Penland Bound and New Blog

My attention has been focused lately on preparations for the eight week concentration I'm teaching at Penland School of Crafts.  Our class meets this coming Sunday, September 21, and we will work together with encaustic and mixed media until November 15.  I have set up a separate blog titled Mixing Media with Encaustic and the purpose of this blog is to provide a portal for notes, images for inspiration, design ideas, videos and pictures of our produced work.  Check it out!  The first blog post will appear on Sunday, with a new post scheduled for each weekday throughout.

Meanwhile......I've been making work in my studio, most of the work is still in progress. I have a few more panels planned to explore some stereotypical characters. I made a small pile of enameled copper disks in a metals class where we were working with watercolor enamels, and I am drawing inspiration from that work.

More to do..........Fireworks

Just a start on Calculator.

Suspicious

Triptych Installation

I recently was able to see and photograph the commissioned triptych titled Stone's Throw, which I finished this year.  What a thrill to see my work installed; there is such satisfaction when the painting process is completed by having the artwork on view. The piece looks comfortable in this space I think and happily the owners are pleased too. If you are new to my blog, you can see process blog posts which began in February of this year.

It Can Be a Rock

This new piece is part of my three work contribution to the upcoming show Concertina Interpreted, and is inspired by the poetry of Joseph Bathanti in his published book Concertina. Designed with a grid, this work continues a theme of individual identity since it has 42 similar designs, but all singular in expression. Bathanti's collection in this book are reflections on his time as a VISTA volunteer working in North Carolina prisons, and he is our most recent past North Carolina Poet Laureate.  This work is inspired by the poem Prison AA.  AA meetings are full of anonymous individuals with much in common, however each one brings his own story. My title for this piece is It Can Be a Rock. 

Blog Touring

I've been tagged! And here's the person who did it, posing as Edna St. Vincent Millay, and saying  "My candle burns at both ends...." just like Ms. Millay's!:

*Nancy Posey, an Alabama native who has lived in North Carolina since 1995, has so many interests she hardly has time to sleep.  She is an English instructor, a poet, a wife, mother, and grandmother, a photographer, and a perpetual beginner mandolin player (to name a few). She has a couple of blogs she floats in and out of for poetry, general information, and her art projects. 

Her regular blog "Discriminating Reader," however, is devoted to her lifelong love of books. Here she reviews her recent (and excessive) reading and sometimes just chats about books and reading in general.

What am I currently working on? I am a visual artist who works in both metal and painting media.  You can find information about me and the work I do at my website. This  week I'll take down the Visual Cues show of my encaustic paintings at Mica Gallery in Bakersville, and deliver newly completed jewelry to American Folk Art and Gallery in Asheville, NC.   

Going to American Folk Art and Framing, Asheville, NC

Also, I have been working on my plans for the eight week Penland Fall Concentration course I'll teach in Encaustic Mixed Media painting.  The class will explore encaustic painting and collage on a variety of surfaces, including old slate roofing tiles.  The work shown here is only just begun, but I find the contrast between the hard, aged slate and the lustrous, soft, waxy encaustic painting really nice.  

Also, I'm making work for a show scheduled in September at the Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir, NC.  Invited artists have been asked to make 2 or 3 pieces in response to the poetry of Joseph Bathanti as presented in his book Concertina.  His poetry includes many reflections on his time as a VISTA volunteer in the North Carolina prison system - his work is powerful and inspired me immediately. Based on his poem "Doughnuts" here is my visual response, titled Medallion for the Captain. This piece is made with vintage tins (the captain rolled his own using Bugler papers and Prince Albert tobacco).

 I feel the most deeply authentic when I'm making work.  I find real joy in spending time in my studio concentrating on what's happening with my hands.  The time feeds my soul and gives me the opportunity to respond to the world around me and my place in the world.  Sometimes my work is very thoughtful, but just as often, it is an overt expression which results from whimsical manipulations of materials I've selected. 

Now, I'll do the tagging and send you on to three other blogs that I've selected from the list I regularly follow. I like very much to look at work in a variety of media, and this is reflected in my selections. 

Judy Martin is a textile artist in Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.  She has several blogs; her One Hundred Quilts is a feast for the eyes.

Another textile artist is Mimi Kirchner from Boston, Massachusetts who makes wonderful dolls.  Find her beautiful blog HERE. Her precision and imagination combine to make remarkable art dolls. 

                                       

The last link is to Amy Tavern.  I have known Amy since she was a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts; she is a metalsmith who makes distinctive, minimal work. Amy seems to be on a journey to find where she belongs and what she is meant to make.  She has traveled twice now to Iceland to make work, and her recent collaboration with another artist yielded an installation involving place and memory.  She uses her blog to help her sort out her thoughts on the art she makes - she is the inspiration for me.  I want to search through the written word to define what I do. Her blog is HERE.

Transformations

Since my last post I have attended a two week session at Penland School of Crafts in the metals studio, seen my work hang at Mica Gallery in Bakersville NC, delivered a successful large commissioned work to satisfied customers, made great headway at plans for the 8 week concentration I will teach at Penland September 21 to November 14 (read more here) and become a grandmother! 

I'll provide pictures of the commissioned triptych later as it has yet to be installed.  I titled the work Stonesthrow and the work looks great in the home. I am so pleased with the results of this large undertaking, I can't wait to show you the installation view.

While at Penland the end of May and first week of June, plans for the concentration class started to really come together.  The class will have the opportunity to work in encaustic and mixed media on several surfaces, including paper, wood, bisque-fired clay and slate.  Students will make tiles or small panels in the clay studio and complete the work in the encaustic studio - something I've longed to do myself.  If you are interested in encaustic collage and mixed media work, this class promises to be something special! The eight week concentration affords instructors and students the chance to collaborate and experiment with merging materials. I have a plan for forged iron in a series of my work, and I can see the possibility of teaming with the wood studio to build assembled wood and found object supports for paintings.

I got news of my new grandmother role on my last day at Penland. I am so pleased that my son and wife have welcomed a newborn baby boy into their home and will finalize their adoption soon.  Named Wells Robert, he has already stolen our hearts.  Long awaited joy may be the very best.

I made the above piece last year without any consideration at all for a baby boy named Wells - and now it seems prophetic.  Titled Play Sleep, it now belongs to Wells. 

The Blonde and The Dunce

A lot of time has been spent on these two works and finally I feel they are both resolved.  No longer are they a diptych. because they seem to want to stand apart.  The Dunce is destined to be part of the Penland School of Crafts Annual Auction in August, and I am very honored to have been asked to donate a piece.

This week I'll be tying up loose ends in my home studio as I prepare to go to the first summer session at Penland on Sunday, May 25 as a metals student in Arlene Fisch's two week class. I have attended numerous classes at Penland, and I frequent the Metals Studio.  I recommend Penland for many reasons. It is a wonderful place with friendly and happy people everywhere, and a beautiful atmosphere with wonderful artworks in every corner. There is a spirit of cooperation and rich collaboration. Importantly, working with a new medium with strange techniques requires me to stretch into a new aspect of art-making, and I believe that serves my studio practice in a tangible way. The class this year will have me crocheting and knitting with wire - I can't wait to see where that leads me. 

The Blonde

                                         

The Blonde;  the idea of identity based on visual information continues to influence my work.  Both the dunce and the blonde are stereotypes.  

New Work in Progress

I've been working on two related pieces off and on for a while now.  Don't know where these are going or what to say about them yet. At times I think these are really awful and silly; then on occasion I'll see some future for them.  I'll just document the progress for now.  These have working titles: The Dunce and The Blonde.  More of The Blonde later.

In Richmond VA

There are so many things to love about Richmond Virginia! I remember my first visit there, arriving on the train to that beautiful downtown station with my mother and sister. There is a vibrant artist community, great university art program, an outstanding museum and great galleries.  If you are there or going, plan to visit Quirk Gallery on West Broad Street. There you will find a delightful collection of art, jewelry and gifts. These necklaces are headed that way.

Penland Fall Concentration

This piece Solitary, is encaustic, paper, oil, graphite, wire, and brads. 

I'm so happy to be teaching this fall in the Painting studio at Penland School of Crafts for the eight week concentration (September 21 through November 14).  The class Mixed Media with Encaustic will give students the opportunity to learn encaustic methods and compatible mixed media.  During the eight weeks, students will make works on paper and wood and explore a wide range of media usable with encaustic. Come enjoy Penland in the fall, we will have a blast!

Framed

I'll be busy today putting wires on these works - got them back from my friend and framer Teresa Cerda.  This series Visual Cues will be shown at Mica Gallery in Bakersville, NC from May through June.  Opening is scheduled for May 31st from 5-8 pm. 

Teresa Cerda

Below is one of Teresa's beautiful paintings.   

Metal Collage

Back to the bench for some metal work.  I approach this work as metal collage, using old tin which I cut and join with cold connections.  Here are some necklaces - I concentrate simply on design in this whimsical work. I love playing with the graphic juxtapositions! Sometimes these works appear in my etsy shop (see shop link upper right), and I also have work in some NC and VA galleries.  

Tabula Rasa

The work pictured above is complete I believe, and I'm ready to move on.  I am still interested in exploring the concept of personal identity as it relates to visual cues, and my next work will be a diptych. 

Facing the tabula rasa.

Work and Thoughts

I continue to work on these symmetrical pieces. Since the way my pieces develop is very gradual, with many layers of collage, then paint, then wax and over again; my thoughts wander.  An artist is continually making decisions in the process of making, but also I find myself thinking about what prompted me to work with these shapes - and as I work and think, my intent strengthens and an explanation emerges.  

I wanted to work symmetrically as a start, and find the ideas and uses of the Rorschach ink blots intriguing, so mimicking those shapes was my start. Personal identity has become the central concept of this work.  I'm enjoying thinking too of the BuzzFeed tests - "WHO ARE YOU?".  Something has made those tests a national addiction and they seem to be based on random choices -  such as which picture do you like best? 

Am I making work which reflects the following facts?  I'm southern, female, right-handed, and white.  Maybe.

Finished!

I think this is finished!  The final touches were oil paint and a little carving.  I was able to include some of the client's house plans - after watercolor and a bath in vinegar the wax permeated the paper well.  I'm adding a few detail images and hopefully this will be my last post on this project until the installation.  Working this large has me excited and I will do some more large scale pieces. 

 

 

More Paint

I'm using oil sticks (R&F) to further enhance the symmetrical paintings here.  Notice some of my marking tools include old kitchen and sewing tools.  Anything to make an interesting mark - (I have some favorites). 

And, I'm still hoping to use some of the building plans for my large triptych.  It's possible that staining the paper with watercolor will relax the paper fibers and make it more receptive to the wax.  Fingers crossed.

Maybe this is a good place to mention the compatibility of the paint.  I am able to use any organic based paint with the encaustic - NO synthetic paint which means no acrylic.   One of the benefits of encaustic is its versatility.  I can add wax, remove, paint, wax over paint, scrape away paint, rewax and on and on.