The Working Artist

It seems that recently my time in the studio has been filled with the kind of work that feels like I have a job working for The Man. (Does anyone still say that?) It's been putting panels together by drilling holes and inserting screws or bolts, touching up the edges, repairing small dents or scratches, attaching hangers and wires, writing titles on the backs of panels, wrapping, packing and all the myriad of other tasks that I would have my army of interns or assistants doing if only they existed in reality instead of in my dreams.

Why cats, you may wonder. Well, I went looking for pix of studio assistants and all I found was pix of cats and dogs that people had posted. So, hey, I have my own damn cats. They're not in the studio with me, but they do lounge around all the time, apparently the way people think studio assistants do. I guarantee you that mine would be kept busy--at least busier than these cats.

The good news about all these studio chores is that I'm getting the work ready to launch into the world in the form of sales, which is never a bad thing, no matter how annoyingly detailed it may seem.

And, just in case you may wonder what it's like to have an army of assistants, cast an eye on this video of Julie Mehretu's studio in Berlin that features some of her assistants. You'll see how the other half lives.




In Other News
I received a comment today on my blog post about Anatsui at Wellesley College from Susan Vogel, a  remarkable art historian, teacher, author and filmmaker. She is internationally recognized as a curator and expert on African art. She was the Founding Director of the Museum for African Art, Director of the Yale University Art Gallery and Professor in the Department of Art History at Columbia University. Ms. Vogel said I had written a "terrific post" about Anatsui and directed me to her website, where I would find information on a film about Anatsui that she directed and just released through her production company.

Susan Vogel

Her film, Fold Crumple Crush: The Art of El Anatsui, was shot over the course of three years in Venice (at the 2007 Bienniale), in Nsukka (the village where Anatsui's studio is located) and in the U.S. She has also made eight short films about various working practices of Anatsui that can be shown together as a longer film. It all looks fabulous and I would love to see the films. The site has a list of upcoming screenings at the Metropolitan Museum, Skidmore and Sarasota Springs. The one I'm shooting for is at the Clark in Williamstown on Sunday, July 24th. I wish I could have downloaded the film trailer for you, but it wouldn't work. You can see that on Susan Vogel's website too.

In Anatsui's studio, laying out separate pieces to make a large work (from Fold Crumple Crush)

The Pace Becomes Frenetic
Some time around the end of April when the calendar is about to turn over into May, you can hear the hum of activity begin to pick up. The pressure is building and time seems to condense as all those things that you seemed to have limitless time for begin to mount up and you are suddenly aware that there is NO WAY you can ever finish them all before it is upon you. The Conference is coming, the Conference is coming! There's that drumbeat and it's getting louder and more insistent. The Conference is Coming, THE CONFERENCE IS COMING! Only 32 days left now. Aargh, get it done, get it done. THE CONFERENCE IS COMING!

Photo courtesy of Joanne Mattera

The Big Ball o' Wax rolls on toward the 5th Annual International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, Massachusetts, June 3, 4 and 5. All the info here.

Ode to the Annual Encaustic Conference

I was invited to be one of four featured ("HOT" is their word) artists in the premiere issue of Encaustic Arts magazine and have been working on my article. (The other three artists are Kim Bernard, Howard Hersh and Paula Roland.) My article is another rear view mirror moment where I take a look back at the development of  my on-going body of work, the series I call the Running Stitch. I thought that my experience could be interesting as an example of the way one artist (moi) made a big leap in her work to a very new place.

Promised Land, 2010, 27"x42"x1.5", mixed media with encaustic, from the Running Stitch series (click to expand)

After thinking about the process and writing my article, it dawned on me that none of it would have been possible if I had not attended the annual encaustic conference that Joanne Mattera organizes every year. That is how and where my thinking was expanded. Sure, I learned about techniques and processes, but more importantly, at the conference I was able to consult with experts about moving my work forward, I saw first-quality shows of work in encaustic, and I was brought together with artists from all over the U.S., Canada and more. How and where else would that have been possible?

Joanne Mattera, creator and organizer of The Fifth International Encaustic Conference and all the other annual encaustic conferences dating back to 2007

A very big THANK YOU to Joanne for her vision, expertise, unflagging energy and determination to make every year The Best Conference ever!

Although every year at the encaustic conference is rewarding, I think that the third year in 2009 was vital to my development. That year I signed up for two post-conference workshops, on two consecutive days, one with Barbara O'Brien and the other with Miles Conrad.

Barbara O'Brien, now Curator at the Kemper Musuem of Contemporary Art

Barbara O'Brien at that time had curated nearly 50 exhibitions of contemporary art, and that was before she joined the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art as curator later in 2009. Her experience in looking at and assessing artists' work was exceptional. For that third annual encaustic conference in 2009, Barbara was also the keynote speaker, and when I heard her talk, I was blown away by the description of her aesthetic journey from an intellectual response to minimalism to embracing the beauty, warmth and richness of work in encaustic. She was very encouraging and helped the small group at her day-long critical response workshop to think about their work in the broader context of contemporary art and to describe a blue sky vision for their work.

Miles Conrad

Miles Conrad, an artist and gallery owner, developed a class called Moving the Work Forward that uses unique exercises and games to help artists assess their own work and reach their full potential. This workshop in 2009 helped me so much by having Miles' critique my work and statement and get his assistance in directing me to examine the various components of making art and marketing it. This class really propelled my thought processes and gave me some methods to use that proved invaluable.

Castle Hill Center for the Arts

This year's encaustic conference, now The Fifth International Encaustic Conference, is the first to be held at its new location in Provincetown and at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro (next to Provincetown). It features many opportunities for artists to develop their work and think about it in a broader context. For example, on Friday afternoon, Toby Sisson will give a talk on the Art of Critique:How to Give and Receive More Helpful Feedback. Giving and receiving feedback is surely an art and the first step in taking an honest look at your own work. Another talk, at the tail end of the conference on Sunday afternoon, will be given by Kim Bernard and called What's Your Work About? Kim will provide exercises and methods to get participants thinking about this topic in a fun and rewarding way.

Toby Sisson

Kim Bernard

There are two panels that will also help artists to examine their practices: Saturday morning's panel, Mastering Media, brings together five artists (including me) with moderator Joanne Mattera. The panel will discuss various aspects of art and media, from book publishing, to blogging, to operating a gallery, to organizing classes, to various tools for promoting your work. This panel is bound to be informative, thought provoking and fun. Then late Sunday afternoon, another panel comes together to discuss Submitting Your Work: What the Juror Sees. This don't-miss-it panel, consisting of three decision makers, will discuss how they view and judge work submitted for exhibitions at their venues.

Jackie Battenfield, Author and Keynote Speaker 

This year the keynote speaker on Saturday night will be Jackie Battenfield, author of  The Artist's Guide: How To Make a Living Doing What You Love. She is all about developing your work and finding ways to keep making it. Jackie will also offer a day-long workshop called Creating Your Own Success on Monday during the post-conference session at Castle Hill. Another opportunity for personalized critique of your work during the post-conference workshops will come on Thursday when Francine D'Olimpio, owner of Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown, will offer a day-long critical feedback session in a small group. Francine is also jurying the conference show, "Beeline", that will be exhibited at Kobalt Gallery.

These are just a few of the long list of workshops available at the conference. I haven't even touched on the nine demos that show how to accomplish various techniques such as the ever-popular image transfer, fusing, masking, stencilling, branding, and achieving patterned effects. Wow! So much to learn and so much to gain!

If you can spare the time, the place to really get into learning a technique or experimenting with different processes is during the post-conference week. Here you might spend a day with me Making Fine Art With Unconventional Mixed Media and Encaustic or with Michelle Belto ombining Encaustic and Handmade Paper or with Hylla Evans of Evans Encaustic in her Color-Mixing Workshop. It's all great.

The best part of the conference is meeting people and seeing friends from all around the USA plus Canada, England, New Zealand and Brazil. Currently there are 198 conferees registered, or 79 percent of the maximum. As Joanne Mattera says,

Our maxiumum is 250--a large enough number for the

crosspollination of ideas and information

but still small enough for everyone to get to know everyone else.

There is no other event like this one!

At last year's conference: Lynda Ray from Norfolk, Virginia; Binnie Birstein from Weston, Connecticut and Gay Schempp from Fairfield, Connecticut (in the background in green sweater, Jane Allen Nodine from South Carolina)

Alexandre Masino from Montreal, Canada

Eileen Goldenberg from San Francisco, California

To register for one of the very few spots remaining, click here. And I hope to see you there!

Rashomon or The Hound of the Baskervilles?

I've been thinking about truth, appearances, loyalty and standing up for your beliefs recently. The controversy is continuing about Montserrat College of Art, the program segment about encaustic on WGBH-TV, credit being given where credit is due and people being willing to take a stand. Trying to sort out all this stuff is taking up a lot of my time and attention, but I really hate injustice and I just have to do what's right.

So what I'm gonna do for all those of you who are seekers of truth is to post a few things here that have appeared in the past few days.  All you Judge Judies and Simon Cowells out there, have at it. And by the way, I'm just going to highlight a few pertinent points. I'm sure you won't mind.

And the Truth shall set you Free
If you're a regular reader, you know that I gave you the whole initial story the other day in my post "Where's Joanne?" Since that time there have been many comments and messages back and forth between readers, Montserrat College, WGBH, Joanne Mattera, me, etc., etc.


So the first question is: who is responsible for leaving Joanne Mattera's name out of WGBH's program?


First up, a message from Dean Laura Tonelli of Montserrat College of Art, apparently sent to all attendees of last year's encaustic conference:


Dear Friend of Encaustic, 
We are happy that so many of you have reported high satisfaction with this year’s Encaustic Conference. By now you may have heard or read some negative feedback about some publicity the college received post conference as a result of “The Greater Boston with Emily Rooney Show on WGBH-TV.” The following is a note from Dean Laura Tonelli regarding the filming.

On behalf of the College, I want to express our deep regret that Conference Founder Joanne Mattera’s name and enormous contributions to this annual event were omitted from the recent WGBH program. It was certainly not our intention to discredit or diminish Joanne Mattera’s key role. When originally contacted, the filming was scheduled during the conference and included Joanne Mattera as the featured speaker. However, WGBH moved the interviews twice, further and further away from the conference dates, to a time when both Joanne Mattera and I were out of the state. Not wanting to miss a rare opportunity for the College to promote both the conference and the institution, it was decided filming should move forward with the expertise of our professional gallery director and college president. Interviews were scheduled and two hours of film was shot in two locations on two separate days. Joanne Mattera’s expertise, leadership and “bible” were acknowledged by both the gallery director and the president a minimum of five times during the interviews; unfortunately, the editors at WGBH edited out those references. We wish to assure everyone associated with the conference that every effort was made to provide information that would pay respect to the conference founder, to the medium of encaustic and its practitioners.

Sincerely,
Laura Tonelli, Dean
ltonelli@montserrat.edu

Now I have nothing against Laura Tonelli. She has always been extremely pleasant to me and supportive of the conference and Joanne. However, I must point out that Laura does not know firsthand that Joanne's name, credentials, etc. were mentioned a minimum of five times. She was out of town - in Italy, in fact - during the shooting. What she says is hearsay.

Next Emily Rooney, host of the show that featured the segment on Encaustic at Montserrat (from the Where's Joanne? FaceBook page)

Emily Rooney: One more thing. You are all acting like there is some intentional slight here and that we "edited" out someone who is most deserving of recognition. That is not the case. Further, we did not shoot 2 hours of footage and there were not 5 mentions of Joanne's name. I don't want to make this worse because clearly people are upset, but Greater Boston has done all of you a greater good. You should take your beef elsewhere and leave us off the invitation list next year.Yesterday at 5:03pm · 

Emily is oh so sweetly directly refuting the claim that Laura made because Emily read the email that had been linked to the FB page.

NEXT:

Excerpts from An open letter from Shelley Gilchrist of Fused Chicago to Montserrat's President Steve Immerman. (You can read the whole letter by clicking on the link.)

"Copper Falls" by Shelly Gilchrist, 2010,
encaustic on panel, 43" x 16" x  1 1/4"

TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010

Montserrat no longer an "epicenter"

Dear Dr. Immerman,

How surprising to see that you, the titular head of Montserrat College of Art, are unable even to acknowledge the individual who conceived of the Encaustic Conference, does the lion’s share of the work to produce it, and has made a growing hit in the art world for four years. What is it that prevents you from publicly speaking her name, or giving even the slightest credit to the conference founder and visionary? You had a chance to link Montserrat’s name indelibly with Joanne Mattera’s and ride on the success of the conference both nationally and internationally. You blew it....

It is ironic to see that Montserrat is still taking credit as being the “epicenter” on the College website. This strikes me as academically dishonest in a place where knowledge is everything. Usually students who do not cite their sources get flagged, whereas you and the college have a far greater responsibility. As an academic, you need to summon the reporters and publicly correct the record and broadcast this through your website and links. If you continue to ignore Joanne’s creations and contributions as theconference founder and leader, you will deserve whatever you get: flagging, flogging and a thoroughly unscholarly reputation. I have a responsibility to future artists to point this out whenever they are considering an education at Montserrat.

Yours truly,
Shelley Gilchrist
Juror’s Award recipient, 4th Annual Encaustic Conference

President Immerman's response to Shelley Gilchrist's letter, also posted on Fused Chicago

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2010
Montserrat responds
A response from Montserrat's president came today:

We all feel very badly about how the interviews came out. Joanne was acknowledged many times. I began my responses talking about the central role that Joanne played in the conference. Unfortunately, WGBH chose not to use most of what was taped including all the references to Joanne and her leadership. In retrospect, given how many times the taping was rescheduled, we should have probably just scrapped the whole thing. In truth, we wanted to shine a light on the fantastic conference and the community that has developed around the art. Its a stark lesson and I assure you will not be repeated.
I have a hard time accepting the notion that we "blew it" when we did not have editorial control. If there was any mistake it was to have gone ahead in the absence of Joanne, a decision for which I take full responsibility and deeply regret.

-Steve

Stephen D. Immerman, President
Montserrat College of Art

And I might point out that Joanne M. has still not heard from President Immerman either apologizing or saying anything else about this fiasco.

Now Emily Rooney again (from FB Where's Joanne?)

Emily Rooney: Joanne, Nancy et al: I just reviewed Jared Bowen's piece on encaustic at Montserrat and must say I'm a little stunned at your egocentric point of view. I can assure you our viewers are curious about the art itself, not who organized the conference. Also Jared did try to interview Joanne Mattera several times, but she was unavailable. Jared is the most thorough and well researched reporter I have ever worked with and he knows how to make an esoteric subject accessible to the average viewer. I'm puzzled you don't see this for what it is - good publicity for an exhibit that few would know about and fewer would care had it not been for Greater Boston.Yesterday at 2:02pm · 

Emily doesn't get it that we don't believe that any publicity is good publicity. We want some real publicity that acknowledges that you can't talk about encaustic at Montserrat without talking about Joanne Mattera.

Next, we hear directly from Jared Bowen, Reporter at "Greater Boston With Emily Rooney" of WGBH-TV, Boston. This was a comment on Art in the Studio received today and also posted on the "Where's Joanne? FaceBook page (by Tonia Collins in Jared's name) .

 Jared Bowen said...

After reviewing the litany of on-line comments about my story on encaustic at Montserrat College I’d like to take a moment to weigh in.

My story was a brief and general look at encaustic. As most of our viewers were likely unfamiliar with the style, our intent was to offer a quick overview, illustrate the art through Montserrat’s two gallery shows and artist Julie Shaw Lutts’ work and to make mention of its increasing popularity. We never intended to profile the conference itself. 

Montserrat aggressively courted coverage. Only one date was ever booked for interviews. I did not reschedule any shoots. I have reviewed my transcripts and would like to correct some of what’s been posted. I conducted a roughly eight minute interview with Leonie Bradbury, a roughly six minute interview with Stephen Immerman and a 14 minute interview with Julie Shaw Lutts (although most of that time was spent having her explain her process). The rest of the shooting was of the art itself.

Over the course of my interviews there was only one mention of Joanne Mattera and that was by Stephen Immerman at the top of his interview. He said the following: “It all starts with the ambitions and the energy of our faculty and Joanne Mattera who is arguably one of the national experts on encaustic who had the idea, had the passion. But it fits with Montserrat and the reason why is there are several themes that the conference exhibits that Montserrat also has. Montserrat was founded as a college by artists for artists…”

I am (and was) well aware of Joanne Mattera’s contributions to encaustic and appreciate her role in its resurgence. I did endeavor to interview her but unfortunately my schedule did not coincide with her own. While we would have preferred to have an interview with her, in the end I concluded it was best to shed some light on encaustic than none at all.

I stand by my story. Despite the rancor it has generated, I continue to admire the community you artists have fostered around your passion for encaustic.

Jared BowenAugust 5, 2010 11:05 AM

Joanne Mattera

My excerpted response to Jared, posted as a comment today on Art in the Studio, Where's Joanne? (click the link to read the whole thing)

 Nancy Natale said...

Jared, thanks so much for your courteous and professional reply. I appreciate your response and your serious consideration of our criticism of your work. I'm also glad to see that you have noted Joanne Mattera’s prominent place in the encaustic "world", and the fact that she is an acknowledged authority in the field who deserves recognition for her important contributions.

...  If it is true that the only mention of Joanne's name was by President Immerman in a casual kind of introduction (and you do have the hard evidence of this), then I do understand why it was edited out as an unimportant detail. If President Immerman and the Montserrat Public Relations Department had really stressed that you can’t say “encaustic” without saying “Joanne Mattera,” I think you probably would have included at least a mention of her as the founder and director of the annual encaustic conference. 

That Joanne’s name was not even mentioned in your piece is what has us so steamed because we know that it’s not Montserrat College of Art that is encaustic’s “champion”, but Joanne Mattera. If you don’t mention Joanne, then Montserrat gets the credit for Joanne’s vision and hard work. This is not fair to her and to those of us who are so indebted to her for so much. We who were there (and have been for four conferences over four years) know that the reason that Montserrat had the two encaustic shows on display is that they were organized in conjunction with the encaustic conference. If there had been no conference, there would have been no encaustic shows.

And without Joanne Mattera, there would have been no encaustic conferences at Montserrat.

...What was really the problem is that your visit was scheduled while neither Joanne Mattera nor Dean Laura Tonelli was available at Montserrat. This meant that you were not going to get the real story about encaustic at Montserrat. Montserrat’s going forward with your visit in Joanne’s and Laura’s absence and Montserrat’s continuing promotion of your coverage of “Encaustic at Montserrat” without a disclaimer about the omission of Joanne Mattera is dishonest and shameful

I hope that there are no hard feelings and thank you again for taking the time to review your video and try to set the record straight.

August 5, 2010 6:11 PM

Whoops! I almost did a Montserrat on you! What about Joanne herself? you may ask. Doesn't she have anything to say about all this?  Indeed she does and you can catch the wave at her new encaustic conference blog.

But for one more comment that you can read here from Joanne herself, try this one on. It sums up her opinion of what went on and what should and will happen now.

Joanne says:

I also have tremendous respect for the dean and, frankly, I don't think this fiasco would have happened had she not been on a trip abroad with students.

However, after seeing how badly the college and the president looked in the video--in addition to seeing that I was nowhere to be seen--why would the college continue to promote the video on its website? AND send out emails with a URL urging its recipients to view it? (I saw it only because a Boston art professional emailed me with the link and said: "You have to view this video, NOW.")

Also, I have to ask: How desperate is *any* institution for publicity that it would go ahead with a video without the person who made the event possible? So to my mind there is no excuse for a) scheduling it without me, and b) promoting it when they saw that my name was not even mentioned. I could have provided more accurate information as well--i.e. encaustic is not a "style"; what we make is ART, not "encaustic art"; we are not do-it-yourselfers teaching each other but professionals who gather to share information, ideas and technical expertise.

(The president and gallery director said they mentioned me, and I believe them. But seeing the final product, someone at the college should have said, "It's missing a key component. We are not going to promote this in any way.")

Also, by the way, the president has not responded to me directly. I mean, what, the secret service won't allow it? He allowed the PR person to respond to my first email. I wrote: "I see that I am nowhere to be seen on the college's website regarding the video." The PR person's response, and I'm paraphrasing: Sorry, you were away when it took place.

The president also did not respond to my certified letter informing him and the dean of my termination of contract. Going through the dean, in a matter like this, is unacceptable. An "Im sorry. We blew it," would have gone a long way toward assuaging my displeasure.

Thea asks why I have said nothing on my blog. Thank you for asking that, Thea. There are a couple of reasons:
1. I am not a victim. I am the person who created the most fabulous encaustic conference ever. I don't particularly wish to be known as as the person who got omitted from a stupid video for a show I'd never heard of on the local public TV station.

2. Mindful of my contract, I want to tread carefully. The college is an institution with financial resources (and a healthy profit from the conference). I am an independent contractor who earned a modest sum for my work who would have to pay for legal representation out of my own pocket. I am about to speak with my attorney now at $200 a hour.

3. On the relocated conference blog, www.encausticconference.blogspot.com, I have been putting up information slowly. For instance, my letter to WGBG is there.

Thanks, everyone, for your public and personal words of support, encouragement, leads and ideas. Please stay in touch with me (joanne@joannemattera.com) or via the new conference blog.

I am trying to take August off, but I'm responding to the many offers that have come in. A couple of venues are quite promising. My criteria: must be institutional or organizational, with an established infrastructure, interest in encaustic, the financial resources to pay me sufficiently for the enormous amount of work I am about to sink into the project, and a healthy respect for the tremendous gift I (and WE) are about to give them.

Now more questions: would you take a stance if you believed in something? Do you have the courage of your convictions? Do you dare speak truth to power?

REFERENCES:

• The piece about encaustic produced and reported by Jared Bowen for "Greater Boston With Emily Rooney" on WGBH-TV. 
• The link to Montserrat's promotion of themselves as the "Epicenter of Encaustic Painting" according to WGBH-TV.
• The link to my initial blogpost on this, "Where's Joanne?"
• The link to my FaceBook page "Where's Joanne?"

Where's Joanne? (The Person Who Is the Encaustic Conference)

Have you seen this artist and conference organizer?

I really get a kick out of most newspapers and TV that say they follow "The Arts." What they usually mean by that terminology is everything but visual art unless it's on a commercial scale like Takashi Murakami, who sells Louis Vuitton handbags at his shows, or perhaps Jeff Koons, who creates giant reflective balloon animals as public sculpture. So let's just say that my expectations were not high when I saw that WGBH in Boston had featured the encaustic conference on "Greater Boston," the evening news show hosted by Emily Rooney.

Money Talks and the Media Walks (after it)
Of course it was money that drew attention to encaustic - the medium Jasper Johns used to paint the flag, formerly owned by author Michael Crichton, that sold recently for $28.6 million. You can just see the head scratching that went on when those writing and telecasting about The Arts were asking themselves, "Uh, what the hell is encaustic?" So enterprising and emmy-winning reporter for WGBH, Jared Bowen, found "encaustic" at Montserrat College of Art, which had been promoting itself for hosting the encaustic conference.

Jared Bowen

President Stephen Immerman

On July 8th Emily Rooney presented Jared's piece about the the encaustic conference at Montserrat. On camera were the new President of Montserrat, Stephen Immerman; the Director of the Montserrat Gallery, Leonie Bradbury; and Julie Shaw Lutts, who demonstrated how she uses encaustic in her work. Jared said that Montserrat had "taken ownership" of encaustic by presenting the conference, which he referred to as a "massive brainstorming session" where "the small number of artists scattered across the country" who use this "style" come together to talk to each other. President Immerman said that he had never heard of encaustic prior to his arrival at Montserrat and described the conference as "a group of artists teaching each other."

Joanne with Miles Conrad at the 2010 conference

Where's Joanne?
"Where's Joanne, " I kept wondering as I watched this piece. I kept waiting for Joanne Mattera, the Director of the Encaustic Conference, to appear on camera since she was the person who conceived the conference in the first place and brought it to Montserrat and is the person whose incredible energy, passion, contacts and vision have made the conference the wonderful experience that it has been for each of its four years. Joanne's ground-breaking book, The Art of Encaustic Painting, (known as the bible of encaustic) established her authority in the medium of encaustic and led to encaustic's current flourishing popularity (despite what Jared had to say about its limited use). I waited until the end of the video, the chat between Jared and Emily after the video and the end of the segment and nowhere did I hear the name of Joanne Mattera. "How could Montserrat have let this happen?" I asked myself. Are they trying to take credit for Joanne's work? Where is Joanne to correct these wrong descriptions of the conference as a DIY-fest where the 25 people who use the "style" come together in an art potluck? How could this happen?

Joanne introducing scholar Roberta Bernstein, 2010 keynote speaker

I am angry that Montserrat could pretend that this conference was all their own idea. I'm angry at the injustice of their taking the credit because I know how hard Joanne has worked on developing the annual encaustic conference into the incredibly well-organized, informative and enjoyable event it is. She does everything from the top down on this conference with very little help from Montserrat. I found her this past year on the day before the opening of the conference delivering palettes and setting up tables in the classrooms. Meanwhile, she was the one who had:

• arranged the juror for the conference show
• found and invited Roberta Bernstein, the Jasper Johns scholar, to give the keynote talk
• reviewed and accepted proposals for talks and classes
• scheduled all those talks and classes - including all the contact with presenters
• conceived, arranged and moderated the panel of guests for Saturday morning
• invited the artists, chose the works, hung the show and wrote about "Wax Libris II: The Library Show"
• devised and developed the plan for "Best Foot Forward," the wonderful hallway show of works by all the conference attendees
• designed, wrote and continually updated the conference blog
• answered all the questions, completed all the details, and barely drew a non-conference breath during months of preparations

Joanne moderating the Saturday morning panel at the 2010 conference

But perhaps it was not Montserrat who was responsible for this glaring omission of Joanne from the story of the encaustic conference, but rather Jared Bowen, who missed the lead in the story?

So I tell you what I'm doing to find out the truth: I'm writing to Jared Bowen and Emily Rooney at WGBH and to all the staff at Montserrat including President Steven Immerman, Laura Tonelli - Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs - and to Jo Broderick at the Montserrat Public Relations Department. I want this injustice to be corrected and for Joanne's vital role in the conference to be acknowledged and applauded. If WGBH does not do it, then Montserrat should post the correction on their website. I urge everyone to write and get this fixed. Meanwhile, I have started a FaceBook group called "Where's Joanne?" and I urge everyone to join.

A Mini-Diary In and Around the Studio

Tuesday night, June 22nd
Returning from the encaustic conference after six days away from home has sort of spun me into different territory. Who am I here? Getting back into the studio hasn't happened yet, and I think I'm losing the sense of what I really do. I'm getting caught up in gardening, working for money, lolling on the couch in front of some boring TV show or immersing myself in a book. Do I even have a studio?, I wonder, and what is it like in there? I drove by the building last week and felt like I had moved out. Some combination of breaking the routine, being faced with too many choices of things to pursue and a lack of deadlines has taken its toll on me.

Color me curiously absent from myself.

You see that "curiously"? I think it comes from watching the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland last weekend. Weird but entertaining. My favorite Burton invention was the Red Queen calling for a warm pig to rest her feet on. That could come in handy, I think, but not at this time of year.

Wednesday night, June 23rd
Summer in western Massachusetts is bear weather and we've had two visits this week from a strangely (or curiously) neat bear. The bear broke into the screened porch that's attached to our garage by pushing in the bottom half of the screen door (that was actually covered with some kind of hard plastic rimmed with metal). Bonnie, who would make a great detective, pointed out that you could see dusty paw prints on the plastic if you looked closely.

All it did during the first visit was pick up a plastic bucket (a cat litter container) that held left-over suet cakes and a little birdseed. The bear apparently selected this particular container because of the suet. The container was pretty tightly sealed with a lid and had a looped handle. It was heavy but the bear carried it out into the yard, apparently in its mouth, and exited the way it entered, through the door. When it had gone maybe 30 feet, we think something startled it and it dropped the container, which then opened and spilled some seed. We think the bear did not eat any of the contents but ran off.

It came again the next night and easily pushed in the screening Bonnie had ducktaped onto the bottom of the door. The container with suet was not there. Instead it took the lid off a metal trashcan that had held birdseed. The can was empty but still smelled like seed. Nothing else was touched or even knocked over. The lid of the trashcan rested on the floor beside it.

Who is this bear?

Thursday afternoon, June 24th
I finally went over to the studio this morning to bring over a load of stuff from the conference. The only way to get back into the studio is to go to the studio. I putzed around a little and I could definitely have stayed but I was already very hot and it was only 9 a.m. Our cool, dark house with fans blowing, dogs sleeping and unfinished paperback waiting loomed large in my mind, and I left. I think I took on some color presence because by the time I left, my face was bright red (from heat).

Returning from the conference

I brought back from the conference a backseat full of books that my mother-in-law gave me. She lives in the next town over from Beverly (site of the conference) and kindly put me up for five nights. I'm not sure what I'll do with all of them, but there was a large selection of children's books from the '40s, '50s and '60s.

Part of the wide selection of picture books

The very best one has a great title and is a huge book printed in Sweden. There is no copyright date or mark on it.

This book measures 14" wide x 18 1/2" high closed!

Here is a page spread showing the very colorful images.

And finally, here is a photo of the oil portrait of my great grandmother on my mother's side, Elizabeth Bailey Dobson. She was born in England about 1853 and emigrated to Boston through Canada

This portrait was just sent to my by my one and only cousin. Her mother had it from my grandmother. I remember it hanging in my grandmother's parlor over the fireplace. It was in an ornate frame which has somehow disappeared. There was no signature or date on the painting. I don't think I look much like her except for my coloring and the propensity of my hair to form the same waves when it gets longer than I usually wear it.

The back of the painting. This should be a lesson to always sign and date your work on the back for future reference.

So I guess I'll be getting back to normal now. Or at least one can only hope.