wax on, wax off: a peek at playtime

peek #1: you blew my mind

Ah…this dance with visibility:  I won’t call anything I do as “art” as I was simply playing with a new medium and unfamiliar techniques. Please know that sharing this is uncomfortable for me, but I know that some of you want to take a look!

lab notes

1: Encaustics are hard to photograph!

2: photo transfers: See peek #1 (above, skulls & heads) & #2 (shells).

3: layering layering layering
In peek #1 above, I did photo transfers of a head (top right) and skull (left). I added 5-6 layers of clear medium to give it a translucent effect, then added another photo transfer just slightly askew. I repeated this three times, then added the center phototransfer. So what you’re seeing here is about 30 layers of medium.

I also let the torch stay a little long on the central head image to distort it a wee bit. I like that it looks like a tree trunk is about to grow out of the top of his head!

In peek #2, I played with a pastel to add color on the shell on the left, which ultimately floats on a lower layer of medium. I also started to build more layers on top of paper with Chinese characters.

4: texture: See peek #3. I was running out of time and hadn’t played with texture, so I whipped this out in the last half hour of the last day. It’s turning out to be my favorite.

peek #2: layering test block

peek #3: a study in texture