Fortune

This evening I had the nagging feeling like I should really get to work in the studio.  This was despite taking care of my flu stricken 3 year old daughter all day, with a restless night sure to follow. 

Any excuse was put to shame when I naively opened my fortune cookie from earlier in the night...

While I have several commissions coming up in the near future, nothing is officially being "waited for" at the moment. Regardless, the tone of the those words set me hard at work on my ongoing series.

Speaking of which, here is an image of one of my 4 "Odes" in progress. I'm sure it will look quite a bit different in it's final form. I'm also working on the next 2 reliquaries and a few small pieces. Just in case anybody is waiting for any of these things...

;)

Open studio

A couple of weeks ago my studio was a part of the Chester county open studio tour. I have taken part in this event for the past 5 years. It's an event that I very much look forward to and work hard in anticipation of. This year did not dissapoint!

I had a great turn out, a positive response to my work and a good ammount of sales. I was very pleased and grateful. If you were among those who came by- thank you!!!

There is something very special about having people interact with my work in the space where it was created. 

Since then, I've been working hard at tackling the not so fun to-do's besides just creating my work. Once I finally finish my taxes (having gotten an extension) in the next couple of days, I will gladly be back hard at work in the studio. There is a series that I've been dying to start for almost a year now... I've been amassing the materials and I am finally going to let myself work on it. Stay tuned for the Reliquary series. 

Emerge 1,2,3

I am very process oriented in my painting. I love  to see the affects nature has on man made objects...

Over the winter I worked on several challenging commission projects. One in particular was very daunting to me. In the effort to do something more light hearted, one evening I took several wooden panels and turned them upside down from how I would normally work on them. I poured in different mixtures of acrylic and enamel paints that I had left over from mural projects. 

Then I set them outside in our small yard, where they weathered our very snowy and icy winter. Freezing and thawing again and again...

After the last big storm I brought them back into the studio and when the warm spring sun came I put them out to aid in their drying. When they finally dryed, I sealed them thoroughly and worked into them tentatively with acrylic paint. Not all of them were a success, but there are three that I'm pleased with- "Emerge 1,2 and 3".

Something that is not evident in the straight on shot of them is the residue around the inside rim of the frame- where you can make out the level that the paint reached before it dried and the water evaporated. 

While these paintings might be quite different from my normal work, they were a much needed playful experiment. During the process of their evolution, they were an exciting reminder of the fun of art while I was working very hard on tougher projects in the studio.

In the middle

There can seem to be no cure for the ache

questions

pressure

the desire to do more, better

the hope that maybe someday it won't be so hard...

There is no definite end

Or known exoneration date of the drive

The call...

The only thing seemingly close to a cure is to act

to create

to pray

to give your best

and sometimes just to make due.

To keep going

And choose to enjoy the journey.

Renewal under foot

I get kind of lost when I paint- usually in maddening circles spread over several panels. I build up the paint/wax and scrape down to reveal what is underneath. This is a beautiful aspect of my preferred medium, encaustic. 

A not so nice by product of this process is that my studio floor becomes thick and sticky. Where I do the majority of my work becomes a 6" hill and I am constantly tracking debris into the hallway/common area. 

Tonight I took on the task  prying up half of my small studio's flooring and replacing them with gleaming new rubberized drop cloths. 

It is not easy work, but the end result is reinvigorating! Thank God for my understanding landlord. I'm sure it will be quite an undertaking when I relocate some day.

Artists in their studio 2

I am fascinated by photographs of artists in their studios. Especially icons of modern art.

In general I am not a very big fan of minimalist art or the geometric abstraction genre.

However, seeing this image of an icon of both of those genres hard at work has endeared him and his work to me anew...

Frank Stella working in his studio, 1967

         "Quathlamba" by, Frank Stella

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Fahne_Hoch!_(Frank_Stella)