New England Wax - A New Beginning?

New England Wax is undergoing a big change. Will it survive the resignation of its Chair, Co-Chair and Advisory Panel? Only time will tell. Here's the story from my perspective.

I've been a member of NEW for three or four years, and after I organized NEW's side of The Diptych Project, I became the Co-Chair to Kim Bernard's Chair and also managed the group's website. From its beginning, the group was loosely organized as a way for New England artists interested in painting with encaustic to get together, share ideas and network. NEW members had eight or nine juried exhibitions together, and we also published two catalogs of shows. After a while the group grew to a size that required a lot of work to manage. Rather than cutting off membership at a certain number, we decided last year to begin requiring a little more stringent application process for membership. Kim and I also invited five members to form an Advisory Panel to assist us with decisions and give their input on various aspects of group management.

NEW members at the opening of The Diptych Project, Whitney Art Works, Portland, Maine, April 2008

This fall the seven of us (Kim, me, Lynette Haggard, Misa Galazzi, Kathleen "Scout" Austin, Sue Katz, Greg Wright) began lengthy discussions about the future of NEW. The pressure of increasing applications for membership had started to make itself felt, and we also thought that the group needed to be given more structure by instituting by-laws, officers, perhaps a jurying process for membership, etc. Also, despite our intention to involve more people in volunteering to perform various group tasks, this did not happen due to lack of volunteers, lack of delegation, lack of insistence on task sharing, or a combination of all of the above. A very few people were doing all the work of maintaining the group and becoming burned out.

NEW meeting at Mass. College of Art, November 2009

Members at Mass. College of Art meeting

As the discussions went on, we decided that we, as individuals, did not want to be involved in the restructuring.because we thought it would take too much time and involve some lengthy discussions in which we did not want to be involved. Also, we were all working on our art careers, having some success moving things forward, and thought that doing the heavy lifting for NEW would distract us from our individual work. We also thought about what the group might become after going through such a reorganization, and we decided that it did not fit the description of what we each wanted from a group.

Binnie Birstein, Dawna Bemis, Joanne Mattera, Misa Galazzi at NEW's show at Fairfield Arts Council, April 2010

As a result of our discussions, Kim and I and the Advisory Panel have all decided to resign from group management of New England Wax. This Saturday, NEW will have a meeting to decide whether it will continue in some new form or dissolve.

I am writing this post to let the encaustic community know what is happening because New England Wax was the first encaustic group to be formed after International Encaustic Artists (originally West Coast Encaustic Artists) and is well-known by many people. NEW was formed at the suggestion of Joanne Mattera and got its start because of networking through the encaustic conference. Before any other announcements are made or rumors are circulated about the evolution or devolution of New England Wax, I wanted to let people in on what brought us to our decision, and also to say that New England Wax has been one of the best things to have happened to me personally. It has enabled me not only to form strong bonds with many other artists in and outside New England but to further my work in encaustic more quickly and more deeply than I would have imagined. Between NEW and the encaustic conferences, I have been able to build a foundation of knowledge and expertise that has let me find my own way in using this wonderful medium.

Kim Bernard at the opening of her show at the encaustic conference 2009

I am very grateful to Kim Bernard for starting New England Wax and for being the competent, inspiring and diplomatic leader that she has always been. She has been a role model for us all. Thanks go also to Lynette Haggard for maintaining our Yahoo site, to Sue Katz for designing cards and other materials - including the NEW logo - for us, to Scout, Misa and Greg for their support and advice in the Advisory Panel and to all the other unsung members who have contributed to the success of New England Wax. 

Shameless Self Promotion

Saturday was the opening of Physical Geography, and Lynette and I had a great time welcoming friends, relatives and interested people who had seen the article about our show in the Boston Globe. People seem to be fascinated by encaustic and have so much misinformation about it. Exhibiting encaustic works really feels like an educational project - informing people that it is NOT toxic, NOT batik, NOT about to melt off your wall, NOT that difficult to use, NOT made from crayons, etc., etc.

A Soapbox Digression: The other thing is that it's frequently necessary to lead people away from the craft or technical aspect of encaustic toward the fine art direction. As pointed out by guru Joanne Mattera, I am not an "encaustic artist" but an artist who paints with encaustic - a big difference in focus. Encaustic is the medium chosen to make a painting, and learning the technical aspects of the medium just makes me able to achieve my visual ideas. This concept sometimes gets lost in the discussion of the work, and I have to keep steering in the fine art direction - even steering myself. Why is this important? Because the visual ideas and expressions transcend the medium. The medium is not the message, it is the vehicle. Otherwise we become ghettoized or limited by the medium as in "woman artist."

Back to the opening...When we arrived for the opening, we were very pleased to see the wonderful job that Jero Nessen, Director of the ArtSpace gallery (and developer of the whole ArtSpace building) had done in arranging and adjusting the track lights. Many of the 80 artists in the building dropped by the opening and introduced themselves. Talking about art with other artists is always enjoyable, and it was particularly fun to talk encaustic with New England Wax members who came to the opening. Thanks to everyone for being so enthusiastic about the work! (NOTE TO BOSTON-AREA ARTISTS: ArtSpace has an annual call for proposals for solo and group shows.)

Center of back wall (this wall is 40 feet long) showing my work to left and Lynette's to right.

Looking right - these are Lynette's works. From left: "Harmonium" 10"x22" (an outstanding piece - too bad I cut it off), "Matter of Two" 29"x27", "When It Touches" 16"x48" and "Ruminant" 36"x36".

And continuing around to the right. The two works on the right of this picture are mine - picture taken last week before the lights were arranged. They are "Clark" 24"x66" and "The Maze" 16"x32".

This is starting again on the back wall but moving left this time - four pieces of my quiet, contemplative work - "Happy Family" 24"x24", "Wrigley's Best" 24"x24", "Clark" 24"x66" and "Foreign Influence" 24"x24".

Continuing to the left - Lynette's work: "Reveal" 30"x20" (on the card), "Slight Blueness", "Small Paladin, "Woven", "Dark Paladin" - the 4 small ones, "Paladin I" and "Paladin II" both 16"x16" and turning the corner with "Salt-Rose."

A close-up of Lynette's beautiful "Salt-Rose," 2008, 36"x36" - such a fantastic, weathered-looking surface to this piece but hard to see in the photo.

This is taken from the other end of the left wall and shows my blue diptychs on the left - each panel 16"x16". (Love those black heating/cooling panels!)

Here we are way on the other side of the gallery showing the left side of the entry. These three are my pieces - "The Portal" 16"x32", "Abound" (on the card) 36"x24" and "Red Pearl" 24"x24".


The entry wall on the right - kinda dark - from left: my piece "Falling Water" 16"x32", then Lynette's "Only a Few" 20"x16" and "Dot Burst" 20"x16". and finally my "Forever Blowing Bubbles" and "Tongue Tied" both 12"x24".

These are the same pieces from the other direction - "Falling Water" on left.

And if that wasn't enough, we also had a 16-foot long display case that we filled with encaustic "stuff" - wax balls, an electric grille with pots and brushes, encaustic paint, etc. - I like the reflection of the paintings on the glass.

So, a good time was had by all. Tune in in a couple of weeks for the encaustic demo we're doing.

Selected Painting(s) of the Day - A Duo

I have two features running in the blog now - Selected Painting of the Day and Inspirations (artists). Rather than do each feature consecutively, I'm going to mix it up a little.

So today I have selected two paintings that I made just recently. These are the two that inspired the threesome I posted last week in the trifecta and a shot of them standing on the floor has already appeared. They are the two largest pieces I have painted to date in encaustic and I enjoyed working at this scale. I named them Lewis and Clark because they were exploring new territory. (I know - kinda dumb. When I told a friend their names, she said that the third piece in the series should be called Sacagawea. What a smart-ass! But coming up with names can be the worst part of making paintings and I don't like numbering - unlike Richard Diebenkorn.)

This is Lewis - the first one. It's a triptych, 66" x 24" x 1.5" on panels. The two end panels with the stripes are not joined but hung close to the central panel. (Please pardon my photographic inexpertise which scrunches the bottom left.) There are various things embedded in the wax such as lace, pieces of plants, felt circles, newspaper, jersey circles, etc. Some areas of the wax are carved or scraped and some worked into with oilstick. There are rough and smooth surfaces.

And this is Clark. It's a diptych, the same overall size as Lewis although this image makes it look bigger. The panel from the left through the orange rectangle is one piece (52"x24") and the second panel (24"x24") goes from the skinny two-toned blue stripe through the right side.

I think these pieces are something new for me. They have the somewhat softened geometric structure that I like, but their structure is not the first thing that you notice about them. The color is varied, a bit different, and the patterning plays with two and three dimensions. I consider them a successful exploration that referenced past work but broke new ground for me. Onward!

Inspiration for Painting - Diebenkorn

A friend asked me what I do when I go to the studio and want to stir up my creative juices. My process is probably similar to that of any other artist - I look at my notebooks, my clippings and at art that I like made by someone else, either in magazines or in my collection of books on art.

While I appreciate work by contemporary artists such as Thomas Nozkowski, Mary Heilmann and Sean Scully, for example, there are three artists from the past whose work continually offers me insight and inspiration. They are Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell and Philip Guston. That might sound like an odd trio and their inspiration is not notably present in my work, but I admire all of them - for different reasons. What they all share, for me, is their inventive paint application and surfaces and their use of color. I'm going to write a post about each one

Diebenkorn's career inspires me because it took a few twists, but through it all, he kept working - very hard - and exploring, thinking about what he was doing and where he was going with his work. He seems like such a quiet, thoughtful guy who really took his work seriously and sustained his career over a long period of time.

I have two large books of his works: "The Art of Richard Diebenkorn" by Jane Livingston and "Richard Diebenkorn" by Gerald Nordland. (I also have "Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico" by Gerald Nordland, but that contains very little work not already in the earlier book.)

I was at first drawn to his early abstractions from New Mexico and Berkeley. (This one is Berkeley #8 from 1954.) Diebenkorn began getting his Masters at the University of New Mexico in 1950 and lived in Albuquerque for two and a half years. The abstract paintings that he made early on were very intricate - lots of color, shapes, lines and planes. They were mostly painted in warm colors - ochre, pink, orange, brown. When he returned to Berkeley in 1953, Diebenkorn continued to paint abstractions for a couple of years until beginning to work representationally with landscapes, figure studies and still lifes. His composition and paint handling in these works are very beautiful and they are made with an abstract sensibility.

In 1966 he began teaching at UCLA and moved to Santa Monica, to a neighborhood called Ocean Park, where he made the transition again to abstraction. Some of the landscapes he at first painted there were strikingly like the later abstract works in the Ocean Park Series. That series consists of 140 numbered paintings that he worked on for the next nearly 20 years. Richard Diebenkorn died in 1993.

Many works in the Ocean Park series are composed in blues and greens that critics thought represented the foggy atmosphere of the Bay Area. This one is Ocean Park #54 from 1972.

This is Ocean Park #92 of 1976.

And this is the final painting in the series, Ocean Park #140 of 1985.

It took me a while to appreciate the Ocean Park series. I thought at first that they were too plain, too monochromatic and had too few marks and shapes. After looking at them over time, I gradually came to see that they were very subtle and intricate in their own way. The drawn lines, crudely painted-over areas, pentimenti and smudges were perhaps the most important parts of the paintings. Also the very bottoms of many canvases contained areas that gave a whole context to the huge expanses above. These are works that I find soothing and stimulating at the same time because they represent a quietly exciting way of painting that bears evidence of the artist's mental processes. They are not paintings that just happened, although they do show experimentation and discovery. I look at them and think that making paintings does not come easily but the effort is very worth it.

Selected Painting(s) of the Day - A Trifecta

Today I'm featuring a trifecta of new encaustic paintings. Now, you might call it a triple selection instead of a trifecta, but I'm going by the definition of trifecta that I found in Wikipedia (and we all know that they are right on top of things), which is: "The situation of having three major accomplishments or achievements in a sport, profession, or pastime." In racing terms, a trifecta is making a three-part bet in which you must pick the the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in one race or hit the first-place winners in three consecutive races. (I remember that from the really olden days when I used to go to the dogtrack at Wonderland - before enlightenment struck .)

Anyway, these three paintings were made to go with two larger ones. They are geometrically organized, but in a softer, more organic way. They have fiber pieces embedded in them that form the structure and give some dimension. The palette is fairly limited and consists basically of my favorites - orange and blue - plus some greens and, of course, the Big Favorite, black. They are all 24" x 24" x 1.5" on wooden panels.

Wrigley's Best, 2009, Encaustic, oilstick and fiber

Happy Family, 2009, Encaustic, oilstick, fiber and beads

Foreign Influence, 2009, Encaustic, oilstick and fiber

This trifecta has a lot going on with patterns, directions, colors, etc., but I was trying for a balance of elements that felt considered rather than arbitrary. After making these pieces, I really feel the need to paint something very simple, but fat chance of that happening, knowing my prediliction for complication.

Selected Painting of the Day

No, it's not one of those painting-a-day things. I don't think I could do a painting a day. This is a blog feature I'd like to try about paintings that are already completed and seasoned and that I'd like to comment on - and hopefully provoke a thread on.

So, here's my first pick - just because it's kind of out of the mainstream of the work I'm doing now and really reminds of work I was doing on paper a few years back.



This is called "Magical Thinking" and was painted a few months ago (2008). It's encaustic on wood with a poured center and embedded plant parts. It's 24"x24"x 1.5". Here's the thing, if it's so different from the rest of the work I'm making now, what to do? I could sell it off by itself, not show it with the rest of my work, or make more work like it. This is always a problem for me because every now and then I come up with strange pieces that don't fit in with the direction I'm moving in. Yet I think they need to be made. I guess this is where commerce and art divide.

Isn't there something to be said for the unique work that is not part of a series? Any comments on this? I think the making fills some need in my work and maybe it just gets that out of my system so I can continue moving forward. Although, who said everything has to be a series? Maybe a series emerges over time in retrospect instead of intentionally?

This one is an acrylic on ricepaper painting, 36"x36", from 2001 or 2002 that reminds me of Magical Thinking. It's called "Four Directions" and was part of a series I did with central focus and a very geometric layout. I liked making these because they just expanded geometrically from the center. It felt very satisfying to see where they would go by the time they reached the edges - another type of exploration.

More about the studio

I was looking at some photos to send to Pam Farrell for her studio image project (more about that later), and I started thinking about what a home the studio becomes for me - and I guess for most artists.

Here are some photos showing the first transformation of my current, luxurious space. I moved in at the beginning of November 2006 and had my first open studio the next month.

It's hard to believe that such an accumulation of crap could ever look neatly arranged and become a workable studio.

Yet, just a month later, this is approximately the same view.

Here's another "before" shot as you enter the studio. I was just setting up my storage shelves.

And here's the "after" shot with the conveniently-sized old painting used as a screen to hide the pile of crap still remaining behind it.

Of course, two years later, it has taken on that lived-in look.

Obama Grassroots

This is one of the things I'm thinking about while making art (and while not making art)

WELCOME, PRESIDENT OBAMA!

Just 20 days until the inauguration of President Obama! What a relief to have a president we can be proud of ,who can speak in sentences and even paragraphs. He will need our help to bring some sense to this mess that Bush has made.

Those of us who donated to or worked on the Obama campaign are part of the valuable Obama database that was tapped recently to form grassroots groups supportive of our new prez. More than 4200 groups met across the country during the weekend of December 13-14 to talk about how they could sustain the enthusiasm developed for Barack Obama during the campaign.

We started a group here in western Mass. - Obama Grassroots of Western Massachusetts (obamagrassroots.wma@gmail.com). We will work locally to help the Obama team organize and will give our feedback on issues important to us.

COUNTDOWN TO JANUARY 20TH

Our first group mission is to organize an event that will benefit our community. We chose to support the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts with a countdown to January 20th. Our group of about 60 people has pledged to donate $20 each and to contact 20 friends/relatives/neighbors/co-workers, etc. and ask them each to donate $20 and to contact more Obama supporters themselves to ask for donations of $20.

WHY DOLLARS AND NOT CANS?

We are collecting donations, rather than food, because the Food Bank is able to purchase $7 worth of food for each $1 donated. This means that $20 can purchase $140 worth of food. The Food Bank distributes about 6 million pounds of food to children, the elderly, veterans, the disabled and working families, through soup kitchens, food pantries, homeless shelters, childcare centers and elder programs throughout Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties - all the counties of western Massachusetts.

HOW ABOUT KICKING IN $20 TO HELP AND CELEBRATE?
The Food Bank has a secure website where donations can be made http://www.foodbankwma.org/ in honor of President Obama. (If you make a donation, be sure to mark it in honor of President Obama.) Or, if you want to donate by check, send it to:

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Inc.

P.O. Box 160

Hatfield, MA 01038

Thanks for your help in contributing to this meaningful welcome to our new president!

Bye-bye, Yuck Man!

New Work - December 2008

Here's the newest of the new work - the largest I've made so far. I like working in this format and I'm going to move on to hollowcore doors. I have some 32"x80" for my next project.

Surprise - Happy New Year!

Wow, I forgot I even made this blog. What a surprise. Who knows what else I've forgotten?

So the last day of 2008 - not a bad year for me - how about you? Millions hurt but I had no money to lose and no house to buy or sell. I guess that's success, as redefined these days. I laughed, I cried, celebrated, mourned, all that stuff. I made a lot of work and sold some of it.

I was looking at that pristine view of the new studio I posted initially before I started to work in it. I actually took a few photos last week of the way it looks now, a couple of years later. These are three current views.

Lots of mess but lots of work, too.

It's amazing how much stuff it takes to paint a few pictures. It starts with a selection of canvases, but you have to have bubblewrap for everything and many paints and brushes and tools. Then you move on to panels so you need wood and a saw - maybe two saws - and more tools to add to the brushes, paints, cleaners, etc., etc. And if you work in more than one medium, you need all those supplies. Of course you have completed work and books about other artists. No end to it all. No wonder stuff always expands to fill any size studio.

I was reading about Sean Scully and the buildings he owns for his studios - thousands of feet. I could fill those easily.

I could probably fill those thousands of feet just with wax balls. When will I ever use them? They do make a nice centerpiece for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Being messy is one of the reasons that encaustic appeals to me. Amazing that such glossy, pristine-looking work can come from a mess like this. What fun!

In the Beginning

Here's what I wrote on 12/6/06 and never published:

Moving into a new studio is always daunting. It's not only lugging all that crap in, but it's unpacking it and wondering why you brought it along. By the time you finish unpacking it all and putting it somewhere, the new space that you thought was so spacious has become cramped.

Ahh! Must build storage racks. That will take at least a month and be a good excuse to put off starting the real work of making art. You have already spent all that time packing, cleaning, moving, unpacking and now building.

Well, I never did build any racks, just stogged the stuff in and started working.