New Project July 29, 2009

My life is currently so full of things these days which could drag me down if I let them: my father-in-law’s cancer, the difficulty of connecting with my teenage son, the prospect of a significant increase in government control of  medical care, and the progressive destruction of wealth and future prosperity due to mistaken fears and “solutions” to climate change. In an interesting reaction,  I find I am drawn more and more toward fiction and art. The former is clearly an escape, allowing me to immerse myself in worlds of my own choosing, but the latter is a rediscovered release–an active focus on beauty, and on my own productive creativity.

Art, as a “selective recreation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments,” * presents the opportunity and the challenge of choosing what I think is worth my time and effort to construct and will provide continued pleasure through repeated viewing. It expands upon the idea of finding 3 good things to balance out the mundane and discouraging parts of life.

I have never put in the time to develop my skills at drawing, so it’s a major commitment to start from scratch and create a visual image I find pleasing. Instead, I find photography an excellent way to capture a piece of reality, with the selection of subject and the composition of visual elements within the photo serving as the aspects which make it creative and a unique expression of my metaphysical values.

After my first attempt at encaustic collage, I tried to make another just using wax. The result was a learning experience not worth keeping and I eventually melted it off the claybord and threw away. My latest idea is to use my own photos as a starting point. Below is the first one of a set of 4 images of a calla lily from my backyard which I was able to capture with the early morning sun illuminating it against the dusky-black of a foggy dawn.

After adhering the photo to a claybord, I used the encaustic paint (pigmented beeswax) to heighten the color and add obvious brush strokes. I like the effect, though I want to try it again with even more use  of the paints to make the contrasts bolder, and just to see how it changes.

Here is the photo:

and here is the encaustic:

I am generally pleased with how it turned out and can’t wait to experiment more and to work on the other three photos.

* pg. 19 The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand

Post series: New Project,   Calla Lily #2,  Calla Lily #3,  Calla Lily #4,  Back to Encaustics 

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First Encaustic July 13, 2009

This past week I tried a new art technique: encaustic. This is painting and collaging with beeswax. For more information on this medium, check out the website of my friend and instructor at Open Studio. I have already learned a lot. I am intrigued with experimenting to improve my ability to capture my ideas concretely.

Here is my first attempt:

I made many mistakes….some of which I was able to correct. Others I have accepted as just part of the piece.

I’d like to learn how to further soften the edges of Lady Justice, and I have some ideas to try.

I want to see what happens when I embed flower petals and other fragments from nature.

And what will it be like to try and actually create a realistic image using the beeswax “paint”?  I can already tell that it will be pretty tricky.

Oooo. I love new things!!

Addendum 7/25/09: For the source of the central image “Lady Justice” see my previous blog post.