Winter Wax 2017

The only word I know to use at this point is ecstatic. That's how I feel even after a nine hour car drive, a couple loads of laundry, hours spent catching up on emails, and putting all the workshop supplies away. 

Ecstatic that this workshop provided a space where twelve beautiful women tapped into something very good and unique in each others presence. Ecstatic that we allowed a bond to form so quickly among us, that we took part in a greater vision and it proved to have yielded more than we could have imagined. 

What was it? The perfect alignment of the planets? 

The energy of the house? 

The trusting and open hearts? 

The letting go of all things except to be present? 

Winter Wax 2017 took place in a newly inhabited Victorian home. A home that is experiencing a beautiful transition. A transition that honors its past and embraces the polish. A home in Lexington, Kentucky owned by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch and husband, John Govaert. 









Winter Wax 2017 was the vision of Patricia, and in collaboration with Brenda Tassava, a woman who skillfully empowers women to speak their dreams and embrace them, and myself, a lover of sharing all I know and being in full presence with my fellow creators. We did what we do, and we did it well. 

Winter Wax 2017 was twelve beautiful women who stepped up to the table and allowed themselves to be open to the new, truthful in their voice, and above all supportive of one another. 

The art that was created, the stories we told, the poems that we read, the meals that we shared, and the goals we set are all worthy of celebration. 

I'm so honored to have been a part of this very special week. This is the kind of high that I could live on. In gratitude, thank you Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch for seeing this come to life. We are all the richer for it. 

My Bucket List Gets A Check Mark

Bonnard

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Yesterday, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, something I have wanted to do since I moved to Rochester almost twenty years ago. Why did it take so long? It is only 4 hours away, and that is with two stops ( lots of coffee ). 
The museum is lovely and can be enjoyed in a day. 
The take away lesson: Don't let the energy invested in what I want to do be more than the doing. 
I hope you will enjoy the pictures of just a few of the highlights for me, some of which are just the details.

Degas

Jean Lecomte du Nouy

Henri Fantin-Latour

Camille Corot

Friedrich Amerling

Edgar Maxence detail

Redon detail

Fayum Portrait detail

My Favorite and will do a little blog on this statuette - Stargazer

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Just the Beginnings

The other day I went to my favorite art store, Rochester Art Supply ( I also work there on occasion :) and bought some new panels for a show that I am going to be in soon. 
I had no intentions of purchasing this long rectangular format, but my instincts were already stirring when I saw it. You know that feeling of excitement that comes over you unexpectedly? I'm learning to trust those feelings. My head thinks, but my body feels. Move over head! Your job is just to make sure I drive safely to the art store and hold the pen so I can sign the receipt. 
What you see is just the first round of colors. In fact, as I was looking at this image I realized that I seem to be staying with this same color palette. That too, is instinctual, and I love it. These colors really offer enough zing, but are somehow calming and grounding, too. 
It feels totemic and I wonder if there might be an even longer panel in stock, hmmm . . . .

Welcoming the New Year

It's been awhile since I've made a post, and one of the reasons is that I have put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself to write, but I've been highly censoring in what and how I write.
End result: no postings.

I have to ask myself why I would do that, and the short answer is for no good reason. All throughout every day things happen that give me pause and I think . . . "shall I write about this?" but for some reason I don't.

This is not a post about me getting down on myself, God forbid I start the New Year as a Debbie Downer, but more a post of just sharing an aspect about me that hasn't served me and one I would like to leave behind. So, for those of you who are following me, it is my intention to make more posts and even possibly that they could be about simple and random occurrences.  And that would be just fine and fun.

Today I share with you something I find myself doing a lot, and that is taking what I call a selfie shadow. Sort of a twist on the "I was here" mentality. This was taken yesterday, January 1st, 2017 in my studio, a very special place for me.

Happy New Year everyone, may we all have the peace we seek and relish in the simple things that give us pause.

Show me how things are similar first

One of the things I try to do in classes, workshops, and private lessons, is to send out an email that sort of encapsulates the mood or feeling of what we experienced in our time together - a recap between seeing each other. Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to someone I have recently begun working with.  In this, I was trying to point to the fact that my art lessons aren't just about learning technique.  I have learned over the years that I am stressing more the importance of opening the mind to the experience of creating. What is it that makes you want to pick up a brush, a pencil, a pastel? We already possess this language in ourselves and it is beyond words for me to see someone tap into it and watch it unfold. 

So here is the excerpt and perhaps in a day or two I'll find an image to go along with this post, but maybe not. The teacher I am referring to in this message is Steven Sheehan. I had him for several classes at Lyme Academy and I count my lucky stars for that. 

"Every time I have learned something that has enhanced my ability to get closer to the work I want to be doing in my art, it has been through experiencing a shift in perspective. It is as if I am seeing things the same way, but with an extra dimension, if that make sense. A lot of times it has more to do with a philosophy or a slight shift in my mental focus on what it is that is attracting me to a certain setting. 

For instance, when I say things like “show how things are similar first before you show how they are unique”, that is something I learned from a lecture I heard about how Corot painted. One of my teachers took that approach in his own work and really instilled it in me. There was something about that expression has resonated so clearly with me. 
On a philosophical level, I think the saying speaks volumes.  How I interpreted it on a tangible level was to link all that I could together initially in my value drawing of a setting. This would not only give me a map, something to build on, but it would also show me at the very core the basic compositional element of what is to become a painting. With masking in of large shapes and linking all similar values, I can easily see if there is the kind of balance I am looking for, if the energy of the composition feels right, and above all, it helps me to ease into the experience of painting without getting overloaded with stimulus. Ultimately, all the detail and nuances will present themselves, but they will have a bedrock on which to dance."

Thank you Steven Sheehan,  Kathryn 

Unfiltered

Unfiltered; a Series of 8

The series Unfiltered, is a group of eight paintings where I made an agreement with myself to only paint while maintaining an open, uncensored mind. If at anytime, I began to question what was developing, or if the toxic thoughts of what "others" might say entered my consciousness, I was to step away. 

For me, there is a fine line of instinctual play and conscious choice making.  At what point does play become serious?  What happens when we don't judge?  When does applying paint spontaneously and uncensored become thoughtless and cliché? When does impulse get skewed by adhering to academic training? These are some of the questions I ask myself and gave me enough curiosity to find out...what would happen if I just got out of my way. 

This series deals with maintaining awareness, being present in my painting, and also agreeing to let a free stream of creativity flow. I was surprised by the playful somewhat jazzy theme that evolved. Although, in retrospect it only seems natural given the attention I have given my art over the past year. It emphasizes my desire to keep ideas fresh and unedited which paved the way for more symbols; significant to me, to percolate. The repeated quilt motif, reminiscent of a game board, or geometric aerial views, serve as a unifier. 

Each of these paintings were done using the encaustic technique of bonding layers of pigmented beeswax medium. They are 8x8 in size. 

Sidelines - I love quilts, and the quilts of Gee's Bend really captivate me more than any other. 

Crossroads - Been through a few crossroads in my life. 

Madonna - I seem to be into this motif a lot because every time I find myself  "doodling" I do a
lot of crown-like halos around circles. Sort of a Statue of Liberty reference going on, too.
Actually, I was going to title this The Madonnas, an homage to all the other mothers. 

Home and Garden - I love my home and garden, my mom's, and my grandmother's. 

The Game - Sort of surprised the Parcheesi reference didn't show up.
I played that game for hours and I believe the whole time,
 I was just enchanted with the design of the game board.  

Circus - I almost decided against hanging this series in my solo show.
They are such a departure for me.
That would have defeated the purpose of my agreement.
You see how sneaky that voice can be?
I wanted to hear what people thought
 or more importantly see how they felt when they looked at all these paintings.
It was wonderful to see people just breaking out in wide smiles.
That is what I do when I look at them. 

Cafe - I think drinking coffee in sidewalk cafes is just plane good karma. 

Gaillardia on the Boardwalk - Always an homage to the beach.
The gaillardia are always in bloom when I go to the NC beach.
I love to garden, but never have luck here in Rochester with this plant.
So, it will forever be my beach flower. 

A Tactile Experience

A Tactile Experience

I read years ago that we learn to see through our sense of touch. That sentence created such a profound awareness for me. Since reading that, I have come to understand more fully what the attraction to working with wax holds for me, and I think I can speak for many artists who work in the encaustic process. There is something so wonderful about wax and what it can bring to our senses, especially our sense of touch.  Being able to actually handle an object, touching and feeling it creates an immediate connection and not just for our ability to see. It brings an understanding that cannot be otherwise known.  

I travel a bit and have the fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the wonderful products that I have helped to make. One of the by-products, if you will, of these presentations is that I generate a lot of "samples." As soon as I have finished creating these samples, I send them off into the audience so people can see them, but that isn't all they do. After close inspection, they will smell them and then closing their eyes they feel them. 

Many of my demo pieces are done on paper. Sometimes I paint on the paper, other times I will make a print.  As time has gone by, I have come to have quite a collection of demo samples. I have chosen to fashion many of these into books. It is through creating these books that people are further encouraged to touch and feel and become a part of the art experience.