Art submissions

In the spirit of stretching and challenging myself, I’ve submitted some pieces for calls for art.

I’m awaiting news on HVNSTN and the Kedzie Admirals for a Civic Center submission.

HVNSTN was fun to do. I was inspired by Katsy Johnston’s work to actually paint onto a photograph with encaustic. First I wrote some words describing what the town means to me. The purple is a nod to Northwestern University.

I snapped the license plate in my neighborhood a few years ago. It stands for Heavanston. That layer went on top of the words.

Then I painted over the letters with pigmented beeswax.

It got a bit sloppy–wax dries fast–so I broke out the dental tools for a bit of scraping.

It isn’t perfect, but I’m happy with it for a first try. With more time I would have created a better one for the submission, but the deadline was looming and I had to enter it as is.

I also wanted to continue with my butterfly theme that seems to be emerging, so I browsed for pictures of local butterflies. When I did research on the Red Admirals, which I had snapped around the corner from my home, I learned that they like to settle down in one place for a week or so. I cut out the photos of two different admirals.

Then fusing the layers began

I enjoyed giving the biggest butterflies a little lift.

We’ll see what their journey holds.

Artrageous was the most nerve-wracking for me. It is a juried show, so there is no guarantee that I’ll get in. I attempted to create some spring-themed art with Violas, but am not happy with where that went. So for now those pieces are “resting”. Instead, I submitted my Swift Swallowtails. I’ll know in April whether they are actually flying off to the exhibit.