Happy Halloween!

Hope you enjoy many tricks and treats!

catch up and dress up...

This morning was bittersweet as I said good bye to my parents after a wonderful week together and then helped the kids into their costumes for the local Halloween parade.  The kids' energy and excitement rubbed off on me until I opened the door to my studio and realized what a mess I had made over the past week.  Since I haven't painted in days,  my table has become a catch all for shipping supplies, collage elements and orders.  The half done painting above is a sweet little 3x4 that I thought I would finish up and share today but there is no where to work so a bit of clean up and organization is in order...

Tonight we are carving pumkins and ordering pizza while C and I put the finishing touches on our costumes (after trick or treating we are invited to a party where there will be a taco truck and margarita bar and costumes are a must...)  Under our roof we have a gypsy, a private eye, a mad scientist, a witch and Anakin Skywalker....how about you?

In the blink of an eye....

They grow.  And you grow.   You both change and you learn and you open your heart to possibility every morning.  Whether you become a parent in your 20's or in your 40's you learn to adapt and grow from the inside out until you find that time has gone by...and here she is at 2 and then 13 in the blink of an eye.

I've been unexpectedly away from blogging (and painting) with my parents' visit and my first born's big birthday.  We've had a few really great days and I'm going to keep it going for a few more.  I'll be back to writing, answering emails and convos and catching up on lots of great blog posts by some of you by the week's end.  See you soon....

House of cards

Yes, they arrived! I am absolutely ga-ga over these little sweeties.  Much to my surprise (and delight) the finish on these cards is the same as the mini-moo cards which I fell equally in love with last year.  For some reason, I was expecting the finish to be glossy and that was my one hesitations in placing the order but no...they have a gloriously buttery matte finish which plays perfectly to the encaustic paintings. Each card is 4x6 inches and is blank on the inside and right now there are seven different designs.  Based on how well they turned out I think I'm going to place an order for a few of my favorite "Party Girls" and "Glamour Girls" as well.  After being somewhat disappointed with prints I have had made in the past I'm really excited about the cards which can be used as notecards between friends , invitations, just moved cards or twine wrapped in sets of three as a hostess gift....my mind is spinning.  There's also the fact that when I opened the box it was as if old friends had come back to visit as most of these paintings don't live with me anymore!  I'll be adding the cards to the shop by end of day individually and in sets of three (your choice).  

Hello autumn...

I'm so happy you finally arrived!  Now that a few major rains have passed Autumn is in full swing here which meant a trip to a pumpkin farm in a beautifully bucolic setting just north of us over the weekend. I realize that I'm a little late in sharing these photos but I have been scrambling to meet some entry deadlines for upcoming shows.  I worked on finishing up the paintings from the last post and then realized I would need to photograph them (as they were too large for the scanner which usually gives the best quality reproduction of an encaustic piece).  So I photographed them (over and over) did a bit of on line editing and then had to decide on pricing, rework my Artist Statement and to be more in tune with my recent work blah, blah, blah....so here it is Wednesday and I have no new work to share and my parents arrive on Friday for a week long visit (followed shortly thereafter by my in-laws' week long visit).  I find that doing all of the stuff that goes along with making art can make me a wee bit cranky (sorry kids!) especially when working against a deadline but it all got done and I have a bit of time to paint today so hopefully I'll be sharing one or two small new pieces tomorrow. 

 Here is my new Artist Statement:

Our personal landscape is a composite of human experience and perception.  Our public identities are often juxtaposed against our true selves.  Using a personal language of symbols and objects including houses, clouds, boxes and puppets I build layers of meaning and explore the correlation between the happenstance of our daily lives which publicly define us and the complex personal relationships we have to our surroundings.

What do you think?

Public Bookstore (party!)

I am thrilled to be a part of Eyebuzz Gallery's first collective book (see "houses hemmed into homes" in the center there?) and would love to see all this amazing work in person (sigh) but that is not to be. Tonight Tim and Tara are hosting an opening reception with some of the work featured in the first issue.

 

I have one original encaustic painting for sale at the gallery (if  it interests you you can contact them directly)

The Awakening ( 9x12 framed in black)

measured patience...

After looking at this half finished painting for far too long in two different states the finishing touch appeared.  I'm at a loss to figure out where the idea came from (there have been at least 12 failed ideas in the transitional area of this painting)  but it's perfect and after a bit of work with some oil sticks and a heat gun this 24" monster will be complete.  I'm contemplating some type of custom built float frame since it is only on 1/2" plywood...hmmm. 

 The blank cards were supposed to arrive today but there was some type of delay in the printing process so now they won't arrive until next week sometime (this is really unfortunate because patience is a virtue I do not possess).  Impatience often leads to procrastination around here and as I've been blog hopping this week I was struck (like a bolt of lightening) by this image.  It speaks to me in such a profound way and reminds me that my women with houses and boxes on their heads have bigger stories too....(i love that moment of connection when something speaks to you, don't you?)

I'm still here....

After a great weekend spent with old friends (and no studio time) the remnants of a typhoon swept into town yesterday making it impossible to work (you can't really roll up the door when the rain is blowing at 60 miles an hour now can you?).  I did do a post on Monday over at the Beeteam Blog which deals with ironing wax (curious?).  Do you ever find that once you set something aside you kind of get stuck?  Well I'm having a bit of that right now as I figure out where exactly these paintings want to be.....stay tuned. 

ps:  i did manage to order cards using quite a few of my recent paintings (it was so hard to choose!) which should arrive by early next week.  They will all be blank inside and I think I will sell them in sets of 3 or 5....

Friday

                                              "She Was Full Of Surprises"

                                                                    5x7

                                                   "Where Does The Time Go?"

                                                                        8x8

                                                            "Knock, knock..."

                                                                        5x7     

Wrapping up the week with a three new paintings to share.  We've got friends coming in from out of town and I'm really looking forward to catching up and sharing some great food and conversation, a hike in the woods and maybe a picnic at the beach.  What are you up to this weekend?

Psst....I'm thinking of having some blank cards printed up with these images...what do you think?

Stuck inside my head....

As promised, here are two new pieces I'm working on simultaneously.  They still have quite a way to go but I wanted to share their mossy swirly darkness with you.  The thinned layers of black and mossy green are really beautiful but they needed to be contrasted with something. They were calling for color and so each piece got a wee bit of rainbow added.  Originally these paintings were to feature fish but alas I'm stuck inside my head where images of women run rampant these days.  The more I tried to make the painting into what I thought it should be the less I liked it so today I gave in and started to give these two sketches from my notebook a more public stage.  So I guess images of women will continue to appear in my work until they don't....does that ever happen to you? 

Did you know....

...that I am the guest blogger over at the beeswaxteam blog for the next four Mondays? 

If you get a chance to stop by you will learn the results of "the freezer experiment", see an amazingly sculptural use of beeswax and get a sneak peek at a really cool new documentary that is on my must see list for 2009.  While your there please take a minute (or an hour) to check out what the other beeteam members are up to.  By clicking on the "bees" link you can visit many other encaustic artists and see just how varied this medium truly is....have fun and I'll be back tomorrow with a peek at a new series I started over the weekend.

good timing and good news....

The other day when I mentioned needing to add a few "Party Girls" to my shop little did I know four would arrive on my doorstep an hour later!  The four blocks I had sent to Somerset Studio for the photo shoot were all partially done and I must say it was very strange completing these pieces started so long ago.  I changed two dresses and a hat so that they are each unique.  Tomorrow I will add silver leaf at the top, take photos and add them to my shop.  I should finish them today but it is too windy to roll up the door in the studio and work with silver leaf and it's just too darn dark in there with the door closed.  When these little ladies arrived I truly laughed out loud about the whole "ask and you shall receive" thing.  Anyways, I also have some super exciting news to share today:  My Painting "The Social Workers" was accepted into the juried show "Cross Pollination" at the Womanmade Gallery in Chicago!  I am so very happy to be a part of something at this amazing gallery and hope to find a way to attend the show's opening in November.  Speaking of hope....C and I are are having dinner in the city tonight with some old friends at a place called Anchor and Hope.  I am fascinated by this name and the image of the things that weigh us down and the things that lift us up....it's a great name for a painting, don't you think?  I know the anchor in the title has to do with the fact that is a seafood joint but what can I say...

Have a great day!