New work and a Cupcake.

Interlacers (cellular series: 4)

Encaustic on wood panel, red thread, 5x17

Here are two finished pieces from my current cellular series. I just returned from NYC where I was filled up by all the amazing art I got to see. I'm excited to see how this affects the next pieces in the series. I did eight new drawings on the plane ride home; so I know something is certainly cooking in this brain of mine. I love the long and skinny format of the piece above. I have thirty cedar boards this size. My inclination is to make a whole bunch of pieces like this. I'd like to hang them as one big installation, sort of like a ladder of images. This one underneath has given me fits from the start. I'm actually quite glad to be finally done with it. It's not my favorite but I learned a lot while I was doing it and I'm ready to move on.

Collectors (cellular series: 3)

Encuastic on wood panel, 8x10

I also ate this gluten-free cupcake that was so good it almost made me cry. Really, tears formed in my eyes. 

Coming soon: More NYC pics, including a whole slew of images from our mad dash through the Met; the launch of my Etsy shop; and a fun announcement. 

Etsy Shop: Sneak Peek

Exciting news! In just a little over a week I will finally launch my Etsy Shop.

The vision for the shop is to provide beautiful devotional objects that will help people to cultivate their interior and devotional lives. Hopefully the sale of these objects will allow me to make art and not to worry so much about selling it--although who doesn't love to sell. The Etsy pieces are my bread and butter, so to speak, while my other artwork--for example, my new cellular series and my "Adventurers & Adventuresses"--represents the arenas where I seek to stretch myself aesthetically. The Etsy shop hopefully will provide artistic aids to people's spiritual formation.  The other art is a way for me to explore more difficult conceptual and formal territory. Here's hoping that one will support the other.

The Etsy shop will be called "The Ambrosium" in honor of St. Ambrose who is, among other things, the patron saint of wax workers. I love the idea of a kind of visual scriptorium where images are made in the same way that the monks would have illuminated the manuscripts they copied. The scribes were not necessarily thinking about making great works of art; they were thinking about the creation of beautiful things that complemented the devotional practices of the people who would have read the pages. I am excited about offering these art objects to serve your space. I think that having more time to work with wax and all the lovely things associated with it will only make me a better artist over all.

 I have been crafting the aesthetic for the shop and have landed on wanting to evoke the feeling of ancient, earthy, iconic objects. Think illuminated manuscripts, old books, icons, wood altar pieces and reliquaries, and you'll be in the right place.

These are just some sneak peaks of the inventory I'm building before I officially open. I'm also working on some pieces inscribed with word meditations as well as a whole line of goldfinch images.  I'd love to know which photographs draw you in. If you see something you like, please let me know.