I have been working a wax piece for a few days now. I am feeling pretty good about it, although I am still not 100% sure I am done yet. Travis and I have been have good discussions on why I took these classes at Wax Works West and the importance of encaustic techniques to my work. I feel it is worth the time to learn these skills because unlike other whims of mine, like precious metal polymerclay, dapping blocks and writing "how-to" books, wax embodies Mysteriosity. I would be a fool to turn my back and put encaustics aside because it will take time to master.
I have this sitting in the living room so I can walk by it. I have to approach it at various times of day and from new angles. In judging my own work I often try to track where my eyes naturally travel around the piece. I want to make sure that there is enough going on to move my eyes to land all the important sections or details.
Where do your eyes take you?
This is a lot of layers. I have hidden things and then instead of revealing them by removing wax I just redrew the elements on top of the old ones. It is like leaving the leaves on the ground in a forest year after year. The ones at the bottom are obliterated and disintegrate while more and more pile on top.
The shutters are from a doll house. Some of the text is stencil and some is hand written with carbon paper. There are real branches from my plum tree outback painted with wax, although maybe I have too many branches attached.
I think I like the detail shots better the the art as a whole. I am not even sure what that means. Maybe I should go blot out parts of it? Maybe I should get a saw......
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