Yesterday, encaustic, 5×7 inches
After creating p.s. I felt pulled to make a series of encaustic 5x7s drawing the words from old letters that I have written or letters that were written to me. This weekend I pulled out one of my many shoeboxes filled with old letters. I’ve never thrown a letter away. Well, that’s not completely true. If I’ve thrown a letter away it was for a good reason.
Often when I open up letters and even old emails I am transported back in time. I remember the person that I was at that point when I had received the letter. The place where I was.
This snippet of this letter was written to me back in college by a good friend of mine at the time, who I have since lost contact with. She was talking about the time we took off from Chicago and drove down to New Mexico in search of someone close to her…When we returned to Chicago and normal life, my friend found that our trip had awakened something in her and she left school and set out for a new and uncertain life. She would periodically send me letters of her adventures. And then time passed as it does and the letters stopped coming. And now all I have left of her are stacks of stained letters. If Ara ever finds this entry in cyberspace, I miss you and would love to hear from you.
Words read:
…in some ways it seems an enormous distance filled with transforming experiences. but then it can also feel so close and so real as if I could touch it like it was just yesterday and nothing’s really changed.
Love this – the texture is awesome!!
UTEE is “Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel” – it’s a stamping/scrapbooking product. I use it to seal stuff when I use alcohol inks. Because it’s thick it givese a great dimensional effect to things. You can also embed things in it like glitter and beads.
love this! the colors and the textures. ohhh.. you have me wanting to do encaustics. maybe someday! i will add it to my list.
the way that you are using bits of your letters has greatly inspired me today.
blessings
I have been lurking on your blog for a few weeks. I have to say that I adore your work! I didn’t think that I especially liked encaustic, but you have made me a convert.
I also love what you are doing with the letters in your pieces, and it has inspired me, also.
thank you for sharing your work!
Gwen
your work is always so very rich. this one in texture and meaning. i love that use your old letters. i also save letters i’ve gotten from my significant people over the years and recently sorted them by author. i’m sending back these letter bundles to their origins much to the surprise of the writers…so much fun! your family trip to orcas sounded heavenly…