s a happy girl….just a little perplexed.  Mary has gone to another foster home since they’ll probably be separated when adopted.  Both girls were in terrible shape when we pulled them from the shelter and are improving daily.

Today’s small piece got a good start.  This one is 9.75” square.

New colors on the palette are a welcome change.  I have a process now where I clear the rectangular palette directly to my right after each piece, then repopulate it with the pigmented medium that I expect to use.  It’s taken me a long time to get a productive process and a good working space.

Times Change

This piece will be 9.5” x 9.5”.  My plan is ready and the wax is on the board.  Before starting this piece I prepared my resume for a museum show that recently accepted my work.  THAT was an eye opener.  I knew my art life had changed but I’d forgotten how much.  I traveled and shipped work to exhibitions for so long….and then stopped.  There was no way to do both and I decided to move forward with a new medium.

I had an elaborate system of show notifications, applications, exhibition deadlines. I shipped twenty paintings a year to art centers and museum shows while traveling to fifteen out of state art fairs yearly.  The pace was exhausting and fun…and exhausting.

I’m loving my new way of working.  The emphasis is on learning and painting daily, but without the pressure.  I still have drive but that isn’t pressure.  ;

I completed this piece today and I’m satisfied with it.  I’ll start mixing color tomorrow morning for my next work.  Yes, I’m back to working seven days a week. Shorter hour than in the past but working daily seems to be right for continuity.  

On Thin Ice

This piece is coming along and just yesterday I mused that I haven’t had a problem with thin wax….yet.  Well, yet happened today and in the most unexpected place.  Two areas on on the gauge box (to the right) became too thin and I had to spend an hour or so addressing it.  I have faith I can still get what I want here but I quit a little early today.  I’ve worked too long on this one to blow it because I’m tired.

Dana Dog waited patiently today for me to finish.  The minute I’m out of my chair, she’s barking and ready to GO….doesn’t matter where, she just doesn’t want to miss a single thing.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE this foster dog?  So much that I’ve botched a couple of very good adoption chances for her.  Not on purpose, I promise, I’m still hoping for someone perfect to come along.  If you are perfect, call me.

A Weird Place

This piece is coming along - I’ve been working steadily for the last couple of days. Today I started developing the final element — the gauges (the huge obnxious rectangle!)  I’m hoping this works, suddenly the whole piece is dominated by a big rectangle.  Keep working….don’t think too much….I’ll get past this awkward stage.   And repeat.  

Add and Take Away

All the elements aren’t included yet.  Today, I scraped back a lot of the oil bar and I feel better about it.  Taking away was the best thing I did today.  

Another Day..

I love the colors in this piece….I need to break away and add some punch.  Not sure I will though! 

I think I’ll increase the contrast with darker darks and lighter lights.  We’ll see where it goes tomorrow.

New Week, New Painting

I started this encaustic with butterflies in my stomach while slightly hovering on my stool.  With feelings that were half excitement and half dread - I mixed three encaustic paints that I thought would be the right value for a starting point….and plunged in.

That “almost awful” feeling is why I try new media.  If I’m not uncomfortable and some point in a painting then I’m not learning enough.  Now, I have to learn to enjoy the uncertainty!  It’s not easy to do in the moment.

After some initial decisions are made, I tend to settle in and “go from there”.  I guess once I have something in front of me, I can only move forward with what I have….and that’s more comfortable.

Listening to an author on creativity yesterday, I heard that creative maturity comes at different times depending on the area of expertise.  It takes longer in some areas of creative expression to learn enough to be a peak performance - a research scientist might be at peak at seventy while an author is at thirty.  

I think I’m definitely in the eighty to ninety category.  I’m going to keep working till I get there. :)

New Work

A new drawing is ready.  I worked out this plan, on tracing paper, yesterday and began preparing the board.  I also put the final layer of medium on my last piece.  I had given it several days of rest so the oil bar I had applied could dry.  It worked and the last layer of medium didn’t disturb it.  

Late in the day I picked up two pugs from our shelter who are in a terrible state of neglect — this girl is HW postive and both dogs have advanced sarcoptic mange, bacterial infection, fungus, yeast, you name it.  Both went directly to the vet and are resting at Hotel Dana.  They’re heartbreaking now but will feel better, thanks to the financial support of www.FORrescue.net.  Support your rescue and spay/neuter groups — hard work is being done for those without a voice.  

I’m coming….

I missed them!  I’m back in the studio tomorrow and priority one is to spend some quiet time with my studio cats.  Priority two is to get get my wax heated and start a new painting.  I also need to put a finishing layer of medium on my last piece - I applied oil bar and let it set while I was gone.  I’m hoping the last layer will go on without disturbing the oil bar, now that it’s had plenty of time to dry.

This time…the Met!

We visit at least one art museum every time we’re in New York.  This time it was the Met.  Not my first choice, believe it or not :).  The Whitney is my favorite and I hoped to see the Biennial.  MOMA is usually my second choice in New York.  To our surprise, both are closed on Tuesday so we hoofed it over to the Met.  

It was wonderful, of course.  We focused on the period rooms this time and their American wing.  One amazing discovering was the visible storage.  Fascinating!!