Encaustic update

I don’t always link my YouTube posts because I make so few of them. Here’s one from four months ago. I’m sharing it now because I feel bad that I haven’t created new encaustic content.

Let’s be honest: I’m procrastinating my painting. I could claim that the summer heat deters me, that even though I have air conditioning in my studio I’m afraid I’ll blow a fuse if I fire up the unit while my power-draining art cart is running. These things are true, but they’re excuses.

I’ve been doing encaustic long enough that I can lay down wax well. I’ve tried different ideas and techniques, like using dried flower material, that I no longer want to pursue. I’m at a creative crossroads and I need to rank up.

What kind of artist do I want to become?

(See here for my previous work. The Undersea content is some of my favorite.)

Sad Cart

I apologize for the lack of encaustic content lately.

My cart, although small-ish and portable, is in a lost corner of the property right now, waiting for a new location. I’m looking for reliable power (the heat gun combined with the griddle that melts the wax are a strong draw) and proper ventilation.

I have all kinds of ideas and can’t wait to get back to work. Please bear with me.

Snail Mail

This is one of the largest encaustics — 10.5″ x 20″ — I’ve done on a wallboard substrate. A piece bigger than this risks cracking from weight.

Toreadorable

You may remember my gamer elegy from over three years ago. The Elder Scrolls Online on Playstation was over for me and a new relationship with it on PC was beginning.

So much for what we think we know.

This encaustic painting is from a screenshot of my toon Toreadorable on Playstation NA. (All of my characters on that server are named after some aspect of the musical Gypsy.) It’s a PvP grab. I’m the staff-wielder with a basket of fish on my back.

Yeah, that sounds weird. All I can say is that, in gaming, your avatar can wear things you would never touch in reality, like a bunch of dead fish strapped to your shoulders.

When my gaming laptop died and I had to leave the PC community, it was as sad as it was three years ago to leave Playstation. But I’m back in a place I thought I wouldn’t see again. That first moment when I opened the game on PS and saw my girl Gazes was strangely poignant. I’d forgotten my toon people would be waiting for me like old friends.