Posted on March 28th, 2010
Last weekend, a neighbor gifted me with her beehive. My dad, who is a retired-doc-turned-beekeeper quickly dashed over with full regalia to help in my new venture. Now, I own a smoker, brushes, assorted tools, a lovely, fashionable suit and chapeau, a bunch of bees and boxes. It happened rather suddenly, but that’s okay with me. I love bees.
You see, it was actually my dad’s beekeeping that led me to encaustics. I was looking for a new painting medium that had little waste, could last close to indefinitely (some encaustic paintings are 3000 years old) and was tied closely to nature. You can read more here about how we extracted honey and cleaned the wax for painting medium a couple years ago.
So, back to the day my beehive and sundry items arrived. It was a cold day so the bees were sleepy. We suited up and moved these super heavy boxes (who knew all those teeny bees weighed so much!) one by one from my neighbor’s yard to the back of my field behind the apple and pear trees.
I learned how to smoke the bees (that’s sounds funny) so they stay mellow when I’m working with them and how to prepare a syrup solution for them to eat while waiting for the spring flowers.
The most amazing thing I learned though was how to be in slow-mo. I usually go through my day at the speed of light. I know it’s not very healthy but it’s my tendency. When I put on the bee suit though, I couldn’t move quickly. It’s big, made me clumsy and I couldn’t see or hear well with the muffled hat. The kid gloves are nice but they’re thick and go up to my elbows, making it hard to move fast. I was cocooned.
Combine that cocooning with the buzzing bees and smoke and I was not only forced to slow down but I experienced the zen of beekeeping. Now I know what my dad has been raving about all these years. It reminds me of when I paint and I get into that “space” where time doesn’t exist but creativity continues to flow. I love that space.
I’m now looking forward to hopefully harvesting my own honey and wax to use in my paintings (I use the unbleached wax to tint my colors). I like that I have another activity that is it’s own art form and is tied closely to nature and my art.
 ShareThis
Posted on January 19th, 2010
Inevitably, something pulls us out of the studio for an extended period of time. Maybe it’s a vacation, bad head cold, or the kids are out of school. Finding a place to land can be a challenge. I find that more than three days out of my studio and I have to work to get back into the routine. I’ve heard that three days is about the same for writers, athletes, yogis…anyone really who has a practice. There are some ways you can re-enter the studio.
There’s the meteor. This is when you slam into the studio and everything better turn out dammit – cuz you’ve already been gone long enough.
There’s the glide. This is when you jump into thin air with a little faith packed on your back hoping you don’t smack too hard into a tree.
There’s the easy entry. This is when you slowly, gently work your way in like a leaf falling to the ground.
There’s longing. This is when you pick a place you’re yearning to go or a person you miss terribly. Look at pictures. See yourself in that place or with that person. Really get wistful.
They all work and are legitimate ways to re-enter the studio. I’ve done them and each one has come about depending upon my mood. But, over time, I’ve discovered they’re a bit unproductive…there’s some lag time while I wait to land and get my painting legs underneath me again.
I’ve found the best and quickest way to re-enter the studio is to walk in and find something that needs my attention right away. What can I clean? Maybe the floor needs sweeping, windows washed or the shelves dusted. What needs to be prepped? Maybe there are boards to be sanded, damar to crush or brushes to be conditioned. What needs to be finished? Maybe a painting needs to be wired, varnished or framed.
The point is to find something to work on, to love, because it’s part of your studio as well as the artwork. When re-entering the studio, I don’t try to work on a piece of art right away. I find that’s the most difficult way to get back to the art. It’s much easier and faster to find my painting groove after I’ve tended to the physical space. It’s just like if you take a break from your yoga practice. You might be a little tight, spots might need some extra TLC and stretching before you get back to where you left off.
What are some ways that you re-enter your studio and start creating again?
Posted on August 21st, 2009
 The Manor of Art is a collaborative event where over 100 Portland artists, ages 15 to 80, were invited to renovate a retired nursing home. Each artist, given their own room, could do what they wanted, independent of one another. What a great crucible to see what bubbles up!
It’s hard to believe that less than a month ago, I was walking the halls of this creepy, dead building wondering how I could possibly overcome the smell (I have been blessed with a dog nose) and create something interesting and beautiful in the decrepit space.
I couldn’t help but notice on my walk that we warehouse our elderly and sequester them from our sight, how we leave them to die alone. I saw this installation as an opportunity to rewrite the definition of the Manor as an old folk’s home and inject some joy and life. During the initial tour, I knew instantly that I wanted to create a beautiful room about sight that would have something to do with encaustic (my current medium and love), beeswax and bees. I wanted to make something that would honor the former tenant and hopefully make the ghost smile.
The first thing I did was send out a call for interns on Craigslist for help. There was no way I could put this together in 3 weeks by myself during the summer with my kids out of school. I had 35 replies in less than 24 hours and chose 7 interns: Elizabeth Lamb, Rose Barbaro, Carl Jansen, Jesse Cunningham, Allie Tepper, Luci Neises and Rebecca Davison. My intention was to create a team of good humored, talented and committed people who enjoyed collaborating. I got it and then some. Boy was I lucky!
Working with these 7 amazing artists, we tackled a blistering heat wave, troublesome tissue paper, numb fingers and boredom (yes, cutting out those flowers got boring. Thank gawd for shark week!), and more problems with the heat. We reclaimed room 350, establishing community through the project and bringing life to the space. Before we knew it, the building was burgeoning with creativity and energy built by the collaborative efforts of all the artists involved. The artists brought back life to a dead retirement home. It was exciting to work at my studio and pop into The Manor…so much energy and inspiration!
We glazed the walls with Aglaia beeswax glaze, dipped flowers in beeswax (ah, the smell), planted 200 flowers into the walls, created sculptures from a retired bee smoker, waxed bees (bees died of natural causes) and eyeballs dipped in wax, made UV simulating glasses (thanks to Lloyd Center Cinemas for donating recycled 3-D glasses) and a honeycomb to hold them, collaborated on the animation video, printed 50 facts about human bee sight and dipped them in beeswax, made encaustic paintings and hung them.
The opening night was wild! I couldn’t leave my room there were so many visitors. People swam past doors like salmon at the Bonneville Dam fish ladders. It was amazing! And the comments people made were so satisfying from “beautiful paintings” to “cool! I see like a bee!” to “it smells like a girl!”. Some people even did a bee dance which was appreciated by all.
This project was not only fun but incredibly satisfying. Opportunities like these give artists a chance to contribute to the collective creativity and grow. I not only made new friends, appreciated different art styles and met people I normally would never meet in my circles, but my art grew. I learned new things about myself and my process during the project that I will take forward. And, I believe that my vision to create a beautiful room about sight was achieved. On one level the “see” installation in room 350 is about how a bee sees, how a human sees and how I see as an artist. And, on a deeper level, it’s about how we all see and experience one another.
The Manor of Art at Milepost 5 runs through August 24th. Visit Portland City Art for a schedule and be sure to buzz by room 350! The 10-day festival ends this weekend but isn’t over yet. You can still catch live music by local bands, theater and performance art, artist round tables, and daily guided tours of the 100+ exhibits. The Studios is phase 2 of Milepost 5, formerly the Baptist Manor Retirement Home which was founded on the property in 1915.
If you can’t make the show, you can track the installation of room 350 on YouTube or Facebook.
Posted on January 14th, 2009
I asked my dear friend, Cheryl Janis, over at Planet Pink N Green if I could use her blog post What the Heck is RSS? She graciously agreed and I’m so happy because she explains RSS perfectly.
In fact, because of Cheryl and her post, I’ve been able to simplify my email in-box and am now using Google Reader to keep track of the blogs that are important to me. Some of my favorite blogs I scan daily for inspiration and information (in no particular order of importance):
Now that I have a way to manage all the blogs I love, I know I’ll be adding to the list. So, without further ado, here is Cheryl’s post about RSS:
How many of you have been stumped, confused when landing on someone’s blog or web page and reading (usually located somewhere at the top of the page) the words ‘Subscribe to RSS?’
If your answer is yes, don’t worry, you’re not alone. I used to actively avoid ‘Subscribe to RSS’ buttons after one time clicking on it and not knowing what the heck it was or what to do.
Instead I’d opt to receive updates in my e-mail box (when that choice was available.) It was kind of like signing up for newsletter updates and yes, that was something my brain could wrap itself around.
When I finally decided to face my fear of RSS (a.k.a. the unknown) and ask my boyfriend to explain it to me, I couldn’t believe what I was missing and how much easier and more fluid my web-surfing life became.
Okay, so what is RSS?
Here’s my twelve-year-old description. It’s much easier to understand.
RSS is a simple program that has a list of your favorite web sites. When you open this program, called an RSS reader, you see which of your favorite web sites have new content. I use Google Reader (shown above).
Right inside the RSS reader window you can see which sites have new content and even get a full preview of the new content (including photos).
If you want to read more, you can click in the RSS reader and it will take you to the new content on that site, or you can skip down to the next site’s new content. You can tell your RSS reader to hide sites that don’t have new content. That way, you only spend your time looking at sites with something new to say.
There are lots of free RSS readers. Here are a few:
If you’re on a site that you’d like to add to your RSS reader, it’s easy. Just click the “Subscribe to RSS” link on that site, and follow the instructions to add it to your RSS reader.
Thanks Cheryl at Planet Pink N Green! And, if you’d like to subscribe to my RSS feed, just click on the funny, little orange box in the upper right hand navigation bar on this blog…and awaaay you go!
|
|
