Seven Degrees of Separation, Part 6

Experiments, Misconceptions and Brick Walls...

     

Buffalo Spirit by LuAnn Ostergaard              Inch by Inch by Du Chau

To fit one of my window-less canvases I went back to Pinterest  to find more inspirational steals.  I selected what I thought was a painting by Lu Ann Ostergaard. I loved the way the “paint” in her work lay on the dark canvas and I wondered if I could use that element, but reverse the process having the wax flow downward, leaving some of the canvas a contrasting white.

I also selected what I thought was a paper work by Du Chau titled “Inch by Inch.”  I was intrigued with the idea of perhaps using the “ledge” I had created on my paper canvas as a shelf from which to add a kinetic element to my work.

One thing I like in the process of “stealing” is its ability to lead me to new artists and media.  I was surprised to learn that Lu Ann’s work is actually digital photography and that we share a kinship in visual inspiration.  I, too, am drawn to distressed surfaces—old fences, decaying walls, rusted metals.  While my photos are references only, she enlarges her photo collages of naturally occurring patterns and textures into fine art.  I swear I thought she was a painter!  

Du Chau is actually a pathology technical coordinator at Methodist Dallas Medical Center by day and an award winning ceramist in his off hours.  After discovering that simple fact, I knew why the many attempts to create a similar kinetic element in paper had not been working.  He was using the weight of fired clay attached to musical instrument wires!  I didn’t have enough weight with the paper nor enough flexibility with waxed threads.  Luckily I had moved on by several days from these fruitless experiments when I learned about his medium of choice.

The color I chose from my paint chip stash was a red/purple that was close to one of my favorite R&F Pigment sticks, Quinacridone Magenta.  I thought that it would work well with the Indigo that I had planned to use as the dark element.  

The painting actually came pretty easy and I was able to achieve a lovely and complex surface.  I also enjoyed moving away from my usual palette and into such rich reds and blues.  That’s when I came up to a brick wall….

The ledge needed something….  I played around with several ideas, including some generally awful ones!  It wasn't until I set the finished first piece and the almost finished second piece side by side, that I got an inkling as to what that would be.  If this were to be a series, I needed common elements, so what I needed to add was a paper “veil” or “scroll” and the element of writing.

This photo was an experiment with getting to a sense of “language” from burning tissue quality paper.  It seemed to fit, so I created the final element and #2 was down.

To see how the third painting in this series transformed these two paintings into a series with meaning and direction, read the next blog!

Seven Degrees of Separation, Part 5

Making my way by walking....

Working as I do is very much like walking in the dark.  I don’t see a clear path before me, so I find myself looking backward as I walk, checking with what it is I already know about this series:

·        I KNOW that I will be working on handmade canvases and that most of them will have windows

·        I KNOW that I want to explore the contrast of waxed paper and un-waxed paper. 

·        I KNOW that all of these canvases are to be vertical with a specific color theme (restrictions from the project).  

There are also some things that I think (and hope!) will be part of this series:

·        I THINK I will be manipulating paper in a sculptural way.

·        I THINK I will think outside the box with these windows.

·        I HOPE I find my way into cohesive meaning with this series.

This is the point in my process where I don my cloak and dagger in search of something to steal!

                         Connections 2, Wei Lin Yang            Roots Expo  Ersi Marina

In my Pinterest boards I came across two art works that somehow feel right for this first panel.  I print them off and set out to the studio.  I’ve decided that for this piece, I will cover the panel with layers of wax and oil and contrast the panel with some type of paper addition.  Both of my Pinterest steals will allow me to work in that way. 

Since this panel will need to match the Alizarin Orange color I had chosen last summer, I begin the work in cool colors.  I often use graphite to draw or write on the white paper and spritz water color or diluted inks before I apply wax.  

This is an image of the work early in the process.  I continue with marks in the wax, layers of oil, images with stencils and oil pastels until I build up a lovely surface.  

This close up of the nearly finished canvas has ten or twelve layers of wax.  I like that I can see, to varying degrees, the history of where I have been.

In a break from the encaustic process, I do some research on the artists who created the art that I have pinned on my image board in the studio. Sometimes, the research will provide clues to my next step. It surprised me that both of these artists were international and both of these images come from a body of work on “books.”  Wei Lin Yang is an award winning artist and educator from Taiwan. I discovered that the material she used in the image, titled, Connection 2, is actually fabric and that her lovely marks are created through intricate embroidery.  The second image is from Ersi Marina, an artist from Spain. Her work is lovely in its simplicity. She often using fiber arts processes with paper.  Neither artist has a website, so I am not certain which images on their sites like Flicker and Pinterest are actually their work…another good reason to have a personal web site, blog  or a page on a group site, like IEA, for your work.

I felt drawn to Wei Lin Yang’s work and asked myself, “What is the draw?”  I liked the idea of wire and a long vertical hanging piece, so those elements became my jumping off point for my own work.  I isolated a center strip, added my own calligraphic marks, wax and stitching. 

  Close up of the paper work and the paint chip which will define the color of the finished work.

At this point, I put away my inspiration images and become immersed in seeing where the art making process takes me.  I’m including images of  the finished first work in this series, but the title and even the direction of the series is not yet clear.

Front view: finished work                                                    Side view finished work

To see how the next art work built on this one in a surprising way, stay tuned!

Seven Degrees of Separation, Part 4

The Paralyzing Factor of “Preciousness”

I've often heard it said, that in order to find what is authentic, the artist has to let go of what is “precious.”  But what does that mean???   I think we each find our precious place by experience.  For some, it is the area of the canvas that was painted exactly PERFECT! ...meaning that this area of the painting will be protected at all costs.  When the rest of the “not working” parts of the painting have been reworked to death, I finally paint over the one good area and by magic, the rest of the painting begins to work.  I think my buyers would indeed be surprised at how many precious areas have been abandoned under layers of paint…or in my case, wax.

While I am familiar with that “protect and release” rhythm in my studio work, I have never actually had to wrestle with preciousness BEFORE painting.  In this series, that is exactly what happened. We were all sent these lovely, luscious cradled panels by Ampersand.  I was dying to begin work, but I couldn't figure out how to make them work.  How could I get dimension from this flat surface?  After doing some big time struggle, I realized that the canvases, themselves, became precious and had to go.  Once that realization dawned, I was free to set them aside an get to the task of creating my own canvases from handmade paper and foam…a process that I have described in my book, Wax and Paper Workshop: Techniques for Combining Encaustic Paint and Handmade Paper. 

  Step 1:  Design canvas and cut foam board

 Step 2: Wrap mulberry paper onto foam board.

                                  

Three of the completed canvases.

I began by making several canvases the same dimensions as the original Encausticbords.  I left openings or windows in order to provide opportunities for inserting three-dimensional materials later on.  For this series, I decided to use handmade mulberry paper that I purchase from Thailand through a US supplier.  I often make my own paper, especially if I want to distress it, but for this series, I didn’t want to spend the extra time and money renting paper studio space.  Besides, I was now “itching” to get working.

To see the art I “stole” and how it worked out, stay tuned.