In Overwhelm. But in a good way...

I started to write this last weekend and I'm just now getting around to finishing it...

I've had a whirlwind few days! Last week I attended the CAA (College Art Association) Conference, which was very conveniently held in Dallas this year. I might not have gone if there hadn't been so much encaustic stuff going on.

The exhibition, The Divas and Iron Chefs of Encaustic is on display at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in conjunction with the conference. On Wednesday night, the MAC hosted a reception and artist's talk. All of the artists (Kristy Deetz, Peter Dykhuis, Lorraine Glessner, Cheryl Goldsleger, Reni Gower, Heather Harvey, Jeffrey Hirst and Timothy McDowell), were in attendance and all talked very eloquently about their work. The show is just fabulous, and to hear the artists talk about the meaning behind the work and about their processes was so wonderful.

Gwen Plunkett attended the talk with me. She had driven up from Houston to attend the conference and our TexasWAX show.

The next day, all of the artists, joined also by Joanne Mattera and Richard Frumess from R&F Paints, spoke on a panel discussion about encaustic. Richard discussed the history of encaustic, Joanne talked about her work as well as some artists who work in encaustic, and all of the other artists spoke about their own work.

It was wonderful to see more images of the artists' work and to hear more about their processes and themes.

Then, as if that wasn't awesome enough, the next morning there was an encaustic workshop. I had no idea what to expect. I knew Richard Frumess would be there, so I was thinking it would just be an informational type of thing where he would talk about products and demo them. But almost all of the artists were there with their hot plates set up and they were doing demos (Timothy MacDowell was not there and Heather Harvey was there but just taking photos).

They were spread out, so everyone could just bunch around a table and watch and ask questions. I was a little frustrated at the beginning because all of the questions were very basic. I wanted to get to the nitty gritty! I did pick up a few techniques, but the best part was just to hear the artists talk more about their processes and see how they work.

I feel so fortunate that I was able to attend all of the events. Alone each one would have been great but to experience them all together as a whole was truly wonderful.

More about the TexasWAX show next time...