The Joy of Learning

Tonight was my first Illustrator class.  Having not been in school for seven years, I forgot how wonderful it is to sit and be taught something, to soak in knowledge that you previously did not know.  I got a taste of this a little over a year ago, when I was thinking about acupuncture school and took a biology class. After working for eight hours I would go sit in a classroom and just be wide awake as I learned about the human body, the make-up of organisms, and the stages of the earth's development. I felt the same way tonight as John, our young architect instructor, walked us through just some of the many tools in Illustrator.  Suddenly I could picture myself as a designer, could see being creative in front of a computer screen.  Moments like that give me hope that I am on the right path...that through exploration of the things that interest me some greater occupational knowledge will occur. That one morning I will wake up just knowing that I am meant to be....It is also a good lesson to live each day and listen to those little urges that make you take a class, try a new sport, go up a new trail, read a new book. The lessons are daily and they all lead you somewhere.

Pods

I am obsessed with pods, in nature and in art. The shapes, the textures, the colors, what can be hidden inside.  

I came around the corner of the Emerson Center in Bozeman and saw this pod light hanging over a large table, housing a light bulb that allowed it to glow. I was immediately taken with it and took photos so that one day I can replicate it. Getting rid of the ugly chandeliers that hang above my dinner table and hallway is on the what-I-want-to-do- with my-house list....I think pods (at least one) would be a good addition.

The Emerson Center for Arts & Culture is amazing and I can't believe that in the five years I have been visiting Bozeman I have never been there. It is an old high school, the one Jamie went to his senior year, and it still has the feel, smell, creaks, and rooms of a school.  There is a theater (Martin Sexton had just played there), public art gallery spaces, and artists studios, many of which act as work areas and shops.  I loved the Emerson and wish that our own Jackson Center for the Arts had a little of it's grittiness and local flavor. Check it out at www.theemerson.org

This is for my Mom....

Holding little Emilia was pretty amazing, her perfection, innocence, and warmth radiating, and watching Jamie hold her was pretty special as well. Although I don't want one soon, I can see a baby in my future. There is hope Mom :)

Encaustic for Claire

I knew before I got too far on this piece that it was for my best friend Claire. The red, the smiling little girl, the playfulness....it had Dibble written all over it. 

Encaustic is a medium that is made up of beeswax and damar resin.  You can add pigment to it and use it like a paint or you can keep it clear and use it to seal collages and found objects to boards and paper. The later is what we did in the encaustic workshop with Judith Hoyt. I found myself much more engaged with the wax when it is used as a layer, not as a paint. 

I have ordered supplies and my friend Babs and I are going to set up an encaustic station in her studio. A heat gun, for fusing the layers of wax, and good ventilation are the most important necessities for this type of art-making....