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.