Workshops

I have a small studio in my home dedicated to encaustic and mixed media work - a messy space where spilling wax is allowed. No carpet on the floors to worry about, plenty of light with a back door that opens to the mesquite tree and a flower garden where I often watch hummingbirds at the feeder.

I find great joy and satisfaction in teaching workshops in encaustic here. The class size is kept to 4 maximum due to space and electricity and I find that this class size allows for an intimate exchange of instruction, creative work time and personal attention and interaction. A recent workshop I held included local accomplished artists from the area; a photographer, water colorist, oil painter, and pastel artist all together in a in my studio. Its exciting when we all realize that working in the same medium with the same color palette, the finished results are all so individual and completely different from each other. The Bisbee group was excited enough about encaustics that they spoke of creating their own encaustic studio spaces. Now THAT is inspiring.

info on workshops exPRESSive Arts Studio

Unchartered Territories

My work was recently exhibited at The Drawing Studio in Tucson in a show called "Unchartered Territories" which was supposed to challenge the artist to step out of their boundaries whether in medium, structure or content. The 2 pieces I exhibited, "Another Birthday Celebration" and "Secret & Sacred Spaces" were mixed media and encaustic which included paper, wine corks, twigs, wire mesh, & ceramic. These were some of my attempts in moving from 2d to 3d work.

"Another Birthday Celebration"

"Secret & Sacred Places"

little treasures

Easter Sunday 2009 - a beautiful day in Southeastern Arizona - blue skies and sunshine, a gentle breeze. Decided to take a walk down to the monastery and enjoy this beautiful day. The Holy Trinity Monastery is about a mile or so down highway 80 from my home.



In lieu of traditional Easter celebrations where I have always hosted the family dinner, now living alone and far from my children, I figured spending a little time at the monastery seemed like an appropriate way to spend Easter.

The trees are all in bloom this time of year and my favorite tree in town is this giant cottonwood. It reminds me of the cottonwood that Georgia O'Keefe often painted with its twisty curvy branches. I definitely have to paint this tree.

During my walks I am often on the look out for little treasures and today was no exception. At the side of the road I found a dead but fully intact butterfly and carried him with me to the monastery and home with a little damage due to the wind and the sweat of my hand. I also found these wonderful gourds on a vine I had passed.

Of course I stopped to visit with my neighbors on the way home.

Happy Easter my friends.

Fear and the Creative Genius

For years I have struggled with the my true passion of needing to create art while also trying to make a living and be the responsible grown up because being an "artist" certainly isn't responsible in a culture that values financial and material wealth as true success. The reputation of the artistic creative type doesn't seem to hold the same value in our corporate American society as other professions and artists are often considered to be lazy or mentally unstable. I received an email from a dear friend with a link to this video the other day. Elizabeth Gilbert, a very talented author and speaker discusses the "Creative Genius" and it struck me as being so timely and powerful, I needed to hear this NOW. Listening to her speak was like a gift for me. It was so relevant for me that I had to share it with all of you.

Elizabeth's personal experience of now having to live up to her own great success as a writer and how the fear of success or failure about one's work is assumed if one is a creative type. Her statement, "should anybody be expected to be afraid of the work they feel they were put on this earth to do" validates my own knowing that this is what I was put on this earth to do and whether or not I experience the "genius" or "daemons" in my artistic endeavors, I will continue to show up and do my job of creating my art. Thank you for that, Elizabeth.

Please take the time to enjoy this video as Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses:

Encaustic Group Show in Tucson

Our encaustic group, Tucson Encaustic Artists had an opening reception at Details Art & Design last night in Tucson. We had a great turnout and I was very pleased with the presentation of our work. The 10 member group presented a wide variety of work including encaustic monotype, photo transfer, 3 dimensional and sculpted pieces representing the versatility of working in encaustic. I had my encaustic monotype sell and leave the gallery before I arrived. Yippie! The lesson on that one though is to photograph your work before framing and making available for sale.

Artistic Integrity

For the last week I have been working on an ecaustic painting that includes a photograph of my son and daughter in law for their upcoming wedding gift. For the last 3 days I added, then scraped, walked away, went back, changed palette, added some more, added some more, and kept finding it was never right and probably would never be right by the time I had to pack it into my suitcase and head for Seattle. In fact, I don't even like the painting because it is so not me - I don't do hearts or cutesy, but that's what it ended up being.

detail of encaustic painting

If I don't like the painting, am I compromising my artistic integrity by then accepting it as is and giving as a gift?

I decided that they would like it, or at least appreciate the thought/effort as opposed to a purchase from the Target gift list, which I just couldn't bring myself to do seeing that I was "the artist" .

I also decided that I liked parts of the painting, the way the copper colored oil pastel melted over the wax, the way the titanium white oil paint breaks with direct heat from the heat gun, and so I learned something in the process - what I liked and what I didn't like, what works and what doesn't - for me at least. And I learned that I need to make my art based on what I like, letting a true creative process come from me and not compromise myself for what others may want or what I think they may want. Be true to oneself.

Getting Started or Starting From Scratch

A new home and life in Arizona and a new direction with my art has inspired me to get started or start from scratch with this new blog. When we take a break from our art or are lacking inspiration, its best to just "get started" or even "start from scratch" throwing out our previous expectations about our work and even the direction of our lives. So with a new direction and expectations, here I will update my artistic journeys with "Little Art Notes".

The new direction started when I moved to southeastern Arizona outside of Tucson in October 2008 and my palette obviously changed by the influence of my new environment. I continue to make landscapes, mostly in encaustic but now after a workshop with Paula Roland out of Santa Fe who visited Tucson last month, I am combining my love of printmaking with my passion for encaustic by working in "Encaustic Monotypes" on paper. More to follow.