This Friday

I am excited to have my studio be a part of the West Chester Gallery Walk this Friday!

I hope to see you there!

        ( Photograph by Beth Roland )

Friday, October 2, 5pm-9pm

My studio address:

28 north new street

West Chester, pa

Please join me for wine and snacks while viewing my latest work in the crazy place where they were created.

I will be doing encaustic demos throughout the evening. 

This event is free, open to the public and family friendly.

For more info about other stops on the gallery walk, visit:

http://www.downtownwestchester.com/view_program.php?id=329

Things that inspire...

Here are some photographs I have taken recently that will surely be inspiring my current body of work...

(All images copyright EBCBrown,LLC'15)

    Sunset from my doorstep.

    Refinery off of rt.95.

    door on Camac St.

    Very old wisteria vines at the 

    Philadelphia sketch club

    The view through a breezeway at dusk

    In West Chester.

    Elephant ear leaf on our steps.

Stress- the anti muse...

While in the studio tonight, there are a lot of things whirling around in my head outside of the day to day motherhood/ household/husband/ garden/ bartender worries.

Tonight I'm researching artist grants, thinking about a new (somewhat daring) series I'm about to start, getting ready to open a "shop" on etsy, wondering who I talk to about my student debt problems, shopping online art supplies sales, making a self imposed deadline for myself with my photographer and contemplating seeking funding for an artistic pilgrimage of sorts.

And of course these paintings that I'm trying to work on right here and now. 

(Deep breaths)

I've saved up way too much to think about tonight. For now I'm going to write down that list and put it out of site. I need to paint tonight and this stress does not inspire.

For the next couple of hours, when I feel the need to pick up my phone and further stress myself out, i'm going to look at this image instead....

"The Monk By The Sea"

By, Casper David Friedrich

A favorite one of mine.

Ode No.2

I'm excited that my piece, "Ode No.2" was accepted into the "Absolutely Abstract" exhibition at The Philadelphia Sketch Club.

This is the oldest continuing artists organization in the country. Read more about it's history here:

http://sketchclub.org/sample-page/history

The reception is Sunday, August 30th 2-4pm

Exhibition runs: August 26th-September 19th

Roots

I am excited that some of my reliquaries will be on display in the "Roots" exhibition at the Franklin Commons Gallery in Pheonixville, PA.

I was asked to write something about my pieces in relation to the exhibition. 

My words:

This series is a set of my own personal reliquaries. These paintings contain objects that i have gathered over the years. While they might seem unimportant, they have become cherished objects to me because they represent an important experience in my life. Often these objects also reference the history of my family or ideas from different cultures that inspire me. I created a painting in response to each object and tried to express the reason for my attachment to it.  As with most of my work, while I might have a very personal meaning for the paintings, I try to keep them open so that each viewer might be able to form their own connection to them.

The pieces included-

    

"Reliquary No.1"

http://www.ebcbrown.com/gallery/reliquary-no-1-2/

"Reliquary No.2"

http://www.ebcbrown.com/gallery/reliquary-no-2-2/

"Reliquary No.4"

http://www.ebcbrown.com/gallery/reliquary-no-4-2/

Surprise

This spring my daughter and I planted 4 watermelon seeds in the corner of our small yard. (She absolutely loves watermelons.) Expecting nothing to come of it, we were delighted when 6 watermelon seedlings popped up. We weren't sure how they became 6, but we were delighted none the less. They became massive plants and have grown over the fence and threatened to dominate the whole yard. We had our first signs of fruit a few weeks ago and I finally have to resign myself to the fact that these are not watermelon plants. The fruit was instead giant decorative gourds and Mimi pumpkins. Arg. The small gourd and mini pumpkin we tossed over in that corner last winter have won the yard.

Gone our my ideas of giving away all the extra watermelons and trying my hand at watermelon jelly.

So what do you do when life gives you an abundance of inedible gourds? Maybe we'll try to make art out of it? Just out of curiosity, I googled gourd art and was amazed by what came up. I'll let you know how they turn out, if I try it or maybe I'll just be amassing a large amount of autumn decorations.

http://www.gourdfestival.com

Prodigal child

12 years ago in art school, I created this piece, "Intervention". (Encaustic, oil and paper on canvas),

It was the last piece I made before moving into full abstraction, one of my first pieces experimenting in wax and by far (with the exception of murals) the largest piece I've ever done. 

At 72"x78", this piece dominates much needed space in my studio and is bigger than I can fit into my storage unit.

For many years a wonderful friend was willing to house it for me and look after it. Just recently I received the call that it needed to come "home".  So now it is in my studio.

What do you do with a painting that is an incumberance of creative space but possibility significant in the legacy of your body of work?

Incongruent with any of my current work but a part of the story on how you got there?

Honestly, I was overjoyed to see it again, but space continues to be the issue.

I've yet to figure it out, but I know I'd like to keep it as close as I can...