Reflecting on the Conference

Morning shadows along the public walkway that encircles the Provincetown Inn.
In the absolute foreground, the bench where I sat each morning to call home
and in the absolute background, the Monument.

click on pix to enlarge

Where to begin? I just came back last night from the encaustic conference/post-conference and living for a week in wonderful Provincetown. I had forgotten just how beautiful it is there. The sky is like nowhere else, and from my bed at the Provincetown Inn, I could look out the window and see that lovely sky above the sea and moors. That alone would make it worth the trip, but there was more, so much more.

Sky and low tide - view from our room near the breakwater, looking out
toward the hook of Cape Cod

The Conference Experience
This year's conference had a much different feeling to me, as a veteran of the other four. With the exception of a very select few who live on the Cape, we all had to travel some distance to arrive at our destination, and when you go to Provincetown, you're at the end of the road, you are not passing through on your way to somewhere else. The experience of the journey, the arrival at the beautiful place with its mix of small-scale architecture, gardens, seaviews, honkey-tonk, tourist traps and trappings, gays gone wild, art and art history, transformative light reflecting off ocean all around you and so many old and new friends joining together to exchange ideas and enjoy each other's art and company was incomparable. Whew!

David Clark during Monotype Marathon
in the Mayflower Room

Friday at the Conference
The Binster and I arrived around noon on Friday but were unable to get into our room until 3:00. That meant we couldn't unpack the very full mini-van, wash up, change and get ourselves settled until later in the day. Binnie, apparently not being as obsessive as me, was very interested in attending the Monotype Marathon and calmly watched the demos by Dottie Furlong-Gardner, Kathleen Lemoine and David Clark. I, on the other hand, was a restless type, counting the minutes to unpacking and more interested in saying hello to friends as they arrived, inspecting the wares in the Vendor Room and generally not being able to light until I got the key. Next year we plan on arriving Thursday so that my apparently all-consuming urge to arrange my things will be satisfied by the time the conference starts on Friday. Now we are hearing hints about the conference beginning even earlier than Friday with a pre-con session, so who knows how far in advance I may have to get there. I do like to have things organized.

Self Portrait by Marybeth Rothman, winner of the conference Juror's Award

Gallery Openings
It was quite a crush at Kobalt Gallery on Friday night where the conference show, Beeline, was being exhibited. Marybeth Rothman's large self-portrait work was prominently displayed and was given the Juror's Award by gallery owner, Francine D'Olimpio. See Marybeth's blog here for more info. Lots of wonderful work in encaustic was being shown and I recognized many names of friends. Of course it was great to see work in the flesh made by artists whose work I had only seen online.

Catherine Nash, Tsunami: Spirit Boat, winner of "Wax in Motion"
at Bowersock Gallery and awarded a solo show in 2012

There were also encaustic shows at Bowersock Gallery, where Catherine Nash was chosen for a solo show next year (see more here) as the winner of "Wax in Motion", juried by Steve Bowersock and Kim Bernard. And at Ernden Gallery, where Misa Galazzi was invited to show her work along with Deanna Wood, a gallery  artist.

Misa Galazzi, "Hatching" - not this piece but other work made with lace was shown at Ernden

"Comfort", a work by Deanna Wood, related to work shown at Ernden

At Rice Polak Gallery, Joanne Mattera, along with gallery owner Marla Rice, curated a show called "Surface Attraction." Several artists represented by the gallery exhibited their work along with that of Lynda Ray and Joanne. This show, not limited to work in encaustic, selected works that emphasized materiality - and also beautiful color.

Lynda Ray, "Terreplein", 18"x 24"

Joanne Mattera, "Uttar 295", 36"x36"

Wandering The Street
My band of friends (along with many other bands) wandered up and down Commercial Street from gallery to gallery as the night wore on and finally got to eat a delicious meal at Saki Sushi. By the time we finished eating and talking, it was fairly late and since no one was in the mood for clubbing or dancing (at least not that they told me), we headed home to the Inn. It was a long day after all the driving (and unpacking) so the comfortable beds were most welcome.

And speaking of beds, while there is much more to post, I'm winding down now and will be back with more soon - very soon.