Most of the work done with encaustics these days seems to be done on small panels. These small panels can be grouped very effectively, but rarely are.
Large pieces are quite rare actually, but of course, that is where I want to go, for a host of reasons:
1. I have never been very good at working small.
2. Large work gets noticed. Just look in any Museum of Modern Art and major Art Galleries...
3. A group of impressive coherent work is what gets you a show.
4. I always found it easier to sell a $5000 painting than ten $500 paintings, or God forbid fifty $100 paintings!
5. I don't like to fiddle with just OK stuff. I have a need to impress myself, to do better all the time. Just a few weeks ago, I thought I might be finished. This project has given me new life and new ambitions. I want to go big and put a worthy show together, here in Birmingham first, then hopefully in Atlanta and New Orleans.
6. I know from the past that 4ft x 6ft is the biggest size I can fit in the van. I always liked to work on several panels hung together, and have done it many times before. So I am considering the option of using a modular system made of 2ft x 2ft panels. They would be easy to ship and transport, and can be assembled with sheetrock screws in pre drilled holes. They can make 4ft x 4ft squares, 2ft x 4ft oblong horizontal or vertical possibly hung as triptychs, 4ft x 6ft horizontal or vertical (a "good" size in my experience).
7. I have always used a mix of symbolism and mild surrealism in my paintings, with references to art history, history in general, culture, religion and philosophy, and this Series will be no different. I have been around so long it has become almost unconscious, and just happens effortlessly, just like composition. I know the rules, but don't necessarily follow them. Things quickly fall in place quite instinctively.
8. My paintings are a reflection of my beliefs, my culture, my tastes, and my personality, and these were set a long time ago. I grew up in the sticks in post World War II France, poor but happy, in a simple world. My Dad, a teacher, worked in the evenings to make ends meet after tending his garden, we saved little scraps of soap in a bag, ate a lot of canned sardines and tuna, salted cod, beef heart and lungs, an orange was a treat, and ice cream a very rare special delicacy at my grand mother's weekly Sunday lunch. Hell, peanuts were a special treat! My dad pretended to like chicken necks, legs and butts, so we could have the breasts and legs... He still found time to be a Red Cross volunteer and fund raiser, run the POW Association, be the lead singer in the church choir, and take care of old people. These were lifelong activities for him. He lived to be 93.
But I had no idea we were poor, and had a wonderful childhood. We were quite self sufficient, as my Dad did everything: gardening, painting, wallpapering, carpentry, wiring, upholstery, photography, art, etc... My mom cooked, cleaned, washed by hand, ironed, knitted our sweaters, recycled them as we grew up, and darned our socks over and over. I had one regular pair of pants, one jacket, and one Sunday suit. We had one bath a week on Saturday evening in the kitchen, in a galvanized tub with water heated on the wood stove. My baby sister went first, then me, my older sister, my mother, and my dad last in the lukewarm grimy soapy water...
In my whole childhood, we went on Vacation only one time, to Brittany (the French one), on the steam train, third class, because of course we never had a car. We didn't have a TV either, and never missed it. May be that's why I still watch so little TV. We sat quietly in lawn chairs on summer nights watching the stars. I still don't need a lot of entertainment, would often rather read a good book than go out, and like peace and quiet.
I always liked to make things, look at things, figure out how they work, and knew all the craftsmen in the village, who let me watch them and play with scraps. The cabinet maker across the street gave me left over wood, and I made a lot of my toys: cars, planes, boats, swords... I even built a couple of "guitars"...! I would spend hours in the attic laying in cutout cardboard boxes pretending to fly an airplane, or driving a race car. I collected minerals, bones, skulls, leaves, stamps. I had a Chemistry kit, a modest Erector Set, a Kodak Brownie, and later a Radio Kit, which allowed me to build my very own transistor radio I kept by my bedside. I never had an electric train, but some of my better of friends did, and they let me play with them. I always hated sports and gymnastics, and was hopeless with a ball. I suppose I was a bit of a geek, but nobody ever told me!
I assume now that seing my Dad fearlessly tackle all kinds of manual projects, including drawing and watercolor gave me the unconscious mindset that I could do anything if I wanted. I read a lot (all of Jules Vernes of course, all of Leroux, Alexandre Dumas, and more), and dreamed a lot. I loved to learn new things, and was always on top of my class. I was in awe of an older cousin that was going to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and dreamed of becoming an Artist, but it was such a long shot that I never even told anybody. I was expected to get a real job, and I was particularly good at science and math, so I became an engineer. The training has often come in handy, even though I only worked four years, and hardly remember a thing they taught me.
I suppose I have not changed that much, and in many ways am still that child, getting excited and dreaming up new projects all the time. I have notebooks full of notes, sketches and ideas that will never see the light, and a number of "Unfinished Projects". There is just not enough time to do all I would like to do. I still read for hours every night, still collect things, still love to learn new things, to make things. I particularly love old things that have a meaning, serve a purpose and had a long life, objects of the faith(all faiths), ethnic artifacts, anatomical stuff, tools, books, mementos. I am the Keeper of my Family Stuff: ID's, pictures, medals, everything...
The computer changed my life in many ways, providing unlimited access to information and images, new ways to research, new ways to learn, and new ways to make Art. It revived my lifelong interest in Photography, and made it easier to stay active through depressive episodes.
I enjoy a simple life in the Dream House I built, and was lucky to find a mate who supported my endeavors and put up with me for more than forty years. She too grew up poor, in the deep South, and was raised with two brothers by her strict widowed Baptist mother, who managed to put all of them though college while working in a shirt factory. We share the same values, and tend to like the same things and the same people.
I consider myself a spiritual person, even though I left the Catholic Church in my teens and don't believe in God. I have studied other religions and philosophies, and found that the basic rule of life is the same everywhere: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". That's all one needs to do to be a good person. Yet so many stray...I do not lie, and can be brutally honest. What you see is what you get.
I wholeheartedly support the ideas of the Enlightenment: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". I do take Abraham Lincoln's definition of Democracy to the letter: " A Government of the People, by the People, for the People", unlike the Founding Fathers, for whom the "People" only including white males owning property and paying taxes.
Large pieces are quite rare actually, but of course, that is where I want to go, for a host of reasons:
1. I have never been very good at working small.
2. Large work gets noticed. Just look in any Museum of Modern Art and major Art Galleries...
3. A group of impressive coherent work is what gets you a show.
4. I always found it easier to sell a $5000 painting than ten $500 paintings, or God forbid fifty $100 paintings!
5. I don't like to fiddle with just OK stuff. I have a need to impress myself, to do better all the time. Just a few weeks ago, I thought I might be finished. This project has given me new life and new ambitions. I want to go big and put a worthy show together, here in Birmingham first, then hopefully in Atlanta and New Orleans.
6. I know from the past that 4ft x 6ft is the biggest size I can fit in the van. I always liked to work on several panels hung together, and have done it many times before. So I am considering the option of using a modular system made of 2ft x 2ft panels. They would be easy to ship and transport, and can be assembled with sheetrock screws in pre drilled holes. They can make 4ft x 4ft squares, 2ft x 4ft oblong horizontal or vertical possibly hung as triptychs, 4ft x 6ft horizontal or vertical (a "good" size in my experience).
7. I have always used a mix of symbolism and mild surrealism in my paintings, with references to art history, history in general, culture, religion and philosophy, and this Series will be no different. I have been around so long it has become almost unconscious, and just happens effortlessly, just like composition. I know the rules, but don't necessarily follow them. Things quickly fall in place quite instinctively.
8. My paintings are a reflection of my beliefs, my culture, my tastes, and my personality, and these were set a long time ago. I grew up in the sticks in post World War II France, poor but happy, in a simple world. My Dad, a teacher, worked in the evenings to make ends meet after tending his garden, we saved little scraps of soap in a bag, ate a lot of canned sardines and tuna, salted cod, beef heart and lungs, an orange was a treat, and ice cream a very rare special delicacy at my grand mother's weekly Sunday lunch. Hell, peanuts were a special treat! My dad pretended to like chicken necks, legs and butts, so we could have the breasts and legs... He still found time to be a Red Cross volunteer and fund raiser, run the POW Association, be the lead singer in the church choir, and take care of old people. These were lifelong activities for him. He lived to be 93.
But I had no idea we were poor, and had a wonderful childhood. We were quite self sufficient, as my Dad did everything: gardening, painting, wallpapering, carpentry, wiring, upholstery, photography, art, etc... My mom cooked, cleaned, washed by hand, ironed, knitted our sweaters, recycled them as we grew up, and darned our socks over and over. I had one regular pair of pants, one jacket, and one Sunday suit. We had one bath a week on Saturday evening in the kitchen, in a galvanized tub with water heated on the wood stove. My baby sister went first, then me, my older sister, my mother, and my dad last in the lukewarm grimy soapy water...
In my whole childhood, we went on Vacation only one time, to Brittany (the French one), on the steam train, third class, because of course we never had a car. We didn't have a TV either, and never missed it. May be that's why I still watch so little TV. We sat quietly in lawn chairs on summer nights watching the stars. I still don't need a lot of entertainment, would often rather read a good book than go out, and like peace and quiet.
I always liked to make things, look at things, figure out how they work, and knew all the craftsmen in the village, who let me watch them and play with scraps. The cabinet maker across the street gave me left over wood, and I made a lot of my toys: cars, planes, boats, swords... I even built a couple of "guitars"...! I would spend hours in the attic laying in cutout cardboard boxes pretending to fly an airplane, or driving a race car. I collected minerals, bones, skulls, leaves, stamps. I had a Chemistry kit, a modest Erector Set, a Kodak Brownie, and later a Radio Kit, which allowed me to build my very own transistor radio I kept by my bedside. I never had an electric train, but some of my better of friends did, and they let me play with them. I always hated sports and gymnastics, and was hopeless with a ball. I suppose I was a bit of a geek, but nobody ever told me!
I assume now that seing my Dad fearlessly tackle all kinds of manual projects, including drawing and watercolor gave me the unconscious mindset that I could do anything if I wanted. I read a lot (all of Jules Vernes of course, all of Leroux, Alexandre Dumas, and more), and dreamed a lot. I loved to learn new things, and was always on top of my class. I was in awe of an older cousin that was going to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and dreamed of becoming an Artist, but it was such a long shot that I never even told anybody. I was expected to get a real job, and I was particularly good at science and math, so I became an engineer. The training has often come in handy, even though I only worked four years, and hardly remember a thing they taught me.
I suppose I have not changed that much, and in many ways am still that child, getting excited and dreaming up new projects all the time. I have notebooks full of notes, sketches and ideas that will never see the light, and a number of "Unfinished Projects". There is just not enough time to do all I would like to do. I still read for hours every night, still collect things, still love to learn new things, to make things. I particularly love old things that have a meaning, serve a purpose and had a long life, objects of the faith(all faiths), ethnic artifacts, anatomical stuff, tools, books, mementos. I am the Keeper of my Family Stuff: ID's, pictures, medals, everything...
The computer changed my life in many ways, providing unlimited access to information and images, new ways to research, new ways to learn, and new ways to make Art. It revived my lifelong interest in Photography, and made it easier to stay active through depressive episodes.
I enjoy a simple life in the Dream House I built, and was lucky to find a mate who supported my endeavors and put up with me for more than forty years. She too grew up poor, in the deep South, and was raised with two brothers by her strict widowed Baptist mother, who managed to put all of them though college while working in a shirt factory. We share the same values, and tend to like the same things and the same people.
I consider myself a spiritual person, even though I left the Catholic Church in my teens and don't believe in God. I have studied other religions and philosophies, and found that the basic rule of life is the same everywhere: "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". That's all one needs to do to be a good person. Yet so many stray...I do not lie, and can be brutally honest. What you see is what you get.
I wholeheartedly support the ideas of the Enlightenment: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". I do take Abraham Lincoln's definition of Democracy to the letter: " A Government of the People, by the People, for the People", unlike the Founding Fathers, for whom the "People" only including white males owning property and paying taxes.
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