Three Announcements!

ONE: The Shop!

The Etsy shop is officially open for business. Acknowledging that my goal to post hundreds of items for sale before I announce it is just plain silly, I'm opening it with only a few items. But the promise is that there'll be more to come. The shop is called The Ambrosium in honor of St. Ambrose, the patron saint of wax workers, and it can be found here. I'll be concentrating on filling it with more things after this weekend when we have....

TWO: "3rd Friday Open Studio" 
and 
"Durham Art Walk and Holiday Market"!

Friday from 6-9 PM the Golden Belt Studios will open its doors to the public, and there'll be plenty of artists working away and selling their wares. Food trucks are likely to be hanging out and there should be a new show in the gallery. It's bound to be a great time. 

Saturday from 10 AM - 5 PM and Sunday from 1-5 PM the Durham Art Walk will be happening all over town. The Golden Belt artists will participate in the walk by offering art and christmas gifts and ornaments galore. It's a great place to do your Christmas shopping and to find unique--and, yes, affordable--things for all your special people. I'll be selling....

THREE: Prints!

For the first time I will have available prints of my watercolor series. They'll come in two sizes. This is a perfect gift for someone looking to spend $20-$35 dollars on an art print. You can find images of the series here.  The prints will be smaller in size than the originals, either 8.5 X 11 or 11 X 13. They will be printed on heavy weight paper with white border perfect for framing. The printer uses archival inks so they're sure to last for a long time. 

If you email me a pre-order form before Friday, then you can have a print for $15 or $30 instead of the full price I'll be offering over the weekend. If you live in another state and would like to pre-order, I can send you your prints next week for a small shipping fee. To pre-order: look at the images here and email me the titles of the ones that you would like to purchase. I'll send you a pay-pal link with your order so you can pay remotely if you live outside of Durham-Chapel Hill. 

So, to recap:

1. Etsy shop now officially open.

2. Studio open with fun things for sale: Friday 19th 6-9, Saturday 20th 10-5, Sunday 21st 1-5.

3. Prints available--first time ever. Pre-order by Friday for discounts. 

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!

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!