Definition, Specialities and Crabs

Dungies
encaustic and paper on birch 18x24

I'm feeling a bit like my art is defining itself... finally.  Yet, when I go to post photos of what I'm up to each week - they are bird paintings as of late.  The thought kinda makes me unsettled a bit and wonder how I've come down the road to have a "specialty".  Do I really want to be known as a bird painter?  It certainly wasn't my intent.  My intent is to just paint whatever comes to mind.  I guess that lately, birds are my thing.  I'm not interested in fighting that idea because I really am enjoying what I'm doing.   But, at the same time, I'm not ready to settle into a "specialty" quite yet.   So, I'm mixing it up this week and flexing my creative spirit a little and painting other than birds - Two Dungeness crabs on a vintage sailing chart.  The crabs actually came to mind from this earlier post where I was thinking of doing some of the star constellations.
I did a live demo last week.  I took my palettes and wax and set up to show people what it is that I do.  It was really fun and I realized that I like being out in public talking to people about art and creativity and painting.   Have a good Friday everyone - September will be here before we know it - so enjoy!

Fire, Glassblowing and Handsome

My creations from the glass blowing workshop.

I have a fascination with the element of fire.  Its power can bring devastation and it can also bring beauty.  Its strength can be harnessed and beautiful things can be made.
I went glass blowing.  Its something that I have always wanted to do.  I was a little apprehensive about going only because I was afraid that I would love it so and want to pursue it more.  I tend to be a bit fickle and easily wooed away in new directions. 
I loved the hot kilns and the globs of molten glass.  I loved the blowing and turning and twirling.  I loved the idea that while it could be shaped and somewhat controlled - in actuality, it has a total random quality about it too.  It was surprisingly malleable, but not.  I loved the mystery of what the color would really look like when it was cool.  
While I did love many aspects of the glass and found it so interesting, it didn't enamor me in such a way that I would give up my current creative love for it.   So, I'm painting on - with fire :)

Handsome
encaustic on birch 10 x 10

For Tracey

Sometimes - there are no words.  They catch in your throat in a big lump and they just can't form themselves into what you are feeling.  There is a wish deep inside that there is a way to express the emotion that is welling up.  Sometimes, I think there really is no way to express what it is you want to say - and that's OK too.  Because sometimes, all you need to do is just be there, present and engaged.  Today I learned that my wonderful blogger friend Tracey Fletcher King has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Even though we are 1/2 a world apart - she in Australia and me in Seattle - this news hits very close to home.  Its sets us all on a new path - one of support for her new journey.  
Sending her great love, strength and healing - and also the knowledge that even though we are separated by oceans, mountains and continents - that we are behind her, there supporting her, present and engaged. 

Indulgence, Flamingos and Hot Pink and Orange

Flamingo
encaustic 6x6
Summer of Color3 - hot pink and orange

It felt like a sweet indulgence.  We sat in the sun, under a palm tree and sipped coffee and ate old fashioned doughnuts.  The world carried on around us and we didn't care.  The best part of the whole experience is that we talked about art.  We talked about line and texture.  We talked about how colors play off each other and can actually make a painting seem as if it vibrates.  We talked about the artists we admire.  We talked about the art hanging in a juried show that we both had attended.  We talked about our own art and what it means to make it.   We talked about what's next.  For one hour, all the other stuff in life was put aside and art was the subject. 
Find an artist friend, take an hour and indulge yourself.  Its good for the soul.

Duplex
encaustic 6x12
Summer of Color3 - hot pink and orange