My last post I mentioned the crow drawing that I attempted to add to the nest painting and that I ended up having to take off. In the attempt to taking it off, it irreparably ripped. sometimes when things rip, I will be like, oh, well, that kind of looks cool and I can figure out a way to still use it. This one, was no hope. After initially being disappointed, I quickly got over it. Such is the way of things when you are making things. Some things end up in the trash. After I finished the nest painting though, I decided to return to the crow. I didn’t have that really beautiful salvaged piece of paper that I had originally drawn on. This time around I wanted to use paper that I knew for sure loves wax. I got out my rice paper and redrew my crow. And then completed this encaustic collage.
I am really excited to share that I was invited to be part of a two woman show in November 2023. As I have been working this past month in my studio, I have had that show in the back of my mind. Thinking and pondering, pondering and thinking. I need to start planning and making. I’ve been thinking about some of my mixed media works that I’ve created this past year and what excited me and what I’d like to revisit, but then push further.
One of things I have been wanting to do is incorporate my drawings into my mixed media work, but on a larger scale. Like this crow, but much bigger. I also want to do more with the stitched pieces of fabric that I combined with wax. And then there was the body of work where I took tree images and turned them upside down, thinking about reciprocity in the natural world. Hmmmm.
I’m really excited to start creating for this show. The invitation is at Adkins Arboretum’s gallery inside their nature center. I have done work for the arboretum before, but outside for their outdoor sculptural exhibit on the trails. Every time I go there to install, I always make sure to stop in inside to check out the gallery space as I always love the work of the artists that get shown there. There’s been landscape painting exhibits, experimental mixed media paintings, nature journals, etc. All, that show the artist’s connection with the earth. I am thrilled. But at the beginning of every journey, there is also a little anxiety.