Category Archives: Blog

Local Encaustic Workshop… an encaustic escape!

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We’re having a relaxing and rejuvinating time over at FAVA, the local arts center in beautiful Oberlin, Ohio! Six local artists have come to play in wax and unwind their minds on six consecutive Saturday afternoons; and while the town rushes around below our second story window, we hide ourselves away, layering warm encaustic wax, fusing with torches; and playing with color, design and texture in our encaustic paintings.

Each artist has forged a path of exporation all their own, with direction and guidance…and lots and lots of mixed media and tools.

Each afternoon I demonstrate a few techniques, which are absorbed and reinvented by some, and left for another time by others, as they continue on a path laid out for them from the week before.

Jacob and Julie are furiously productive on their shared griddle, their limbs a blur, painting, fusing and burning in with fire; texturing and building up layers of waxy color.

Jacob is working in reliquaries, bringing in bits of his hair and his childhood teeth to bury, or objects to cast or build upon. One very notable thing about Jacob: each week he chooses an art book from FAVA’s extensive library and uses the artistic styles and palettes as inspiration. His work is an ever evolving experiment, and we love seeing what he has come up with by the end of each session!

Julie has been layering images of her ancestors in pale, muted colors, using phototransfer, mark-making, and collage techniques. She seems to be always one step ahead of the lessons and isn’t afraid to forge her own path, jumping in with both feet! (She is Jacob’s mother so you see where he gets it!)

James and Elizabeth share another warm griddle. Their table is ponderous and meditative, sitting next to the blur that is the J & J table.

James is an Origami Guru and pioneer, and everything he touches morphs into geometric shapes and infinite cycles of pattern upon pattern. You’ve heard of King Midas? Yes, well James intricate encaustic paintings have become gold in his hands. He builds up layers and masks in line and form.

Elizabeth, a local sculptor, is all about texture and process, and has slowly and steadily been uncovering what this encaustic painting is all about. Once she discovered layering in and building up tea, she was a gonner and found her encaustic voice.

Cara and Lynn share the last griddle, and their table is even more ponderous and zen-like.

Cara, an oil painter and master of the drawing, plays with curving and collaged organic forms, and has really taken to slowly incising thin lines in layered wax, which excavates surprise patterns and color.

Lynn, a colorist with a painterly style, is deliberate in her exercises, trying out new techniques, and applying her new-found knowledge into her paintings, which have beautiful, subtle color musings, and tiny detail.

We all look forward to these Saturday Play Dates, coming together with a sigh of relief after hectic weeks, unwinding and encouraging each other while we work, unpeeling the stress and reveling in our laughter, joy and playful experiments. It seems I should call this workshop, The Encaustic Escape!

– Linda

Springtime in Appalachia- or is it?

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Appalachian Spring (640x451)

Appalachian Spring is playing on the radio. This is a gorgeous classical piece that, being a dancer, is true to my heart. It was composed by Aaron Copland and performed by Martha Graham and her dancers back in the 40’s, and was quite the pioneer piece to its modern audience.

I remember hearing an interview with Aaron Copeland where he said that he would laugh because his audience members would approach him to compliment him on composing a piece which so perfectly depicted Springtime in Appalachia. He laughed because he knew that he and Martha had picked the title at random after his piece and Martha’s ballet was already completed.

That’s the funny thing about creating art…

Is the audience correct to judge what content they take from the piece, or is the artist correct? Although the artist corners and defines a concept within their piece, I believe the artist does not have full awareness of what they have created, and that the audience helps define what was created. In this scenario, the artist really cannot have the final say on what the piece is about.

When I was a performance artist, we would create movement to silence, layer music on top of the movement, then perhaps add the spoken voice and costume. What exactly were we creating? I saw each piece as a set texture of experience in time.  The outcomes were beautiful, to be sure, and went beyond the scope of what we, the artist, could fully understand. We learned from our own pieces after they were made. We learned right along with the audience. That’s why after an artist creates a piece, there is a time of basking in this beautiful creation, larger than the artist. The artist always wants to talk about the piece with a trusted friend, to discuss his/her perception of the piece, and see if it matches the artist’s. Both friend and artist exchange wonder and awe and both grow their minds (and maybe even blow their minds!) on the manifestation of concepts that may have been quite hidden during the making of it.

Whether it be one medium or many, the piece is larger than the artist, and the artist should recognize, that although he/she was the creator, he/she was certainly not the source. If the artist were the source, why would it be so fascinating to them? I think the fact that art is endlessly fascinating proves that the source is from a mind larger than our own.

God’s mind is the source- but the artist’s mind and soul shapes it. The process of channeling God’s mind is the artist’s prerogative and delight, which explains why artist put up with starving for their craft!

The craft of the artist is in the shaping of a concept into a manifested form, and using life’s forms in new ways to open the viewer’s eyes. Ah, but the artist’s eyes get opened too. So, Mr. Copland, you have truly composed a glorious piece, but if the audience members say it’s Springtime in Appalachia, so be it.