Cabbagetown Exhibit Update

Wow things are really coming together.  Thanks to Milltown Arms in Cabbagetown for offering to sponsor us with food and wine!  Also a big thanks to Atlanta Sound & Lighting for giving us a deal on lights for the space!  We’ve been struggling over the past couple of weeks trying to figure out what the best solution was for lights.  The loft space is finished and has electricity but no exisiting lights except for track lights at the entrance.  We have a 20′ x 25′ space with a 20′ ceiling and 2 bedrooms to light and were stumped at what to do.  Atlanta Sound & Lighing really hooked up us. 

Here’s a couple of pictures of the empty space so later you can see how it’s magically transformed.

I guess I better get to painting!!!

 

SEA Premiere Exhibit!!

Our premiere exhibit is coming up!  Come see us at The Stacks Holiday Loft Tour on Friday December 4th from 6 to 10pm and Saturday December 5th from 2 to 8pm in Bldg E, Suite #221.   We’ll have a loft all to ourselves!   The Stacks is located in a part of Atlanta affectionately called Cabbagetown.   It’s a group of buildings that have been renovated into lofts that were at one time known at The Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.  Alot of the history has been retained within the buildings including some of the old machinery.  On Saturday morning Dec. 5th there’ll be a tour of of the buildings from a local historian.  For more info visit www.thestackslofttour.com. 

Please join us!   I’ll be giving periodic updates on the happens leading up to the exhibit.

 

Apres Diem Exhibit

I’m really excited about the exhibit I just hung at Apres Diem in midtown Atlanta this past week. I’ve got 14 pieces total in the hallway leading out the back and to the restrooms. Hey don’t knock the restroom hallway everybody can get upclose and personal with my art! It will hang until the end of August.  This one came up kind of quick so I had to scamble in order to come up with a hallway full of art. Fortunately I had some matted pieces that I framed to fill the gaps.

I did however discover it’s not good to rush glass cutting….5 stitches in the top of my right foot from glass falling on it.  Ouch!  I promise I really was a professional picture framer in my previous life!

http://www.apresdiem.com

 

Joanne you did it again!

The 3rd annual Encaustic Conference in Beverly, MA was once again over the top. Honestly after attending last year I was skeptical as to whether I was going to gain any new ideas or techniques this year. I found out that just because a demonstration was about the same tool it was used completely differently with a different presenter.

Everyone at the conference was so open with everything art, whether it be technical tips or marketing ideas. I think I just might go again next year! Thanks Joanne for putting together another great conference!! I must say that Cari Hernandez was my favorite. She was so great at explanation and detail that we learned a ton of new techniques in a short period of time. Also Kandy Lozano’s presentation on working large has really inspired me to work larger. Her Rock Star video was really cool too!

Hope to see everyone there again next year!!

 

3rd Place in Trees Atlanta Exhibit!!!

Thanks to everyone who organized the Trees Atlanta art exhibit for charity this weekend!  Wow what a great turnout of tree art submissions.  There was amazing 816 entries that were narrowed down to 66. Glad I didn’t have that job, however Anne Irwin of Anne Irwin Gallery in Atlanta did!  I feel so honored that one of my pieces was selected to be in the show and even more honored that I received a 3rd place ribbon!  It really makes me feel good when part of the proceeds goes to a charity that works as hard at Trees Atlanta does to help beautify a city like ours.  You can visit their website at www.treesatlanta.org.

My piece is titled “Dancing Trees” and is a 12″ x 12″ encaustic piece on panel.  The exhibit will be open to the public for the next 2 weeks. All art is for sale with 25% of the sale going to Trees Atlanta.

 

Another Ribbon!

I received another Honorable Mention Award!   This time it was my ”Rose Petals” piece at The Kudzu Art Zone Gallery this past weekend.  The show was juried by Ronnie Offen.  Ronnie is a local atlanta artist who does beautiful pastels.  Her comment was she loved the depth and movement of this piece.  It’s one of my favorite pieces as well!  The title of this show is “Creative Beginnings” and one of the requirements was  to write a statement telling how this piece was a creative beginning for us.   Here’s my statement:

I recently left my professional career to pursue my dream of becoming a professional artist.  The hot melting wax was a warm relief to the stresses I had endured.  Working in wax feels so organic that I became drawn to elements from nature to add to my compositions.  “Rose Petals” is one of my first collage pieces.

 

This piece contains dried petals from a bouquet of roses given to me on my 40^th birthday.  Truly a creative beginning in my life!

 

Leaps N’ Bounds Exhibit

     I just recently entered this piece into an exhibit at the Kudzu Art Zone Gallery in Norcross, GA.  It’s a piece I did for a show last year titled “Sticks And Stones”.  It didn’t sell so I thought it was fitting to enter it into the “Leaps N’ Bounds” exhibit which runs through the end of September.   It’s a photo collage on panel.  I embellished the photo after I printed it on card stock with oil pastels and applied a very thin layer of beeswax on top. 

My husband, Dennis, took the photo while at the High Museum in Atlanta.  This little girl just walked right into the scupture and looked up without being prompted or staged.  I love this photo because whenever I walk into a space that has alot going on the first thing I find myself doing is looking up!

 

“Abstractions Of Life”

Just found out this morning that this piece titled “72″ made it into the monthly juried exhibition at the Atlanta Artists Center!  I thought that this piece would be perfect for an exhibit titled “Abstractions Of Life”.  I sometimes feel like my entire life is an abstraction!  I strive to have movement and expression in my art, this piece really does that for me.  My husband took the original photos and I then took pieces of those photos and created the collage.  The “floating” shapes are actually printed on a transparency and placed between layers of the beeswax.  I also added color using oil pastels.

Photo encaustics really take alot of manual work because the layers of wax have to be super thin in order to get optimum clarity in the image.  To achieve this the wax has to be scraped down as close to the image as possible using a paint scraper.   I recently found that the paint scraper that came with my heat gun works the best for me.  I have to give myself a break from the photo work every now and then to give my hands a break! 

Right now I’m working on a very abstract piece with globs of wax.  It’s almost finished, look for it to show up here next! 

 

Dogwood Festival Entry

This past week I had one of my pieces accepted into a juried show at the AAC Gallery, the juror was Chery Baird.  Out of over 300 entries about 70 pieces were accepted.  My husband had one of his photographs selected as well.  It’s amazing how many people don’t know what encaustic is.  I find myself expaining the background of the medium and the techniques I use over and over again.  I suppose this is a good thing that so many people are intriqued by it and want to know more about it! 

This piece of mine can also be seen in an encaustic techniques book coming out in a couple of weeks by Jason McGrady and Donna Thomas.  I’ll keep you posted on the details of that! 

 

Hanging Out With Art

Here’s a picture of the latest exhibit  that I’m in at the Atlanta Artists Center.  The title of the exhibit is “Hanging Out With Art” or HOA for short and all art had to be submitted unframed.  I had never done an encaustic painting on paper until this exhibit.  It’s great when opportunities like this come along and push us to expand our creative process.  That’s my husband Dennis in the foreground holding his jacket.  He also entered 3 photographs, which you can see hanging at the top of the picture.