International Encaustic Conference 2015

Dawn in Provincetown, MA from our hotel window. I enjoyed the conference, as usual - good conversation, good information and good company. The Atlantic Ocean on 3 sides is always a treat.

Laura Moriarity led a good workshop. She made us paint, without any special effects. We were asked to think before putting brush to paper or panel. Always a good way to begin. She also helped me sort out some conflicts I was having about my Oct/Nov show at WSG.

Paul and I were traveling in his red Mustang GT convertible. That was fun :-)

January 2015 doings

It's been awhile since I've addressed this blog. Things have happened. I had a visitor to my studio in early January. We worked together for 3 days. Her name is Anouk, she is 5 years old and here is her logo:

To me, this looks like an Enso circle.

After that I went to a week long silent meditation retreat in Virginia. It was wonderful. Silence is such a gift.

In the next post I'll be back in my studio pressing forward on a new body of work.

Some small Christmas work

I haven't had much time in my studio lately. I hope that will change in mid-January. These are a few of the things I came up with for a Christmas small works show. They are each 12"x12", painted (the black and grey parts) with black gesso and Sumi ink. The color is added with encaustic. I displayed each one by putting 4 ferrous nails - one in the location of each corner - in the wall, I set the painting on top of the nails then put 4 magnets on top of the painting in the location of the nail. The magnets hold the painting up quite nicely. The nails sit out from the wall 1/2" so the paintings are floating. The magnets aren't in  these photographs.

#2

#1

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#5

#6

#10

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#17

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art retreat

our critique group, exhibit6, on retreat in Saugatuck Michigan - November 2014. Here are a few images of some of my mark making adventures. This week was  the first time I tried searching for some wax backgrounds that would look good with these marks. I had some luck but no photos yet.

studio space

studio space 2

favorite 1

favorite 2

favorite 3

The studio space was large enough for the 6 of us in the Saugatuck Center for the Arts.

Fabienne Verdier

I have a new hero. She is French artist Fabienne Verdier. Here is a sample of her work and the brush she uses.
website:  FabienneVerdier

Secret Lives of Waves Install

So, after much tooing and froing this piece was reinstalled. It is called The Secret Lives of Waves, subtitle: Tribute to Manganese. 30"h x 72"w

detail:

The subtitle because manganese will no longer be mined, I believe. Too bad. It's a beautiful blue. Every square in this piece that has color in it has a bit of manganese. The little stainless steel connectors are fabricated for me. The squares are 4" square, 1/4"d acrylic with encaustic painted on them.

Secret Lives . . .  is installed in the conference room of a commercial space in downtown Ann Arbor.

Dinner Nov 8, 2014

I went to the Pacific Rim last night with P, D and J. I had my favorites - East meets West cocktail (2 of them), market salad and Unagi Terrine. Really good food and really good company.

On my mind:
- rehanging painting tomorrow
- say yes to whatever the moment brings
- P gets last infusion Tuesday
- retreat with exhibit6

Studio life November 7, 2014

I had a rather difficult day at my studio today. I was trying to follow the lead of Blue Night but using some different substrates. Blue Night is on Rives paper. Today I tried encaustic on .004 DuraLar and .007 DuraLar. I also tried another blue on Rives. None of these gave me the satisfaction of Blue Night.

I haven't figured out how to exhibit Blue Night yet. It is merely a piece of heavy paper with wax on it but I don't really want to frame it. I'd like to attach it to the wall somehow with invisible mounting. We'll see. I have time to figure it out as I don't plan on sending Blue Night out the door until the January show at WSG.

I'm looking forward with enthusiasm to an art retreat I'm going on with 5 art friends - my critique group. We'll spend our days at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts in their studio space. We'll stay at a friends house. It will be a good concentrated time of creativity and we'll make good food in the evening. We did this last year also.

On Monday I will rehang a piece I sold to Ameritrade in downtown Ann Arbor. I had made a modification at their request but now it's done and I'll be happy to say good bye . . . again. The piece is The Secret Lives of Waves, subtitled Tribute to Manganese. I'll post the installed photo of it next week.

Mark Miller

I went to an interesting talk by Professor and jazz musician Mark Miller. It was sponsored by the Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies at the University of Michigan. It was about using meditation in jazz and how jazz can be meditation. It was inspiring for me even though I play no instruments. I'll use some of the ideas in my painting.

Question: Is this alive or is it dead?
Explore: Sense perceptions, emotions, thought, imagination
An affirmation of life with whatever is here, now
Prime directive: serve the painting

Ryoji Ikeda

I heard and saw Ryoji Ikeda's performance of "Superpostition" at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan last night. I loved it!  - especially the end of it which read rather as a finale in a fireworks show. The geometric, black and white visuals blasted the audience for a number of minutes as did the sound in a very physical way. I wore my earplugs for the whole event but that didn't stop me from hearing and feeling. Experience it if you get the chance. I will follow what this very talented Japanese artist is doing and hope to see more of his work.

Inspiration by Brian Eno

I'm reading a book that I find interesting and inspiring. It's by musician Brian Eno - "A Year with Swollen Appendices". It's a diary of his life as an artist, muscian and music producer in 1995. He's a very creative man.

Also Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt published a deck of cards that I go to when I'm stuck in my art life. Here are some samples of the ideas that release the glue -

- What wouldn't you do?
- Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do and do the last thing on the list.
- Not building a wall but making a brick.
- Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame.

The box of cards is called "Oblique Strategies".

Returning -

After a long hiatus I'm returning to my blog. I've been very active in my art life but I haven't talked about it much. I just read "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon - that's what made me decide to return to this blog.

So, to begin, this is a 40" x 40" piece of BFK Rives paper painted with encaustic. I'm trying to decide how (if) to continue working on it and then how to present it.

Blue Night, 40"x40", encaustic on paper

Rain - GFS

So - the commissioned piece I've been working on all year was installed last week. It's a permanent installation in Gordon Food Service's new building in Wyoming, MI.  Rain - GFS is 10' x 10' x 15'h and made of silver leaf on polyester film squares, fabricated steel suspenders and aluminum. There are around 10,000 squares and 10,000 suspenders. Here are a few photos -

view from below:

view from the second floor:

view from the stairway:

Sphericon - September 2012

Meet Sphericon, 3" diameter, out for a walk. Sphericon is a carved ball of wax (encaustic). It will be on display for three days (Oct 4, 5, 6) in the "little SCULPTURE Show" at the ISC Conference in Chicago.

short story recommendation

I have a short story to recommend - The Artist of the Beautiful by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It's nothing like The Scarlet Letter.

You can read it free at a number of different sites. Here is one of them -
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/nhawthorne/bl-nhaw-art.htm

more St Louis

The reason we took a 3 day trip to St Louis was to see this building -

The Pulitzer Foundation Building, Architect - Tadao Ando
- and this sculpture.

a small part of Joe - a permanent installation created by Richard Serra They were both wonderful, as was the St. Louis Arch.

St Louis Arch

I'm in St Louis to visit the Pulitzer Foundation Building designed by Tadao Ando with the associated sculpture by Richard Serra - but that is for tomorrow.

Today I was laying in the grass looking up at the St. Louis Arch. It's a beautiful sculpture. The gigantic scale of it makes it very impressive. I was surprised as I didn't expect to think much of it . . . but I did. It's very different in person than in photos.

This is the bottom of one of the bases - it's pretty large. The St. Louis Arch is a catenary arch designed by Eero Saarinen, finished in 1965.

Last comments on Art Prize 2011

I have some thank yous to post -
- Cathy and Alan Moore for a warm home and comfortable bed during the three weeks of Art Prize
- Ellen Wilt - thanks Ellen, for the beautiful working space
- Connie Cronenwett - thanks Connie, for the timely use of your paper cutter
- Klaus Wolter - thanks Klaus, for taking pity on me and making the jig
- Paul Malboeuf - thanks Paul, for food, ideas, videos, construction help, support and a million other things
- Rick DeVos for the platform that allowed Art Prize to happen
- the people of Grand Rapids for their warmth and understanding of Rain

MLive Art Prize do over? Here's the link

My two favorite videos of Rain:

This one by Paul Malboeuf on YouTube

And this one by Dustin Dwyer on YouTube

"Rain - Art Prize" update Sept. 10, 2011

Finally! Two days to go until we install "Rain" in Grand Rapids. Almost all the work is done. The 2' square modules are packed up in 5 boxes and the super structure is sitting ready to be transported.

There is a little video of another step in the process but I'm waaaaay beyond that now.

I'll post images of the installation next week, when it's DONE!

Art Prize doesn't open to the public until September 21

Art Prize - on to Silver Leaf

I finished bending the 7600 aluminum wire suspenders on July 4. Now it's on to the silver leaf. This is for Art Prize in Grand Rapids, MI, Sept 21 - Oct 9, 2011.

I have adhered most of the silver leaf to polyester film but have a few sheets of pf to be beautified yet. Here are a few photos of the silver leaf on polyester film before I seal it and cut it into 2.5" squares. It's beautiful this way - makes me want to leave it uncut.