"Illustrated Story..."

A student's visual journal page

I had so much fun last weekend teaching "The Illustrated Story of My Life" to PSU students. We learned about visual journalists Frida Kahlo, Maude Tomlinson Berkeley, and Lynda Barry.

"Everyone" knows about Kahlo, but not all know that her personal diary has been published. She poured out her passions, despair, and secrets into this book that she lavishly illustrated with paintings, doodles, and symbols. It feels a bit strange to read a journal Kahlo wrote only for herself. The journal is inspiring to those who worry that their own journals aren't perfect. Kahlo was perfectly fine with crossing out words, putting down stream-of-consciousness rants, and making a general mess of her pages when she felt like it.

Images from Kahlo's journal

Maud Berkeley is not well known. I found out about this Victorian woman when I was googling for women's journals several years ago. Her journal was published in an adapted form by Flora Fraser. Maud was a high-spirited young woman living with two aged parents on the Isle of Wight off the coast of England. Maud's writing shows a delightful sense of the absurd and a wish to document her daily life. She took art lessons to improve her diary art. Her illustrations are full of movement and humor.

Maud Berkeley, far left, and two other members of "The Firm",
a group of twenty somethings who gathered for music
and high jinks

Maud and her friends are scolded by local matron, Mrs. Hatchet, aka
"The Enemy." Mrs. H. apparently felt the young people should be in church,
rather than enjoying themselves on the beach.

Maud's first attempt to use the new-fangled device
called a shower.

Lynda Barry is known to many as a talented and hilarious cartoonist. She has recently published a book in visual journal form all about creativity--what holds us back and how we can reclaim our right to write and make art. The book is called, What It Is. I can't recommend it too highly--it is wonderful. Some of the book takes a form of written and visual remembering of Barry's childhood. She vividly evokes the difficulties she faced and also shows the power of a child's creativity when used to survive.

Barry survives through cartooning

Students in the class did a written project and also a creative one. Each student came up with exciting journal pages. They were willing to experiment and take some risks in creating. To see more pictures of the class, visit my other blog, here.

"Mind Your Own Beeswax, Part 2" and Announcement

Karen's mixed media/encaustic fantasia (large detail) She used fabric and trim and incising for this joyous piece

Donna's first encaustic--can you believe it? Wow.

Two of KC's small evocative encaustics The one on her left is dedicated to her father

Saturday was part 2 of "Mind Your Own Beeswax." We had some fiery ladies at this workshop as well as in part 1. They expanded on what they'd done previously with some great results!

KC casually holds her piece in hand as she torches. What is it about women and torches? We love 'em!

KC used some specialty paper here to great effect

KC's gorgeous landscape She made about 11 small pieces Saturday! I wish I'd been able to get pictures of all of them!

Donna is a talented professional painter. She wanted to try encaustic to add to her repertoire, and fell in love with it!

Donna whipped out this free and vibrant flower complete with interesting drips and incisions

We all loved Donna's enchanting face--she painted it in oil over encaustic and then added more encaustic to it

Karen ponders her next move

Karen began this piece with a color laser print, transferred onto the wood panel with a blender pen. The transfer came out perfectly.

This is the finished piece. The silver swirls were originally cut from fabric. When she collaged them down, they lost their pattern. Karen then painted them with encaustic paint and incised decorative lines into them. The fabric was nice originally, but now it is Awesome!

Encaustic work doesn't have to be flat. Karen started

this box assemblage. Note the lovely burned edges on the paper-
it makes a great effect as long as it's controlled!

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Next Workshop: "Altered Alchemy"

This favorite workshop meets on June 26 from 1-5:30. Bring an old book to alter. All other supplies included.Transform an old boring book in to your own fascinating work of art! Come join us for this mind and book-altering workshop. You can create a cherished keepsake or a travel journal for this summer’s vacation! To register, go here. To see pictures from previous classes, go here to the new page I've started to show student photos.

More Pictures

A teabag experiment.

At first the teabag image looked like a door, so I stamped enter above it. After more fusing, it looks more like a house on fire. And here I am inviting the viewer to enter. What can it all mean?

Untitled Shrine
Plaster, wood, encaustic medium, original photograph, Italian potpourri, dried flower, oil, paper, teabag, Frozen Charlotte doll, and encaustic paint

I did this shrine with an unfinished plaster piece from a class I took last year. I like the sense of freedom that comes from working with an old piece where I don't feel the pressure Not To Waste Materials. I'll look at it a while longer until I figure out its story and title.

No Title Yet
Encaustic on Wood Panel

This is one of the Wabi-Sabi wax pieces I've been experimenting with. The cup is an image that shows up in my work fairly regularly, usually when I want to be filled up with energy and creativity.

Mystery Window

Bohemian Digs behind I've Been Framed store

Roan Innish
Encaustic on Wood Panel

I will mention for the upteenth time how hard it is to photograph encaustic pieces. You just can't capture the shine...

Hunting and Gathering today yielded this new nest for my collection

Wabi-Sabi Wax and Andrea's Show

Desire
Encaustic/Oil on Wood Panel

I've been playing with creating Wabi-Sabi inspired paintings in wax. I did the above Friday night. More coming later!

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I strongly urge you to see Encaustic artist Andrea Benson's show at
23 Sandy Gallery. I'm going to try to catch her talk and demo on Saturday. Andrea has an amazing style all her own--her work is exquisite and not to be missed!

Recommended Show!

From Mar Goman's show at Re-Vision Gallery

I've written many times about SCRAP (School/Community Reuse Action Project), the amazing source of all kinds of supplies for mixed media work. I went on a Hunting and Gathering trip there the other day, coming home with a new slew of magazines for collage images, fabric scraps, a couple of art books, and assorted gee-gaws. While I was there I felt fortunate to be able to see Mar Goman's installation at the Re-Vision Gallery adjacent to the store.

Mar has used recycled, repurposed, and reimagined objects to tell a powerful story. Her show depicts the life of "Lucy" and other women consigned to mental hospitals for being different in some way from what was considered the norm. Be sure to catch this intense and moving show this month!

Fooling Around with Spirits

The outside of my new old book

While I've been sick I've been fooling around with this altered book. I'm pretending it was written by a very old woman who has been a spirit medium and accompanied her late husband around the U.S., England, and Italy. The husband was a photographer of spirits.

This old lady can't use her hands too well, but she created this album to remember better days. Spirit photography was very popular toward the end of the 19th century. If you google spirit photographs you'll see lots of them, and very fakey they are, too. I wanted the photographs in the book to look fake also, though my old lady believes in them completely. It's hard to read her margin notes, so I'll add them under the pictures.

Left: "Spirit Photograph, Mrs. Nelcott and Son."
Right: "Monsieur Armande with his spirit guide.
Taken at his last seance before leaving for the Continent."

Left: "Spirit Photographs taken in Italy by my Dear Husband--
May he rest in peace."
Right: "Mr. Vance and his Sister's Spirit"

Left: "June 1889. Pupils of Miss Freeman's School.

Two of them are now Mediums--Miss Price (back left)
and Miss Griggs (right front.) Miss Price may have the
Greater Gift. I found a button belonging to Miss Price."
Right: "I hope I am not immodest in including this--A
photograph of Me with my Crystal Ball and a Spirit--1875."

Left: The Haunted Door Plate at Crossley Manor, Suffolk
"We Saw This"
Right: "My dear Henry took this of Mrs. Pettigrew, the Medium.
My Mentor"

Left: "Augusta Jane Taylor-The Youngest Medium
in this Country with a materializing Spirit. Aged 9 at
this Time. Such a Dear."

Pretty silly, but fun to write and create as someone else!

OMG: Golden Oldies

A Celestial Theme circa 1993

I've been lolling around a lot the last two weeks due to my having caught the LP version of the cold that's going around. It's a terrible thing to feel too sick to make art or go look at it! Tonight while I was surfing the net and despairing of my messy desk, my eyes fell on a stack of old photos that had surfaced while I was looking for envelopes.

So, I may regret it, but I'll try to entertain you with some of my Very Early Work. My visual art career began with painting on home-made muslin pillows. I used fabric paint and was very proud when I managed to produce something identifiable.

The pillow below was done in 1992. It was one of my favorites at the time.

She's Always in the Garden (large detail)

Can't remember the name of this one from 1994

This is from '93 or so...I still kinda like it.

One of my first paintings in acrylic on canvas,
done in 1995 after my first trip to Italy.

It's interesting looking at this old work. I can see my growth as an artist, technically and conceptually, while at the same time I love remembering the magic of starting to make art. I can see the liveliness and joy I put into these pieces. Now, many years later, I want to recapture that feeling more often in my work. As art becomes a career there are so many temptations and pressures that can stifle joy and spontaneity. This is where play is so important. And getting out and seeing things.

Tomorrow I'm going to go out and See, whether I feel good or not. Tomorrow evening I'll spend time with my grandson which is some of the best magic I know.