Week One in a Working Studio

Dried lichen from last spring that hangs above my work table. It's still neon green!

Last week was pure craziness. I had so much work to do. I'm glad I was able to squeeze some art making in between everything else. Until I have time for a real post, here are some shots from things I'm working on right now:

Ink dried in the bottom of a glass dish. 

I'm making small paper forms and experimenting with sewing on them in different ways. My plan is to sink the paper forms into wax in clusters. Sort of like a 3-D version of my cellular pieces I've been working on.  

I've been using all kinds of glass vials, test tubes, and small beakers to mold my forms onto.

This is one of my favorites. I love the red thread underneath one layer of thin paper. 

I'm trying some sewing with my own hair. It's pretty tricky to get it knotted, but I bought some cheap magnifying glasses to help me see the tiny ends. This takes total focus and good music in my i-pod.

I've been doing tons of simple cellular type drawings that I am going to turn into either watercolor/drawing pieces or encuastics. So far it has been too difficult to get really clean and simple details using the encuastic process. But, I'm going to keep trying different things to try and see if I can't figure it out. I'd love to have these drawings translated into wax somehow. 

My many to-do lists. It's great to have a whole wall that I can use for lists.

Wrapping up and sending off my first (trial run) etsy sale. I'll announce the etsy shop opening soon. This sale was to a friend who kindly agreed to be my guinea pig. This way I could walk myself through the whole process and make sure I'd gotten everything right. As soon as I finish filling the shop I'll have it open to everyone.

Making hundreds of business cards for the various events I have coming up. I love the process of tearing down and stamping each card. I'd never change to machine made cards, I just love these deckled edges too much!

Cartographers and Carriers

Microscopic eye candy!

During the home residency I conducted in June, I worked on some pieces in the new Cellular Series. Below is the finished version of one of those pieces. I have titled it Cartographers because it is mostly about the cells of our body and their ability to follow a map to do their particular work. I imagine our bodies as a busy hive of perpetually moving pieces. We walk around carrying all that activity and we don't even have to think about it most of the time. It's quite incredible to think that I will never really see the inside of my body; I'll never see with my own eyes what my cells look like; I can never hear the noise that must be made when everything is pumping and pulsing and moving around in there. It's a whole internal world that makes me into me, but it's also a complete mystery. I have absolutely no control over what happens, or does not happen, on any given day inside my body. But I have to trust it to make me walk and see and eat and think. It boggles my mind a bit, and I like how small it makes me feel.

Cartographers: Cellular Series 2

Below is the other piece I worked on during that concentrated studio time. It's still giving me some problems, but I think I know how to fix it. "Simple, simple" is what I keep telling myself. I'm still mulling over some ideas for titles, so I don't have one nailed down yet. These pieces have proven to be very hard to photograph because they are so subtle and foggy in spots that the camera just wants to blur everything together. Any thoughts on how to get some sharpness?? 

Cellular Series: 3

I've been hatching an idea that includes tiny paper-mache forms embedded in to wax. I can't wait to have some space and time to finish the next pieces in this series. Hopefully this week and next will provide a little more time than the last few weeks and I will have some new things to show! 

Cellular inspiration!

Home Residency: Day 5 (belated)

Well, I am finally posting the pictures from the last day of the home residency! I have not worked on the pieces much since then as I have been teaching art camps for young artists. In the little moments I can grab I have been experimenting with more carving in and trying to simplify, simplify, simplify. I'll post more pictures at the end of the week when I  (hopefully) finish. I am so ready to be done.

A.M. - Piece No. 1

P.M. - Piece No. 2

Lunch

P.M. - Piece No. 1 (I know it looks almost the same but trust me, a lot happened) 

P.M. - Piece No. 2

A few things I learned during my five days of concentrated working:

1. Art takes a lot of time and a fierce concentration. 

2. Working every day gave me a better idea of just how many tiny decisions you have to make to create one thing. 

3. Being immersed in your work for hours each day does not make you a very good conversationalist during the off times. 

4. I need to make sure I am protecting more of my weekly hours to art making if I'm going to make any progress. 

5. I have to be ruthless about cutting out, covering over, and scraping down the things that are not really working with the whole piece. No matter how lovely the are by themselves. 

I am sure I will have more thoughts later. Now I'm off to make dinner. 

Home Residency: Day 4

Here's a progress report in pictures. Still more work to do, but no one ever said making art was easy!

Line drawing warmup

A.M.

P.M.

New Piece: A.M.

New Piece: P.M.

This beautiful lady visited me on my coffee break. A muse perhaps?

Home Residency: Day 3

Yesterday I made some progress on the new piece. I think it's trying to figure itself out and I am not sure that I am helping very much. Can't wait to see what happens with it today. Here are some images:

9:30 am

11:30 am

1:00 pm

3:00 pm

5:00 pm

7:00 pm

Right now my gut says I have too many colors going on. I would like a more natural feel. I want it to feel sort of organic, almost like it could be alive. Today I am going to take out some of the small blue and gold dots, and carve down through to the map paper underneath in a few more places. I think it also needs some line work, so I might play around the inscribing some straight lines and filling them with color. I've done that a little with the blue circles and I like how delicate it feels. I am also considering getting rid of those red spots layered underneath. So much to learn!

Home Residency: Day 2, Part 2

Before I went to the museum I spent the morning working on some new little experiments. These will be in the forthcoming Etsy shop. I'm filling my inventory with small devotional/inspirational objects that will, hopefully, aid people in their contemplative and interior life. Making these also serves as a great warm up before art making. I'm learning about drips and dots, so these have lots of both.

This the beginning of the next piece in the Cellular Series. More pictures on how it develops coming tomorrow! 

New work from the Guild and things to come

 

I was able to squeeze one day in the studio, making my own work, while I was out at the guild. I wish I had been able to stay a whole week, working every day, getting settled into a good rhythm. But, I am happy with what came as a result of that one solid day. Working next to Shannon was a great reminder of the invaluable resource of critique. She encouraged me to push farther, and edit tighter than I would have on my own. Thanks Shannon!

I have been thinking about all the cells that make up our world. I wanted to find a way to celebrate their shape as well as their function as carriers of all manner of information. The shapes are layered with pieces of book pages. I experimented with carving down into, and building up areas in the wax. I am excited to keep exploring this kind of shape making and revealing in my next pieces.

Detail

Since I came home I have been working on, of all things, sheep! I was asked to make a piece that included sheep and it was such a challenge to figure out how to make them look elegant. I have been taking pictures of lambs this week while spending time on a ranch in Texas, so I am ready to make a whole series of sheep pieces this summer. 

This piece is the kind of thing I will be selling in an etsy shop I am opening this summer. My goal is to provide a source for beautiful devotional objects. I think the embedding, carving, and layering techniques used in the encaustic tradition lend themselves so well to this kind of work. My hope is that the sale of this type of object would support me in the making of art pieces that don't appeal to such a broad audience, and might not be as affordable. I'll have more news on this endeavor in the next few weeks!