Live Blogging from the Conference #1

In the vendor room

Here I am in the vendor room at the encaustic conference in Provincetown. For some reason the wi-fi is not working in my room so I'm here blogging. Here are L to R Miki, Laura, Vincent and Greg. Miki and Vincent are from Kama Pigments, Laura is from RandF Paints and Greg is Greg Wright of the fabulous surface techniques. And in the center of the image is Bonnie's laptop that I am writing this on. You'll have to imagine me there! (More about the vendor room below.)

This morning we had a fabulous panel presentation on Mastering Media moderated by Joanne Mattera. Panelists were Linda Womack speaking about self pubishing; Jeff Schaller on various promotional tools for marketing his work including calendars, t-shirts, beer and wine labels, a dvd, and more; Cherie Mittenthal, Executive Director of the Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, speaking about producing a printed catalog and organizing classes at Castle Hill, and me, speaking about blogging. This panel was great - full of information, enthusiasm, laughter and experience. We each made a 10-minute presentation and then after a break, we took questions from the audience.

Surprise, surprise!

The Stealth Cake Team plus Lynette Haggard and I organized a surprise thank you for Joanne to show our appreciation for her hard work and vision in organizing five wonderful conferences. The Team - Misa Galazzi (code name Sprinklz), David Clark (code name Cupcakz) and Greg Wright (Code Name Baklavaz), also assisted by Cherie Mittenthal (code name Chocolaz) rolled out these two giant cakes topped with images of the ball of wax (shot by Joanne) that has come to represent the conference (the blue and white cake) and an image of one of Joanne's diamond paintings on the red cake. Next, Lynette (code name Sweetumz) presented Joanne with the Ball of Wax trophy. I am missing the photo of this, but will add it in the next post.

Joanne getting a blow torch from Greg to light the candles on the cakes

As a final salute, while wearing my own Bee Goddess hat, I presented the Royal Encaustic Fascinator Hat to Joanne in honor of her admiration for the hats at the Royal Wedding. (only kidding because she intensely disliked all the trappings of the royal wedding).

On the left, I am holding the card in my Bee Goddess hat, Cherie Mittenthal
center, and on the right, Joanne in the Royal Encaustic Fascinator Hat

Pulling off this stealth mission took some expertise at covert activity. It was financed by contributions from 36 conferees that Lynette and I contacted. We did not want to let too many people know about it because we were afraid the secret would come out accidentally. Everyone was invited to sign the giant card (a product of my unskilled labor, as were the hats).

Vendor Room
So here I am hanging out in the Vendor Room and playing hooky from the presentations in which I am enrolled. Sometimes you feel like listening and sometimes you don't. I thought I would show you the vendor set-ups in this spacious and light-filled room. The vendors are arranged around the perimenter and in the center of the room are tables and chairs where lally-gaggers and buyers can sit, chat and show one another their purchases. Seeing all the wares displayed before you, being able to touch, smell and fondle the paint with exciting new colors and other merchandise is such a treat. It's much more difficult to resist buying in person than it is online. I indulged myself yesterday with lots of new colors to try.

Kama Pigments

Evans Encaustic

Jane's panels

R and F Paints

Water-soluble Cuni paint

Castle Hill

Encaustikos

Finally, here's a picture of Lynette and me, very pleased with ourselves after pulling off our great surprise awards ceremony today. And many thanks to Lynette for letting me use four of the images that she took.

Super Spies