Famous Potatoes

This piece started with one of three pieces of art that were given to me by an artist friend who was cleaning out all her art and what she couldn't sell, she was giving away or throwing away. These had colorful loops of hand painted paper glued on top. I hated to destroy her art but she gave me permission and said If I didn't take them they would go in the dumpster. I didn't know what I would do with them and didn't want to just hoard them so I only took 3 of these. I emailed her yesterday if she still had the others and she said they were all thrown away! That makes me sad. Not only for myself but for her, and for the landfill. 

So what did I do with the frames? Below is one of the pieces of art and the process I went through.

I had this encaustic collage hanging around the studio waiting for something to finish it off.  I made it at Karen Bubb's encaustic workshop   It was just a tad too wide to fit inside the frame so I asked a builder friend if he could cut a 1/2" off the side. Now it fit.

 

The next decision was what to do with the frame itself. It had paper and blobs of glue and glitter on it that I sanded off. I liked how it looked sanded and decided not to paint over it.

Next was how to finish off the top and bottom as I was left with an inch or so of space on top and bottom of the collage. I tried vintage children's blocks but they looked too blocky, even if the colors were good.

Next I painted around the edges of the frame with black, so the bright colors of the back ground would not show up.

This same day my husband was called by the elderly neighbor if he could go over and help change out her license plates on the car. He came back with two license plates and said "I thought you could use these for something" now if you know my husband, this is a rarity! He usually throws things away before I can say, "can I have that?"  My initial reaction was no thanks I don't want them but on second thought I said, well what the heck give them to me an I'll see if I can find something to do with them.

Here are 2 of my pieces drying in their frames with all my button and bead jars to help hold them down and glue flat.

Famous Potatoes 15" x 15" $250 Encaustic Collage/Mixed Media

I love serendipity. I had to cut the edges of the license plate off but I love the way it turned out especially with the truck. Can anyone guess what state this license plate is from?

Working with Encaustic Wax

Yesterday I got to play with one of my favorite mediums. This is actually my third workshop in Encaustic Painting. I have taken each class from a different artist. My first workshop was with Eve Marie. This sparked my interest in working with the medium and I really enjoyed it. Then at Art Fest I signed up for Stephanie Rubiano's class for a completely different encaustic experience. Yesterday's was at the studio of Karen Bubb who also took a class from Eve Marie and has put her own special twist on it.

First we started with a Native American Sage Cleansing.
This way we could all start fresh and get rid of any negativity holding us back. 

For inspiration, Karen had four big bins of papers we could go through, as well as many books, and the offer of reading our Tarot. I picked the "World Card" Here is the Wikipedia interpretation.

"The World represents an ending to a cycle of life, a pause in life before the next big cycle beginning with the fool. The figure is at once male and female, above and below, suspended between the heavens and the earth. It is completeness. It is also said to represent cosmic consciousness; the potential of perfect union with the One Power of the universe. It tells us full happiness is also to give back to the world, sharing what we have learned or gained."

I am in a new beginning in a way, re-evaluating everything I have been doing for the past 5 years, seeing what works and doesn't as related to my art career and getting started teaching adults what I do. 

The following are the pieces I made. All are encaustic using a variety of techniques, most are on wood. 

A few shots of the work space and class. 

A display of Karen's new work inspired by her recent trip to Cuba.

 Great day, a lot to think about, especially with my Tarot reading! Thanks Karen!