This lovely little set is on it’s way to me right now – UPS says it will be here by the 6th! I already have the griddle, hot pot, some enacustic paints, brushes, and substrates. Once this arrives I will do some serious exploration into encaustic painting!!! I’m sooooooo excited! And my lovely friend Paula, is working on getting Patricia Seggubruch to Rio Rancho, NM to teach a two-day encaustic class!!! We have a tentative date in October – now we need to get a minimum of four more people to sign up!

So I wasn’t feeling very creative this morning and early afternoon so I spent that time organizing all of the glass negatives I’ve accumulated (I have 114). If you don’t know the story about the glass negatives – here you go.

There is an amazing woman named Laura Stanziola who is an artist and collector of “stuff”. She lives near Santa Fe with her cute little dog, Ozzie. Laura does not own a computer so you have to call her to make an appointment to see her “stuff.” What is this “stuff” I keep talking about??? It is the most amazing collection of ephemera, rusty metal things, buttons, beads, skulls, vintage clothing, old game pieces, books and photographs you have ever seen in your entire life!!! She collects this stuff at estate sales, thrift stores, and through word of mouth. People will call her to help them clean out a house after grandma dies – or when they are just doing a spring cleaning. She carefully prices, categorizes, and labels each object. Everything she sells is compactly contained in three rooms in her home (plus larger stuff in the garage). There are wonderful drawers labeled “Medium Metal Objects”, “Broken Jewelry”, and “Small Bones.” This stuff is an artists’ paradise. I have been to visit her three times now and each visit is amazing in it’s own way. This last time I went with my friend Paula and it was a much more intimate experience than the previous group expeditions I’d been on. Laura pulled out objects she knew Paula and I would love – and love them we did!!
We went up there specifically to look at some glass negatives that Laura has recently received (and called to let me know about). And the story of the glass negatives is amazing-
Apparently there was a very prolific portrait photographer in the Albuquerque area around the turn of the 20th century. He left hundreds if not thousands of glass negatives behind. About a quarter have the names of their subjects. You see all of the “Albuquerque” names – such as Griego, Montoya, Sena, and Gurule when you scan through them. These negatives were left in a shed that has been sold a few times over – hence not knowing the name of the photographer. The current owner contacted Laura about them and has been selling them to her as he cleans out the shed.
I love vintage imagery – but hardly ever use if in my work. I usually like something as itself – in it’s original context – not as part of a piece of art. I do love what some people do with vintage imagery – but those are few and far between. That being said I have used it occasionally – usually when I’m feeling uninspired I’ll break out some vintage stuff just to play around with – maybe to make ATCs – hardly ever for a full-scale piece. I own TONS of vintage stuff – almost all passed down from my mom’s side of the family. I have boxes of vintage postcards, two scrapbooks from pre-1900, lots of old photographs and ephemera. I love to take it out and pore over it – read every scrap of my great-grandmother’s spidery handwriting.
OK – back to the glass negatives. There is something about these negatives that has gotten a hold of my soul. I think it’s because these people look like people I see here everyday. That mix of Native American and Hispanic and anglo that is uniquely New Mexican. And knowing that these people lived here – in the city that has become my home – creates an instant soul connection. So here’s the piece I worked on today. I got this baby (I have mostly amassed a large group of single adult portraits) specifically because it reminded me of Katie – who is always clapping her hands these days. I don’t have a name for it yet either.

And the bad news is that Katie has Pink Eye. And the worse news is so do I! Had a very short day at work – just getting some stuff set up for the new girl. I look like a ogre – one eye is normal and the other one is swollen and red and crusty. No pics of it because this is not something I want to remember. I feel like I just got soap in my eye – ALL the time!! YUCK!

EDIT: it’s almost 9pm and I just noticed my other eye is getting gunky!!!

This guy is a glass negative that I scanned and then altered in Photoshop. There is some of my own photography but it just adds texture and depth to the background(it’s a landscape). I love him, but don’t have name for him yet – any suggestions?

I made this image for “Inspire Me Thursday” – the prompt is “Copycat” and the idea is to use repeated images in a piece. I call it “Layers”. I’ve been looking at a lot of encaustic work online and really want to get into – I have so many ideas for layers of wax and papers and images and I NEED to get them out of my head and into the really real world. We just had a small windfall of unexpected money and I am going to use it to buy the last bits of encaustic supplies I need to get started! YAY!

An image I made and printed today

No art – just baby pics. I just committed to doing a art festival on June 2, so my brief vacation from “art production” is over. I am currently cranking out some new prints and will be doing some resining later today.

Random pics that show the way I’m feeling right now.

You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while.  I started an art blog on Blogger a while back and it seems that it’s easier for me to talk about art than talk about my “life in general”.  As such I will no longer be posting here – please visit me over at my “no so new” blog.