A New Work in Progress

Oil on copper, I just love the way the copper pops the color of oils! This is in the very first stages. I'm waiting for the oils to dry enough to do some glazing.
This is 9" x 12".
I'm using Gamblin's Neomegilp and poppy oil. Both dry faster on the copper than they do on panel or canvas. The Neomegilp on the copper gives the pigments an enamel quality that I really like.

Finished, Neuropathy: the Action of Pain

It's finished. It accurately depicts how I feel, yet there is no catharsis. I'm trying to deal with the pain and the reality of it in the best way I know how, art. I don't think that this one image is going to help. It may be a step on the path, but it's just the start.
Here it is:
24" x 24" Encaustic on panel.

Work in Progress: Neuropathy

It's coming along very well, I think. I've gotten the background done, the shellac does some very interesting things to the wax. Her hair is almost done; next is the barbed wire.
This painting is a depiction of a bad day in my body. I'm almost done. I'll post the finished piece.

This is all about pain. Face melting, eye exploding pain that drops a person to her knees.
This is all about the headaches that make my hair stand on end.
This is all about the sharp pains that poke me all over; my fingers, my toes, the bottoms of my feet and the backs of my arms are all subject to the wire.

Work in Progress

I'm working on a new encaustic. I'm happy with the progress at this point. One of the great things about working in wax is the ability to carve, like a bas-relief. Also I like the ability to be able to scrape and to use the torch flame to manipulate the pigmented beeswax.

Here's the image...

Time Crunch

I'm starting to hear the clock ticking. My hands are starting to give out, and I have so much art to create!!!!
The worst thing about losing the function is not what people think. The worst part is my art. I'll be losing my ability to create artwork.
I hear the question, isn't there a surgery that can be performed? Yes, there is. But, it should have been done three years ago, so now it's reached a point where it's a life threatening operation. If I had insurance to do an operation.
I'm saddened that the health and welfare of the American people means absolutely nothing to either one of the political parties. It also reinforces my thought, and the thoughts of quite a few others that I know, that the day of political parties is over. What we have is a decomposing corpse in Congress. The rot is killing our nation. Our politicians have forgotten that a nation's greatest asset is not the corporations that own our Supreme Court. The nation's greatest asset is it's people.
Without them, there is no nation.
We artists tend to be the ones that point out inequities in our society and our world. We artists have an obligation to continue to point them out. The fourth estate has betrayed us, presenting us with stories about celebrity bad behavior, when what should have been reported, was what was going on in Congress.
It's up to us, because our politicians don't care, the middle class is too fearful to care, and the lower class doesn't have the resources to care.

Sniffles

I don't know what I caught, but I'd sure like to take it back! I have the sniffles and the sneezes and this is just not conducive to art work! I'm looking at my Angry Chair. It sits on the easel, oozing irritation, and I know part of that is at me, cause it's still sitting on the easel...
I'm having a bad arm day, and these are getting to be more frequent as time goes on.
The doctor told me that the loss of the use of my arms, in particular my left, is in my future. I'm ambidexterous, so it's not that I couldn't rally back from the loss of one, but both?!
Damn. That chair on the easel isn't the only angry thing around here. I'm just ever so better at hiding it behind the well trained feminine facade. We women of a certain age learned that face real early on.
As I've gotten older, that facade has gotten some cracks; I did a series on that. I have to get the panels cut for a new series on pain. Real grit your teeth and break-0ut-in-a-cold sweat kinda pain. I've been experiencing that a lot lately, too.
That kinda pain can take a woman's facade and twist it up in no time flat! It exposes every character flaw, every petty trait, and if a person is smart, then it's an opportunity to do something about those very unpleasant things. There has to be a silver lining, so to speak, into every bad situation. If I didn't have that outlook, humour, and not least of all art, I'd probably just go postal.
Hurray for art!

Time for reflections and a new direction

Those who've been to my site, know that I had an accident. It's caused a degenerative condition, but for the last few years it's been there, but in the background. Now it's very much in the picture, meaning it's time for me to start thinking about my art, what it means to me and where I'm going with it.
I have been blessed with a fantastic group of online friends; fellow artists who are a perfect mix of sympathy and butt kicking!
Friendships in this computer age, have undergone a revolution. People who never would have met otherwise have formed a cohesive group of talent. We all come from far flung places, some of us are close to some, while the rest are from coast to coast.
They are proof that there are good things to be found in cyberspace. They are top of the list!