Here are the pictures of my first dozen horseshoe paintings.  They are 8″ x 10″ encaustics on masonite.  I mounted them onto 11″ x 14″ chalkboard painted masonite, but cropped that part out to concentrate on the detail.

They will be for sale at Syracuse Yoga next month.  The horseshoe is a theme at the studio.  It is part of Sophie Tashkovski’s logo for the business.  Luck is sort of infused into the positive energy I felt while creating them.  And if like attracts like, then I am certain the new owners of these paintings will have their shazaam moments with these gems.  They will feel the power of the spirit in which the art was created.

I am soooo excited to share these with you.  I had friends over while painting them, which is so unlike my former hermit-ey self who needed to create in secret in order to manifest a wow moment.  I now love the feeling of camaraderie while in artist mode – the amazing vibe I got from my friends encouraging me to forge the path and complete the task of making art again.  Art with a purpose this time and that felt supremely good.

Pictures really do not do them justice.  You must experience encaustics in person.  So much beauty in the texture.  It has this quick momentum to it that justifies gesture.  The drips, the rawness of the terrain from smooth to rough and back again.  It speaks volumes.  I remember the first time I experienced a Jasper Johns painting at the MOMA.  It was love at first sight.

I did not learn how to do it until 2012 when I took a grad course at Syracuse University via hosting a student teacher at work.  As I was learning, I struggled with the concept that I was/am a professional artist creating work for a class – did that make the work student grade, as I was learning or was I intuitively just good at encaustics?

I know the answer.  We are always learning and growing as artists.  I now have pure confidence in myself and in my ability to dismiss that silly query.  I am in love with this body of work and that is not just good enough, it is everything.  It is about my hand making choices that resonate with the energy of the moment; it is the look, feel/touch and the smell of it all. The fragrance of beeswax lingers in my house.  I just love it all.  It is, like, in a word, glorious.  It just fits. <3