Tuesday, Marjorie Taylor, a University of Oregon Psychology professor had me participate in a gradulate level class of hers called Imagination. I was one of four people discussing the creative process with the students. The others were Helen Neville, a cognitive neuroscientist who runs the University of Oregon Brain Develpment Lab, Ray Vukcevich, a sicence-fiction writer, and Dominc Sachet, a chef. It was interesting to note that we overlapped in many ways, one of which was that we all felt getting out of our own way was essential to the process. Helen said she never experienced any blocks, and of course she is always gathering information in her brain lab. She has some information for parents and the general public at a site called changingbrains.org . Dominic said he goes to the grocery store for inspiration which I thought amusing as I imagined myself looking for objects to use in my work while walking through the aisles.

Friday I am teaching the high-schoolers again and Sunday I am teaching the all-day workshop at the Schnitzer Museum of Art. I’m not sure if the class if full. I hope so. It all makes for a busy week.

Days are too short!

Time is at a standstill today as the gray rain permeates all. It is amazing how dense the clouds are, letting in only the faintest light, even at noon it could be early morning just before sunrise for all the light in the sky. A good day to drink tea and work in the studio.

New work. I really like this piece. The branch tips curl up off the surface by three inches or so, which gives them an anthropomorphic quality. An unknown creature oozing out of the hour glasses, hence the title – Strands of Thought

It is cold in our house, so I knit these fingerless gloves. I think they came out really really well. I love them. I have another knitting project in mind, and the wool to make it, but I haven’t found the time to start.

To follow up from last week the class went really well, and all involved learned a lot and had fun.

Tomorrow night our cooking group meets for a Moroccan Feast! Ummm, delicious…

Friday I teach the first of several encaustic workshops at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. The first two are part of a very cool art history program for high school students in Springfield. Due to budget cuts the unfortuante teachers are furloughed on 10 fridays during the school year. Therefore the students don’t have school. Lucky for them, in stepped Kim Hanson, who arranged for the students to go to the museum and have some on-site art and art history classes. I remember tagging along behind the art history classes from the UofM Summer Program in Florence, Italy, when I was a teenager. It was great, although I was jaded in college and found that art history classes usually meant looking at a lot of slides instead of seeing the real thing. While Eugene isn’t exactly Florence, it is a great opportunity.

NOTE: I will be teaching a workshop for adults on Encaustic Painting for the Schnitzer Museum on Sunday February 28th. This will be open to the public so sign up if you’re interested.

I just discovered that this site isn’t allowing anyone to post comments unless they are “logged on”. I’ve reset the settings so that it should be open to anyone but if if if someone wants to send me a comment and is locked out, please use my contact page to email it to me and I’ll post it for you.

I have been reading Color, a Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finley. It is interesting to be reminded of where our colors come from and how they were made historically. The book is light in tone which unfortunately adds to the sensation that it is lighter in content than I want it to be, or than it perhaps really is.

I think that the making of your own paint is one of the things I like about encaustics, the sense of freedom and experimentation as you start. I also like to think about the technical prowess an artist had to have to use encaustic before we had electricity. It is no wonder that the use of wax as a binder fell out of favor quickly when compared to oil or eggwhite. Imagine trying to fuse the paint to the surface of a large mural using candles and torches? Or keeping the heat even under the pots of paint so they are neither too hot nor cold. We take electricity so much for granted it is hard to imagine life without it, and when was the last time you thought about the ways electricity allowed you to be more creative?

A few more –

This first one is actually from the late fall as you can tell by the light. So brilliant as it radiates through the leaves.

Ice crystals on the edges of the leaves.

Edges in many colors, but no middles.

Almost the new year.
Here are a few photographs I have taken lately while out in the woods around Eugene.
One of the wondrous things about the trees here, in the winter, is how the lichens replace the leaves. That mixed with the foggy light make for some lovely nature images.

On the side of Mt. June