Encaustic....ooooooo so nice

3 x 4ft

encaustic wax

ink

oil stick

rusted wire

a moment

within a moment

texture

transparency

dimension

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This is oooooo so nice...

Glorious TED talks, Pancakes & Encaustic Wax

I began my rainy PACNW Sunday morning

with TED talks and coffee in bed.

Once my brain was super-charged with

knowledge and ambition...

I made my people pancakes.

I spent time in the studio.

I experimented...

with pigment, oil paint, encaustic wax...

and my deserted

printmaking tools.

I brought my work-in-process out into the natural light...

even though it will

never

ever

live in that space.

This allowed me to walk around the piece,

walk up to the piece,

view it from a distance...

and from an angle.

Carving with this much detail is a new thing for me.

I think I'll do a figurative composition next.

A self portrait maybe.

I have plans and big ideas.

I experimented all day,

and...

roasted brussel sprouts 

edited wedding photos

cleaned the refrigerator

did laundry

and the dishes.

It was glorious.

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She... is one of my favorites...

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Summer Feet + Many Summer Things = ...

To see the summer sky 
is poetry, 

though never in a book it lie

—
true poems flee—


Emily Dickinson, c.1879

My summer...

I have spent many hours 

sitting 

in this front porch turquoise chair...

sometimes sketching van Gogh in thirty minutes or less.

[marker, sharpie, oil sticks & mineral spirits, q-tips]

I gave it the title, 

Someone stole her beer so now she's even more depressed.

The sun

sneaks in.

An evening stroll down the hill.

August leaf drop.

Visitors.

Invaluable time spent.

Handstands with friends.

Summer in the city.

Riding the MAX.

Interesting compositions.

Cycling in the Columbia Gorge,

this has to be the greenest place on earth.

Bridge of the Gods.

A light summer shower = slippery cycling on the bridge.

Secret spots in the forest...

where I do quiet things...

things that soothe my temperament...

things that allow my breath to

replenish...

things like this.

Sailboat summer

breakfast.

Sailing + Dawn = a new relationship, lots to learn.

Gorge paddling on the Columbia River.

City kayaking on the Columbia River.

Ya know...

Now that I have all this listed I realized...

this is a typical summer week.

Once the rain sets in in autumn...

I will retreat indoors...

sorta.

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A donation for Vashon Allied Arts on Vashon Island, WA.

Autumn = time to get back to making art.

[but that's not quite here yet]

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Vashon • Art • And Myself

Have you ever experienced somethings as one thing

and after time passes

you realized it wasn't what you though it was to begin with?

As if you had expectations 

(as simple and basic as they were)

that eventually just never measured up.

Judging it is one thing,

but that's not what you did.

In time it revealed what it truly was.

All on its own.

And it was nothing like you expected in the beginning

or even in the middle.

Nothing at all.

But in the end...

it was deeply and painfully disappointing,

but that feeling doesn't last for long...

After you move through that space

you realized you learned things about yourself...

valuable things...

the type of things that change 

the way you proceed with your life.

It's after that sad confusion

that you begin to see things more clearly.

I recently spent time on Vashon Island.

It was an important trip for many reasons.

Some reasons I didn't even expect.

They revealed themselves as 

my time there progressed.

I had a nurturing place to stay.

I even told a friend this place is my Walden.

My art was installed

after creating it specifically for this show.

It was an intimate three+ months of creating.

Then later that install evening...

I slept for eleven hours...

solid.

When I awoke

I went for a hike...

that lead to an estuary.

Pre-hike I purchased wearable art...

 by local artists.

Then I began my photo taking frenzy

of the lines and textures on the beach...

Until a new body of work 

began taking shape in my imagination.

I paused.

Then went on the hunt for more.

How to recreate some of these textures

with encaustic wax

is my next exploration.

I am finished with my current series of work

titled...

This is How I Feel You...

After experiencing somethings over the past year or so...

and learning more about myself...

I know I've completed that series

and have no further need to

spend time in that space.

However...

I will return to this place... 

in a few weeks.

I have new endeavors here.

I met amazing new people...

had equally amazing conversations...

It is an art community that 

embraced myself as an artist

as well as my work.

I consider the time and effort they shared to be

cherished.

It is those types of things

that makes life enjoyable.

And as far as those somethings that first appear as one thing

then end up being something completely different empty...

you need those moments to validate

all the those good things

that make you who you are.

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And this...played in my head...