I stopped by my art exhibit at Eye Studio today to switch out a tag. So amazing to see my work up on the walls of this new gallery space! I will post pictures soon.
Today I am sharing another encaustic exhibition and sale – I performed the switcherooney at Kimberly’s Salon and Spa in Eastwood. I took down the watercolor exhibit and replaced those paintings with hearts.
It is soooo exciting to see my encaustic heart paintings on these walls instead of cluttering up my dining room table the way they were all summer, lol. They look like they were meant for this space, perfectly matching the walls of the waiting room and the stone of the fireplace!
Eleven 6″ x 8″ paintings are available for sale in a cash and carry fashion. They are priced at $75.
Proprietor Kim MacMillan is planning a series of events for breast cancer awareness next month. There will be specials on services including mani/pedis! Call (315) 463 – 2725 for more information or to schedule an appointment, and/or visit the salon – walk-ins welcome!!! – at 2520 James Street, Syracuse, New York 13206.
On Tuesday, I gave each of my twelve Studio in Art students a valentine. I prepped 3″ x 5″ canvas panels with a few layers of beeswax. I carved in a heart stencil. I thought this would be a quick and fun way to introduce them to encaustic painting.
I took an encaustic course (graduate level) at Syracuse University in 2012 with free credits I’d earned for hosting a student teacher. Davana Robedee was my instructor. I love incorporating this relatively new-to-me media in the art classroom.
Students melted oil pastels on pancake griddles (all the windows in the room were open and the fans were on high) and went to town tackling their tiny canvases. The thing about wax is that when warm, it produces a luscious liquid color on the brush – but as soon as you remove it from the heat source, it solidifies, so…that brush stroke needs to be a quick thinking confident one – needs to count! They really loved the process. We decided to add a second day of it, which gave them time to process the process and make better decisions once they got the hang of it.
I painted 11″ x 14″ canvas panels with black acrylic paint for each of them and glued wooden plaques to the centers. Students carved into their encaustic paintings with clay tools to enhance the texture then added mixed media items to it and/or to the black frame. We brought the encaustics in for the landings with Elmer’s glue.
I am in love with the decisions they made and the fact that in three classes they all created these wonderful emotionally-charged finished products. So beautiful. I love heart energy! <3
Twelve of my Talisman series paintings are hanging in the Community Room of the Sullivan Free Library in Chittenango, NY. I installed the show yesterday and the work will be there until I go back to school in September (2016).
I love my connection to the Chittenango community and with Karen Fauls-Traynor, who pops me into the calendar every July! The Community Room can be rented out for events and so, there are always people in there. It is part of the library but is accessed through a separate door at the entrance. I heard there will be a graduation party in there today! They also have afternoon movies (free) every Wednesday at 1:00pm.
The paintings are $200 each. They are 18″ x 24″ mixed media pieces comprised of oil & collage and chalkboard paint. I created them in the summer of 2008 in a studio space on my front porch while the television in the living room played Harry Potter videos 24/7.
It is pretty fascinating how positive energy and the idea of magic can create magnificent outcomes in our lives. One of my friends told me I need to immerse myself in painting again, but I don’t feel ready to go back to that type of isolation. I would need to sell quite a bit of art to fuel that inner motivation again. That seems to go against the grain of how other artists see themselves – as though art making is a desire that surpasses all consequences of the act.
Oh well. It is what it is. The idea of someone else valuing what you do, what I do, is what I crave. My friends in Florida have several of my paintings in every room of their house. I visited them last month – I hadn’t been there in thirteen years, so seeing my presence in their home filled me with so much gratitude and love. The idea that I matter to people. I don’t know how else to explain it. I just don’t want to make a bunch of art that sits in a pile in a closet somewhere, unable to breathe or see the light of day until I am gone or something. That just seems yucky to me.
If you are interested in purchasing one of these paintings, contact me. I can sell it off the wall and replace it with another. There are twenty-four pieces in this series. And they all need homes…. <3
The Sullivan Free Library is located at 101 Falls Blvd., right off Route 5 in the village of Chittenango, NY. It was the former State Bank of Chittenango. Click the link at the top of this post for hours of operation.
After cleaning the house – vacuuming, dusting, Windex, etc., I sat back on the sofa to admire my work. You know the feeling, when the house is camera ready and you fantasize it looks good enough for the pages of an interior decorating magazine.
When you live in a small space, even though everything has a place, it will still read cluttered to a minimalist. But to me at that moment in my little corner of the world, that feeling of pride for my place filled me with a kind of home-sweet-home bliss.
I worked with this science teacher who had animal bones and carcasses, and taxidermied things all around his classroom, many dangling from the ceiling, like something out of a horror movie. I had to substitute for him once and in my mind, I could hear the screechingly haunting scream-music from the movie Psycho as I turned and locked my eyes on the individual grossness of each object.
So there I was staring at my own artwork covering literally every wall of my home and I noticed that my art is virtually littered with hearts. I didn’t realize, you know what I mean? Evidently, I am obsessed with hearts and consequently, with the idea of love in all forms. I’m in love with love. I love to love. I love things, fashion, foods, exercise, art. I love friendship, intimacy…and romance too, of course; who doesn’t? I say I love you a lot. Or I love this or that or I’m in love with stuff pretty much all the time to the point that some of my students have labelled me a creeper. And some say I love you back.
I can imagine what adults who don’t easily love would think of the overabundance of heart motif on every wall of my home. I’m like a love psycho.
Paper collage, oil paintings, encaustic….it’s really all about the heart in here!
Artists see beauty all around them. There is beauty in symmetry and in rhythm, and texture. My perception of the world is that it is a beautiful place. I’m lucky that I get paid to color all day. It might seem frivolous to people who are close-minded to aesthetics, and I have to say I feel sad for them. Because life is a lot more fun with love in your heart and with hearts all around you to remind you of it. To remind you to love. <3
