Dana and…..Dana

I spent several hours today on a new encaustic.  I prepared the board yesterday with the first layers of wax medium, finishing with blues.  Today I started cutting into the wax and creating my leaves, beginning with the ones that are farthest from me.  

Using a dental tool, I cut the leaf shapes away, fill with pigmented wax, then scrape the excess away with a straightedge blade.  I work until the surface needs to be protected by a layer of wax medium then scrape it back to a very thin, smooth surface.  Then I begin again.  

This is where I left it today….branches, more leaves, and eventually berries will come, pretty much in that order. 

Little Cornell was adopted by a wonderful family so I went to the shelter yesterday and asked this beautiful lady if she’d like to hang out with me for a while.  Her name is Dana and she’s a perfect companion.  After three weeks in a dog cell, she was THRILLED to get in the car and blow that joint!  And I learned today that when Dana sleeps…..

She burrows!!  A few minutes after this she was all the way in and didn’t come out for a couple of hours.  She’s so darn cute.  

Blog Week: Paint

I save every squished tube and cap.  I’ve been tossing the tubes in these two glass jars for well over ten years and they still aren’t full.  I don’t understand it.

I started painting in watercolor when I saw an ad in the newspaper for a watercolor class.  I signed up for a ten week course and kept painting for two and a half years.  Frustrated with my lack of time to paint, I quit for a year or so but came back with renewed determination.  I have never considered stopping again.  NOT painting is not an option.   

I continued with watercolor for at least 20 years.  Why so long?  Because it took me that long to figure it out!  I could do an acceptable painting within a few years and I was selling work within two or three years at student prices — but my expectations kept changing.  I was pushing the paint to achieve more saturation and strength while still using the transparency to my advantage.  I was also learning about composition, color, design, and maturing as a creative person.  I feel like I was learning so much about painting that it was best to stay with one medium so I could focus on the overall knowledge without dealing with new specific technical challenges.

Another factor was my commitment to art fairs, exhibitions, and galleries.  An artist juries in with specific images — so we’re limited to the medium, subject, and style that we’ve presented.  Fairs are juried many months in advance and gallery shows are often booked a year or two in advance.  As my husband has always said, it is safer and less stressful to “fill one bucket”.  If I stick to one medium and it satisfies all my commitments then I’m more likely to be ready when the deadlines hit.

A few years ago, I slowed the art fair pace slightly and was determined to stretch my skills a bit.  There were also subjects I wanted to try that wouldn’t be as successful in watercolor.  I started experimenting with gouache, an opaque watercolor.  I enjoyed it but wasn’t totally satisfied with the paint quality.  I bought a few tubes of casein, read an article on it, and started a hair pulling struggle.

Casein is a water based paint but is applied very differently than watercolor.  It was a challenge and that is putting it mildly.  Doing anything new would have been difficult for me but casein is tricky and that intrigued me.  Unlike watercolor, there wasn’t a lot of information available about supports, grounds, or the paint.  There also were very few workshops or teachers so I was free to limp along without onlookers or expectations (imagined ones, really).  I guess that was good.

In the beginning I worked at my watercolor table as usual then would spin around to a small casein table and dabble for an hour or two.  I eventually split my time by working a few months in casein and then would return to watercolor for a few.  I did an art fair or two and a few gallery shows with caseins and began to feel more confident with it.  I still have a lot to learn but I achieved the goal — to use the painting skills I had learned while watercolor painting in a new medium.

I’ve been curious about encaustic ever since I saw Jasper John’s work in a New York museum many years ago.  I made the mistake of buying a book more recently and when I started highlighting….well, I knew I was in trouble.  Really, I should have continued with casein for a couple more years and built a stronger body of work but I was fascinated.  I continued my watercolor and casein work during the day at my regular pace and began experimenting with encaustic at night.  Now, about three years later, I’m working in encaustic full time.  I’ll return to watercolor and casein eventually — right now, I need to focus so I can make progress with the wax.  Part time with a medium works for a while but I tend to reach a point when I need to make progress so I won’t get discouraged.  

The small encaustics above are actually built on fragments of watercolor paintings.  I’m learning each new medium teaches me skills that affect everything else I do — sometimes in positive ways but not always — more tools in the tool belt has to be good in the long run so I try to focus on the big picture.

Kicking off “Blog Week”

This is what my studio looked like midway through our renovation.  I SO wish I had photographed when the bars were still on the windows and before all the black paint was scraped off the glass - and before the tanning bed rooms were torn out.  I was in too big a hurry to let the light in to bring a camera.  Believe me, there was no AIR in the place!  The outside was just as dark and depressing….

This building was for sale many, many months before I would agree to go inside.  It was an adult apparel and video store and occasionally a mannequin would appear on the front porch with “interesting” garments on display.  I was pretty intimidated about going inside!  As it turned out, the owner was a friendly lady who was happy to give us a tour and after we bought the place she left free samples tucked in hiding spaces for me.  I guess I looked like the kind of lady who needed some spice. :)

Tomorrow I’ll kick off my personal “blog week” with a tour of my studio and some background on the different studios I’ve worked in over the years.  I’ve loved and appreciated every single one.  

I’ll close tonight with a photo of Mark, my husband and best friend, tearing down the old business sign.  I was so excited to see it GO….I ran outside with my camera and happened to catch an arrest going on across the street in the background.  Sort of funny but really not - someone’s life was changing forever.

Giving a friendly face to a house in a neighborhood that needs a boost has been part of the fun.  And being on the corner of a busy old Huntsville street has proven to be very entertaining for Jelly, Misty, and me.  More about studios and their importance tomorrow!

Going Home

We’re heading home after a long day at the studio!  Misty is Head of Security and Jelly is my Studio Assistant - and they never miss a day of work.  Jelly has been in the studio with me since he was 8 weeks old.  Misty joined our team shortly after that.

We try to clock in around 9am and spend the first thirty minutes taking care of our rescued cats.  They are waiting for breakfast and room service when we arrive.  The encaustic palettes are warming while we sweep and straighten up.  Then I open a Diet Mountain Dew and that’s their cue to settle in for a nap.  Misty is a light sleeper though - she takes her security job very seriously.  

Lately we’ve been taking a break around 1pm to medicate our Persian, Pea, who is at home. We’re back at work within an hour or so and like to work past 5pm when we can.  

Over the years my routine has varied.  I used to be in the studio by 7am and only left to get a bag of Cheetos from the gas station at noon.  In those days, Chloe, our shepherd mix, rode with me or I occasionally rode my bike to my south Huntsville studio.

Routines change but I find having one is important.  Structure and a sense of purpose is important.  I’m more flexible now and I work five days a week rather than six or seven - but I’m still committed to a routine.  At the end of a month or quarter, Jelly, Misty, and I are much more satisfied with results if we’ve clocked in every day!

Two steps forward….

As the wax shavings were piling up yesterday, I thought about the rhythm of my progress.  I bet I’m not alone in this.  I didn’t realize there is a definite pattern to learning until I started working with encaustic.

After many years in watercolor, I started experimenting with casein.  This was a few years ago and I felt like a coward.  I’d struggle with casein for a month or so, creating one good painting followed by two failures, then run screaming back to watercolor.  It was such a relief to get back to something I could DO!  I remember melting into my watercolor chair and letting the tension drain.  Gradually, my skills developed and with more consistency, I spent longer periods of time working with casein.  It took a couple of years to reach the point when I went back to watercolor with regret.

I considered and studied encaustic for a long time before buying the supplies and setting up ventilated area.  There is more expense and more layout concerns with this medium.  To my surprise, I followed the same pattern of learning.  As excited and commited as I was to encaustic, I had trouble sticking with it for too long.  At one point, I dropped it totally for a year or so — it seemed almost irresponsible to spend so much time on a medium that was totally kicking my tail.

I’m back to it now and I feel a deep commitment to it , finally.  And I see my reoccurring pattern.  I’m constantly amazed by what my art experiences teach me — about myself but also about all of us.  Comfort level matters in personal growth as much as the courage to explore.  I don’t think I can have one without respecting the other. 

Lurking in the shadows

They say if you are an addict, you’ll always be an addict.  Well, I think the same goes for phobias.  They lurk in the shadows forever.

I did a short talk at the Carnegie Art Center today and I was reminded of my lifelong fear of public speaking — you’ll notice the past tense.  I confronted my fears a couple of years ago with two major speaking commitments in one summer.  I nearly lost my mind but I survived.  There wasn’t any other way to get past it except commit myself and struggle through.  It took a medical doc, a therapist, and some drugs - but I can now speak to a group without hives or hyperventilating. 

Art did it for me.  I had never wanted anything bad enough before to challenge my fear — I’d passed up more opportunities than I can list and had embarrassed myself by backing out and away FAR too many times.  I had no problem saying NO to anyone if a public appearance was required. 

For my art, I finally found the courage.  I was tired of being afraid — and I was sick of short circuiting my art ambitions.  There are so many unexpected ways in which making art has changed my life but this is one of the big ones.  My childhood fear of public speaking had ramped up to a fullblown diagnosable phobia. 

So if there is something you can’t do, I’m telling you that you CAN.  And I can also tell you it won’t be easy — it might actually be extremely difficult.  My talk today was definitely quivering and high pitched, but I did it!  That lifelong phobia was breathing down my neck but I didn’t let it take control.

So try doing what you think you can’t do.  I have found that it can be done.