Evolution

This piece was made for the Dinosaur show at Two-Tone Gallery for the month of June. For some reason I had collected an amount of plastic dinosaurs and now I am glad that I did. :)

Very simple composition and technique. I wanted the dinos aligned from darkest/earth tones to bright neons. They are mounted on a piece of rusty metal that I saved from tearing my old grill apart a couple of weeks ago. I used a clear encaustic fill to hold them in place.

The title is stamped copper. And that's it; Evolution. 

Mal de Mer

This piece is finally finished...why do we procrastinate the things we want to do?

At school a few weeks ago I found one of those lovely old paper world maps, about 5'x3', in the trash. It's ok for art teachers to grab things from the trash, so I snatched it and I am excited to use it on many projects.

For this piece, I cut a bit from the ocean and collaged it into a box. Then I used the swirling technique that I used on Tempus Fugit (I have to remember to take a video next time I do this!) with white encaustic paint to create the "waves" at the bottom before doing a clear fill.  

Then I drew and collaged an old ship on top.

I also added some fishing hooks using a dual-surface fill like it did on the Lux Mentis Lux Orbis piece to hold them in place. (Again, why don't I film these things?) 

I added a few flicks of white encaustic paint to the surface, and that is Mal de Mer, a French phrase for seasickness.

La Mal du Pays

A simple piece: Wooden frame, written letter background, found metal piece, inscription on copper, and a chicken.

The metal piece was found on my parents' farm. Not sure what it is, but I enjoy it.

"La Mal Du Pays" is a French phrase translating to our "homesick".

And a little plastic chicken makes it all the more "homely".

Tiny Industry

While I am making an effort to create bigger artworks, I can't get away from the tiny ones. 

This is my submission for the Nashville Tiny Gallery.  The piece is 1.25"x 1.25" and made of tiny screws, gears, wires, and fuses. 

Everything is mounted on a bigger wooden gear with a felt base.

The hot glue marks drive me crazy on this, but it's as good as I could get it on this scale. :/

Wanderlust

Another experimentation in "large" art. This one was a (I believe) wooden serving tray, again, thrifted. I loved the background design and almost just kept it for decoration. But I decided to go with a travel theme, hence the name, and add a clear fill and small planes. Fun fact: airplanes are really difficult to draw and cut from tissue paper.

The planes were drawn on white tissue paper then dipped in clear wax to collage into the piece.

The compass is made from a metal sheet. I carved in the design with a wooden stick and filled with black paint. The arrow is an old clock hand which took me 3 days to find. It was where it was supposed to be, but upside-down and, therefore, invisible. 

I laid some turquoise and black thread into the wax to give it some direction as well.

The handwritten directions were the last thing added to this piece. Again, I am sitting and waiting for it to fall off the wall, but it is so far doing well. :D

Septiens

This piece is a simple encaustic fill collage. I was inspired by a metal "7" piece I had and a poem I found, "Seven" by Mr. Ed on Author's Den. Most of the poem is written and placed as the background.

"Septiens", adverb form of "seven" in Latin, is stamped onto a thin metal piece and filled with black paint.

It's been a while since I've wrapped things. I love the way wire and string look. So this piece is also wrapped in a thin copper wire.

Lux Mentis Lux Orbis

This is an encaustic collage with an illustrated background and "found" light bulbs (mostly from cars, I think). The background is a drawn replica of one of Thomas Edison's lightbulb patents and was one of the harder things I've ever drawn. Seems easy, just lines, but getting them all to go where they need with no understanding of their purpose was challenging. 

I did a clear fill, waited for it to dry, then built a tape barrier and set it upright to fill the bottom as well to place the bulbs. 

This is my first piece to have a 2-way fill, pretty easy and turned out nice. 

I carved into some copper with a pointy stick (super technical) and filled it with black wax to make them stand out. 

And a close-up of some of the illustration because it's a shame to do that much work and just cover it up. 

Lux Mentis Lux Orbis: light of the mind, light of the world. 

Burst

ever have those pieces in your studio that you absolutely love and want to put in every artwork, but it just doesn't work? and those others that you keep because it's okay and you may use it sometime but it's not that great? well, that's what happened to create this piece, Burst. I was in love with the large gear and wanted to use it in everything, but it never worked with anything. the little canvas (3"x5") is something that I've had since I was...10? I had drawn some smiley faces and things on it.  turns out, when you put them together, they are perfect for one another!
Simple process: I wrapped the canvas with a dictionary page, then cut out a hole for the gear with a craft knife. then I screwed the gear in and it held surprisingly well, no need for any adhesive. so that's it. took about 15 minutes, and it's one of my favorites. I may go back and do an encaustic fill on this one..not sure yet. it would be a great addition to my Rust & Wax  series...