It's me, blogging at Logan airport in Boston with 2 hours to spare before my plane leaves, the 4
th Annual
Encaustic Conference was a whirlwind of waxy adventures. I stayed at the dorms at
Monterserrat with 3 other roommates, Patti, Diana,
Lyllia, and me, all nice people. Patti said; she is going home and emptying out her head on her desk, that's a great description of my brain currently, I must do that also and sort through all the information we were given and experiences I had.
Artists who work with
encaustics are a great and giving group. Joanne
Mattera http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/ was everywhere all at once she was very nice and approachable (for the Queen Bee of the
Encaustic World).This message stressed again and again is "We are artists first, who happen to use the medium of
encaustic wax"
I could not come all the way to Beverly, Mass and not visit Salem, so I ditched one of my lectures and took the train to Salem a beautiful quaint walking town. I went to the Salem dungeon and watched a little play with the actual transcripts of a trial. It was more about mass hysteria, religious fervor, children being manipulated by adults and greedy people taking others land than it was about anyone actually being in league with the devil (although the spirit of avarice and hate were surely at work).
Over 150 were arrested and imprisoned, 5 died in prison, 14 women, 5 men and two dogs were hanged. Giles Cory who refused to plead guilty was crushed to death with rocks, they were not able to take his land. After that I visited the Peabody Museum, The House of the Seven
Gabels, I saw the mother of all cemeteries where those poor souls who were hanged were buried, and I had my fortune told by a
witchey woman, really not much worth reiterating and frankly a little of a
ripp off just like dumping $30.00 into a
Las Vegas slot machine and hoping for a huge payoff and getting nothing but a little diversion. Oh well.
That witch put a curse on me also........let me explain.
The next day I was talking to
Sheary by the front of the college and inadvertently grabbed her backpack by mistake. I took it up to my room and tossed it on the bed and left for the lecture.
Sheary went to use her cell phone and noticed her nap sack was missing and naturally panicked so the women in her vicinity were of course brought into the drama. She remembered that I was the last person she talked to and came looking for me, of course I was gone so my
roomie opened the room and there it was!
Sheary and Lilia know it was a silly mistake and anyone of us could have done it but others seemed not to believe that it happened that way. What an
airhead I can be sometimes, it was very frustrating that I could not remember doing it and unfortunate indeed that in these types of situations others will believe what they want to believe. I had to laugh it off (as best i could) and hold my head up and enjoy the rest of the conference.
Lylia said
STOP SMOKING! I said why did you say that and she told me of you link something like that to a traumatic event you will remember the message. Thanks
Lillia now I think I can quit these fags once and for all.
My Critical Feedback by Joseph Carroll
http://www.carrollandsons.net/artists/index.php was quite interesting my critique came the last half hour of the day so I was not given the time and attention the people had earlier in the day and others wanted to ask him other questions like "Do you feel women are discriminated against in the industry?" excuse me?#! it was my floor time!
He said; my art belongs to a certain cultural spectrum and has a 70's feel example the
Byzantine paintings of the era. I got some examples
Rodarte http://www.rodarte.net/ Rick Owens
http://www.styleite.com/media/rick-owens-bedroom-exhibit-photos/ both fashion designers and Dr
Lakra http://contemporaryartlinks.blogspot.com/2010/04/dr-lakra-ica-boston-14-april-6.html a tattoo artist from
Ocaxa, Mexico. My question of making my artwork more commercial so I can sell more he said, "artists hold for the culture a respite from the making of money and
commercializm".
My post conference workshop Homage to
Fayum given by Francisco
Benitez http://www.franciscobenitez.com/ was by far the highlight of the conference for me, I learned the techniques that the Ancient Greeks and the
Fayum mummy portraits painters used. It was just like painting portraits with oils only you use a variety of heated tools like
sculpters use, wood burning tools etc. They used a limited
pallete. We had a live model, Francisco gave me and all of us helpful suggestions and loads of information about Greek Art in the short time we had him. He was very complementary of my portrait saying it' has a vulnerable mysterious quality (or something like that).
The message I took home with me is: Be true to yourself and your vision. Write an artist statement about your artistic vision and/or process. Write it as if you have completed the body of work you dream of creating.
.
This is Dennis Lind the bird whisperer,
the little chickadee flew into the garage at Shearys BBQ and the just gently got the little thing to trust him and after some Kodak moments it flew off.
Here is a one eyed owl at the Art on Fire the bird rescue people brought him.
A beautiful hawk.
A motley Raven.
