40 artists! 20 who work with encaustic, 20 who work in mosaic. We each start work on one 12" x 18" panel of a diptych in our own medium. Last month we met our assigned partner and swapped diptychs. I will complete the second panel in response to my partner's work and she will complete the second panel of my diptych.

I let my fancy wander and riffed on the different attributes of glass and wax. Decided that the theme of my diptych would be just that--wax is soft and glass is hard and what will happen when the two meet up?

I decided to blur the boundaries. I glued pieces of glass to my substrate, and made some 'tiles' out of wax. Plants and leaves and things botancial are the main focus in my work these days, so I cast some leaves with wax in modelling clay molds.

I'm partnered with Lee Ann Petropoulis. She brought me a horizontal panel called "Room with a View", a beautiful little landscape/seascape with just about everything in it, setting (or rising?) sun on the water, tulips, trees, clouds.

It's so complete on its own, it will be a challenge to find a fitting response. I'm leaning toward focusing on the differences and similarities in wax and glass again. Can't seem to let it go. Wax flows easily, and you wouldn't think that glass will, but Lee Ann gets it to flow.

So, stay tuned. Updates to follow....

Coming Soon...NE Wax at Fairfield, CT

I've had a work accepted for the juried exhibition of New England Wax artists at the Fairfield Arts Council in Fairfield, CT.

Here's the piece I'll be bringing down:

"Pipe Dreams Revision #2", encaustic, 24" x 24"

May 18 - June 25, 2010

Fairfield Arts Council

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 22, 2010 from 4-7 pm

Demonstration and Discussion: Sunday, May 23, 2010 from 12-2
Brown Bag Discussion with Curator Laura G. Einstein and artists: Thursday, June 17, 2010 from 12:30-1:30

For June, an exhibit at the Kensington Stobart Gallery, Salem, MA

17 artists, working in the luminous medium of encaustic painting, interpret "Landscape".

 

"Behind and Through", encaustic, 24" x 24"

Kensington Stobart Gallery, on the Common, at the Hawthorne Hotel, Salem, MA 01970
Gallery hours:  Tue, Wed 10-5 , Thurs 10-8, Fri 10-5, Sat, Sun 12-5
978-825-0022

Particpating artists include: Linda Cordner, Janet Bartlett Goodman, Pamela Farrell, Kimberly Kent, Dorothy Simpson Krause, Maura Joy Lustig, Julie Shaw Lutts, Alexandre Masino, Catherine Nash, Fawn Potash, Tracy Spadafora, Mary Taylor, Rodney Thompson, Charyl Weissbach, Gregory Wright, and Diane Bowie Zaitlin.

Furniture As Art / Art As Furniture

At the Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery in Portsmouth this month, a collaborative exhibit with the NH Furniture Masters, Jim Kociuba (photos coming soon) and I were matched with Portsmouth artist Leah Woods. I chose four small works to create a vertical to mirror the dimension of her 60" x 12" x 13" cherry, maple, and fabric cabinet.

Furniture As Art / Art As Furniture
Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
Exhibit dates: May 5 - June 5, 2010
Photos courtesy of Edith Weiler