Seamus- never forget your roots

Seamus has so many facets to his personality. He has a mystique that is hard to capture. I would love to attach a camera to him so I couls see where his adventures take him. He may not be the most friendly or empathetic cat I've owned, but he's definitely the most dynamic. 

Seamus the Prodigal Cat Returns

My cat Seamus was feral when we adopted him. We tried to make him an indoor cat but he was clearly miserable. With reservations, we allowed him to keep his own indoor/outdoor schedule. Once he became king of the block, we got used to not seeing him as much. Every few days he would come home for a bite and maybe rest a few hours before going back to his life. We imagined he had an apartment somewhere, and maybe another family or two to check in with. We might see him around the neighborhood while walking our dog and he would always say hi. 

As he grew older, Seamus seemed to show signs of wanting to settle down as a house cat at but he didn't know how. We tried to cuddle him but he would scratch. My brother came to visit and sent some time working with Seamus on his issues. Seamus drastically changed his personality once he found some understanding in David. He began sleeping inside and hanging out closer to home. He even let us pet him some and would snuggle a bit. It had been over a year of life with the new Seamus when he disappeared again. After four days we were pretty worried, though the old Seamus had frequently disappeared for longer. I was resigned to go the next day to the pound to look for him, when I heard his squeak at the backdroor. He was home! And pretty dirty. It seems he missed his feral life.

Transfer experimentation

I'm starting a series of small encaustic paintings referencing the collage work I've been doing in my sketchbook lately. I like using found imagery because of the response it evokes. 

In the painting below, the found imagery is more of another textured layer in an abstract background. The grid with superimposed architectural geometry-this painting is still waiting for its narrative.

Here is one recently completed. 

A transfer of space that also awaits a narrative.

Drawing challenge discoveries

I've been doing a drawing every day starting at he beginning of 2014. It's a challenge I set for myself to invite new directions into my work. The drawings started as line drawings of things in my house or surroundings. Slowly I began adding collage elements and working with ink or gesso. The challenge has been really important to me daily. Coming to my sketchbook is such a reward. Sketchbook art is more spontaneous and free. It's a no judgement zone. Now my challenge is carrying over this feeling into my encaustic paintings. 

Encaustic is the perfect medium for collage because it seals the paper and preserves it. However in the painting above that I'm working on, I chose to do a photocopy transfer of the image. This means that the ink on the photocopy transfers onto the wax and there is no paper, lending to a smoother surface and a translucent image. 

This one is another I'm working on. It's inspired by the sea collages and imagery that appears in some of the drawings. 

Wether I have lots of time to draw or just a few minutes, it's been great to express myself everyday on paper, and I feel like I am building a new visual vocabulary that I can draw fromin my new work. 

Larks, Starlings, and Red Wing Blackbirds.

I am preparing for my upcoming show at the Museum of natural history with Keith. My idea for the show is to do some paintings of my favorite birds. I am painting them fairly realistically. Their environments are more abstracted, allowing me to play with colors, mark making, and pattern. The background in the piece above is painted in oils, I will paint the bird in encaustic, as soon as I figure out which bird to put.

I am still working on this flycatcher- the first few layers are oil and now I'm painting the rest in encaustic.

The cedar waxwing has such a striking look I was inspired to make it into a repeat pattern. This was all done in oils, and will add finishing details in encaustic. 

Working on a red wing blackbird family and a horned lark. 

These are starlings. This one is done. Almost all the background is oils, and the birds and tree are encaustic. This painting has a lot of layers, and a depth that is hard to capture in a photo. This body of work has been a great culmination of many interests for me. Combining oils and encaustics has been really fun, and creating these energetic spaces for the birds to live. The show will open in March.

All is One.

Progress is being made, slowly. First I painted the spontaneous images with oils, and have layered the first encaustic layer. So far just clear, but yellow lines are inlaid yellow wax (on the moth). Thinking of transformative powers in nature and in the mind. I envision many more layers happening somewhat spontaneously. I'm trying to join human images with natural ones because all living things are one. 

 Here are some others that are in transition at various stages.

Owls are archetypes of wisdom and visionaries of night. I like to use them for vehicles of experimentation in color and texture. Here is a rainbow owl coming together and behind it a cloud owl?

We'll see! 

Day of the Dead

 This is an excerpt from a painting recently completed for a day of the dead art show.  The show opens at Designbox next month.  I'm excited to see everyone's take on the subject- lots of artists are included in this show.  Love how this holiday is a celebration of life at the same time as honoring the deceased. Also have been collecting images of this subject for study.

 This is a new one I've just started, on the larger side for encaustic work for me.  I started this one by gluing in a drawing I had done in 2006.  Now I'm working on the sky.  I have a feeling this will become another ghost house.

 It's funny how the paintings seem to group themselves- based on where I've randomly placed them. On the left is one I have had in my head for a while.  I'm utilizing some screenprinting for this one.  It has to do with balance in nature.  And on the right- I am so excited to be doing an octopus painting! It's so much fun.  This is almost done and will be ready for my aquatic themed show with Keith in Elizabeth City.

 The aquatic paintings have also become a place for me to play with layers and texture.

 Here are two  that may never be finished, they have been in the works for so long.  They are snails.  Every once and a while I see something that needs doing.

Here's two that go together thematically.  Both of the Subjects share some headspace with a hidden or ghost subject.  The idea that you sometimes can't take full credit for everything you do, good or bad.  

Aqueous

 Here's a grouping of work I am making for an upcoming show I have with Keith in Elizabeth City. We decided to do a water/fish theme for the show. Some of these are finished, some are not.

 Here is my working area.  Lots of wax tools and detritus. I've been using these water paintings as a vehicle to explore what I can do with the wax.  In the painting to the left, I'm working over top of a very smooth, flowing background and building up some layered imagery.  Partially inspired by Haeckel's work.

 The larger painting is oceanic.  I'm really happy with the way it looks and now hesitant adding imagery. I'm just waiting for the right idea so as not to mess it up! It's very smooth and flowing. The smaller one has passed through several incarnations since this photo was taken. I have built up lots of color layers and done lots of scraping back to reveal the previous layers.

See top photo for a more completed version of this painting. I am using incised linework on the sea plants and jellyfish.  The fish's linework was done by carving. I painted the whole fish orange, then painted it blue. I carved through the blue to get the orange line. 

Yellow Summer

 Here are two paintings that are along the same lines.  Both I started with oil paints and then painted encaustic over. I was starting to think my thoughts and intentions were like birds springing forth from my mind.  I have enjoyed playing with layers lately as ever.  With two completely different scenes intersecting, which one is the reality?

 I enjoy working with translucency because it allows for hidden images.  I have enjoyed using my new tools in this piece (pictured below).  The burnishing tool has allowed me to press the edges of the rice paper drawing smooth with the surface of the painting, obscuring the edge helps to disguise that there is paper there.  I used some of the carving tools to shape the leaves and also to flatten and scrape the surface after I incised the lines that make the stems of the plants.  I am loving my new tools!!

This is an oil painting that is in the works.  I feel like it has been influenced by my work with encaustics, with the linework and floating layers.  The color yellow has made it's appearance in my paintings this summer probably more than ever.  I call it my yellow summer. 

 Here is a sneak peek at the tiles I'm working on for the Healing Ceilings project. They will be installed at a cancer center on the ceiling so that people can look at them while receiving chemo.  I was honored to be picked for this project, as I have a firm belief in the healing powers of art, color and positive energy.

My new tools!  The tacking iron isn't new, I tried it a long time ago and didn't like it, but have brought it out for another try.  It works for smoothing out fabric in wax and adhering it to a mixed media piece.  the boxy thing is my temperature regulator. The woodburning tools get too hot for the paint and must be carefully regulated.  The tan one is a burnishing tool, helps to smooth painted surfaces or create texture in wax.  The green one has several different tips, the one you see on it now is the one I used on the painting below.  It helped me achieve a subtle color transition for painting a face with wax.  It also can be used to gouge into the wax and create texture.  It has a paintbrush attachment that heats up and helps move around the wax colors after they are applied to the surface. The black carving tools can do lots of things, smooth the surface of the painting, scrape incised lines or refine the edges of a shape.  They can be heated by pressing them to the hot palette.  

Lastly, here is my butterfly themed grouping of work over at Designbox!  

An Introvert's Inner World

 These are the paintings I am just now finishing.  I have been thinking a lot about introverts because I'm raising one, and am one myself.  The world inside is so vast and rich, but can't be seen by everyone.  One must be to be worthy to be let in that door.

 These paintings are mixed media= oil and encaustic.  I've been doing the background and the portraits in oils and the interior painted symbolism with encaustic.

My favorite thing about painting this way is the transparency and layers. Lends itself to work of a psychological/ meditative nature.

New series inspired in part by books.

                                            Coalesce

                                          Entwine

Returning to the Source

The 3 paintings above are finished examples of the new series of paintings I've been working on. It all started about 6 months ago.  I wanted to exploit my favorite things about using oil paints, and encaustics, and do it in the same piece.  The way these two mediums look so different intrigued me and I wanted to build them one layer over the other.  First with oils I build up the background colors.  I mix cold wax medium into the oil paints which thins them out and gives them a translucent buttery consistency.  After painting one layer of color, I use sandpaper and turpentine to lighten areas and remove some paint, then add the next layer.  This background process takes time because each layer needs to dry before it can be manipulated and painted on, and that can take a few days.  I've been wanting to do some figurative work with oils, mainly to express some characters from books that I love and also hybridized real life characters.  I want these paintings to be very peaceful and poetic but also philosophical.  It can take a while to paint the person just right, and then to figure out what else belongs in the painting to express the emotions there.  The best thing for me has been taking my time with this process and waiting until the paintings speak to me.  I find life to be layered and enigmatic and I'm trying to express this.  I want  to build translucent layers of imagery, as well as add mixed media elements to my work. The goal is to create a layered surface to emphasize dimensionality. This technique lends itself to work concerning the imagined realm.

 This one above is one that I have just finished.  She reminds me of a character from one of the Russian novels that I've been enjoying lately.  The whole thing is painted with oils except the green lines encircling her and the birds, incised encaustic line.

 Here are some new new ones with mostly only one layer.  Stay tuned to see what happens with these!

A close up of a painting with a couple layers of background paint.  

Draw, Draw, Draw!

Sketchbooks organize image chaos by making it sequential and binding it together.  I have complete freedom to make no sense whatsoever in these books I created while at Penland this past summer.   Some use drawing as  tool to help plan compositions for more ambitious work.  I do the opposite, I tend to see it as a way to unplan for my paintings.  Imagination needs freedom without pressure to conform to a plan.  

Duality.

Duality is '... a single conceptual unit that is formed by two inseparable and mutually constitutive elements whose inherent tensions and complementarity give the concept richness and dynamism' (Wenger 1998, p. 66).

 I had finished the piece on the left as part of the Magic Strata series I collaborated on with Alison Overton.  It's kind of an enchanted forest at night painting. The one on the right I'm still working on.  It's more of a day painting.

 Two more unfinished ones, part of my castle series. It seems like the breeze in the painting on the right is blowing into the painting on the left. Maybe a continuity there. I'm still waiting on my next installment of ideas to finish these two.

 Sketchbook paintings.  I'm enjoying working in the books I made at Penland.

 It's super relaxing to just let my mind go a bit in these books.  There's a sense of freedom in there.

 New paints, new paints.  I love all these colors together.

 Two new encaustic backgrounds...

Penland!!!

 Penland is like a magical fairytale land for any artist.  Beautiful enchanted surroundings and resources to create.  The best part is yoga twice a day and delicious food at every meal so you don't have to think about what you'll eat.  People are great there, I made such lovely friends and had such a great time.

 I found myself not sleeping a whole lot, and not missing my sleep.  There is an energy there.  Everything seems to sparkle, maybe its because of the mica.  Everything is so lush and beautiful and it doesn't get hot and muggy in the mountains or at least it didn't while I was there.

 It was amazing that there was nothing to do but focus on creating for two whole weeks.  No distractions, no tvs!  It was a much needed break for me.  As much as I missed my family and little one I appreciated the time I had to do my own thing.  I must thank the United Arts Council that gave me the grant to make this trip possible.

 Here are some of the books I made while there.  They have "signature covers" or colorful papers that cover and protect each section of white paper. I used super nice paper and loved the effect of putting a book together with the torn edges and having the variation of edges of paper.

 You have to do a lot of measurements to make a book.  Measuring and right angles are usually not my thing, but I found with the right tools and a large workspace anything is possible.  So I learned to care about numbers a little.  These are all sketchbooks that I'll fill with drawings and watercolors and glue things in.  Homes for ideas to live in.

 This one is for our studio, for people to write comments in.

 I used masking fluid and gouache to paint this plaid pattern.

 Watercolor is so relaxing to do....

 Beautiful NC mountains.  I miss you already.

 Here's one I made for my friend and fellow artist Lisa who I visited in Asheville.

 These are all coptic bindings.  I learned other binding styles but this is my favorite.  I love how the spine looks all naked.

It's between me and my muse.

“On that night the sky laid bare its internal construction in many sections which, like anatomical exhibits, showed the spirals and whorls of light, the pale-green solids of darkness, the plasma of space, the tissue of dreams… 

— Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles

I  was talking with a fellow artist about are most frequently asked question- "Where do you get your ideas/inspiration?"  We were laughing about different ways to blow off this very difficult question.  "I can't reveal that information for fear of damaging the fragile relationship between me and my muse."

The truth is to fully answer this is impossible.  To even try I would have to get somewhat metaphysical.   I will suffice to say that I try to keep an open mind, inspiration somedays bursts from everything I see, weeds, burnt out buildings,  dirt, trees.  Somedays it's better just not to try to paint.  Some days I can resolve multiple ideas.  Other ideas take a while on the back burner.  The mermaid oil painting is on the back burner at this point.  It's almost done, just a hair away, but needs something that I can't come up with just yet.  My interests and direction are in wax right now and I'm not worried because there's nothing I can do.  My muse would never steer me wrong.  

An overlay on these two faces.  More plants, bugs, jewels?  

I can't talk about this one too much, it's a secret painting that won't be revealed until November.  Suffice to say I'm having so much fun with the wax here.  This painting has a long history and is finally coming into its own.

Here's one that I am done with now, a meditative piece.

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.

-George Santayama

I've been working on this painting incrementally with oils.  I got some comments that the figure in the foreground looks like me, so I changed it, I'm not trying to make a self portrait.  She's holding a shell that I found in Ireland.  Standing at the edge of her world looking out.  

These two represent the series of four that I'm working on.  I am doing buildings on transparent paper to show the oil painting once sealed on with wax.  The faces and backgrounds are painted with oil using a lot of cold wax medium.  Then sealed with clear encaustic wax and clouded by a building drawing.  Old structures with souls.  

 While I have been painting, my little artist has been busy with inks, acryilcs, watercolors, water soluble crayons and colored pencils.

Homages

 These are all ideas I've had for this painting kind of spontaneously this weekend. The cat's dark house.  Mystery and alchemy.

 I've been looking a lot at Russian painted facades.  I love the detail.  This house is walled from the sea, as in my previous painting.

 A mermaid in the ocean.

 She holds a seashell.

 Ever faithful and stoic companion.  Sees all, knows all and is silent.

 Homage to the blues.  Inspired by Mississippi John Hurt.

Homage to Van Gogh.

Turbulence and calm

The latest oil painting I am working on started as just colors.  The top picture was taken just as the imagery began to emerge from the abstraction. Then I changed the composition and changed the dog. Just trying to stay loose with this one.  I'll put in a swimmer in the ocean eventually.  After painting the last cityscape- Bee City, I have wanted to work more with painting water.  Not sure what I'll put at the top of the hill yet, maybe a statue.  I love working with the combination of orange and blue in the water.

 

This is a series of four paintings I am working on in panel.  They are all oil right now but I am planning to do the next phase in encaustic.  I find that I like painting faces better in oils right now.  The subject seems to be serenity, meditation, communing with nature, and inner worlds.  I did lots of thin washes with oils to get the effects.  The birds pulling strands of hair and hat are symbolism.  They could symbolize a thought or group of thoughts that tugs the brain.   

Faces.

I am almost almost done with this painting.  I am obsessing over faces now.  And other details.  I seem to be dragging out the  process because I don't want it to end- painting this has been so much fun.  To me, a face needs to show individuality and emotion, even if painted really tiny.  That's why I've done and redone these people, painted over and over their faces  five or more times.  I want them to look like people I might know even if they aren't portraits.  That, and making sure everyone's eyes nose and mouth are done convincingly.  Also even at this stage background colors change.  I am never afraid to mess up what I have already painted if it isn't right.  Luckily I haven't had to do anything huge to this one, just trying to get enough different shades of green and create contrast where I need it.  Good contrast with background colors is how small narrative details show and are noticed.  Details need details too. Branches need highlights and leaves too.  I like my trees quirky and Suess-ian.  Those have taken a long time and are almost finished.  Also, I need more birds on the line!!!

On a side note I have been taking a bookmaking class at Pullen Art Center to learn the coptic stitch. Here are the results of my efforts.  I won a grant to go to Penland this summer to study bookmaking.  My interest in books goes way back.  In art school my sketchbook was a private haven, a world unto myself that was never critiqued and never due.  I created these massive intense books with collage and drawings.  They would go everywhere I went and I was drawing constantly.  

There has always been a thread of narrative in  my work and I also want to explore that.  I'm not sure where the bookmaking interest will take me but it's something I've always wanted to learn.  

Almost Done!

It's easy to obsess over small details.  I love the idea of each section being its own "mini painting".  I try to made sure everything has been considered, wether I've chosen to refine it or leave it loose.  I'm in the process now of adding some flourishes to this one to give it a unique flavor.  My clients have inspired me with stories and objects they find meaning in.  I love to include details that will give them a closer connection with their painting.  When doing a commission, I consider that the client will spend lots of time with this painting for years to come.  That's kind of heavy if you think about it too hard, the bottom line is they've trusted me to give the painting life.  I appreciate that.  Anyway, some would call this the tedious stage of the painting.  It's a bit more tiring to do focus on the micro.  At the end of the day though, the micro doesn't matter if the macro doesn't work.  I have to remember that and edit.  Also from time to time I have to take a break, it gets so wet that it smears because I tend to rest my hand on it while painting with the tiny brush.  I'm really excited about this one, and I'd say now it's 90% done.