Preparing for the DOT Show

I’ve been toggling between doilies and dots this past month.

After my show opening at Creative Coworking I launched into dot-making for the next exhibit. The DOT Show has been in the making for about a year.

It is an exhibition of 14 FUSEDChicago members at the Chicago Arts District in Pilsen.

The show was installed this weekend and officially opens May 13 with a reception in ShowPOD7, from 6 to 10 pm at 1834 S. Halsted in Chicago.

Each of the 7 windows included in this unique exhibition will have its own composition, yet, through the connecting form of the dot, they will visually link to the other 6 windows.

I put all the rounds on my Now That’s A Jig! to play with.

But putting the rounds up against the wall put things in perspective. It is quite a leap to go from Frosties to larger installation art.

I used bottles as mandrels to go bigger.

The larger pieces are hard to keep stable without a frame or substrate.

Thankfully a brainstorm with Carol Myers had me running to Michaels to pick up wreath holders, and those offered a nice framing device for my larger pieces.

Curated by FUSEDChicago members VA de Pintor, Elyse Martin, and Linda Sorkin-Eisenberg, this exhibition supports FUSEDChicago’s mission to educate and promote encaustic art, which is an ancient art form.

It is the process of painting by fusing layers of pigmented wax. The flexibility of this medium affords many interesting results. Surfaces can be smooth or highly texturized. Layers of the wax can be sculpted or embedded or simply scraped away.

In my case, encaustic medium is fused to the wire.

Artists included in this exhibit:

• showPOD1  Sue Cahill & Marian Ostrowski

• showPOD2  Carol Hamilton & Maike van Wijk

• showPOD3  Linda Sorkin-Eisenberg & Carol L. Myers

• showPOD4  Alicia Forestall-Boehm & Amy Van Winkle

• showPOD5  Michele Thrane & Pat Lagger

• showPOD6  Joan Moriarty & Karen Tichy

• showPOD7  Kathy Blankley Roman & Jenny Learner

I scoped out the venue and was glad to be paired with the prolific Carol Hamilton, who sent me the dimensions of her pieces while I was still putting together the Creative Coworking squares.

This coming weekend I’ll learn how to solder which will hopefully inspire better ways to create these larger pieces that everyone loves.

ShowPOD is a program of Chicago Arts District. showPOD is a high exposure exhibition space, compact, dynamic, unmanned, and designed to support concepts of art experimentation and installation.

Developed by the Chicago Arts District, showPOD creates an instant art experience in the non-traditional space and format of 24/7/365 exposure to art installation.

showPOD by design can be viewed by anyone at anytime during the life of its installation, allowing a rich public art experience that breaks down the traditional limits of gallery space or museum.

FUSEDChicago is an organization of Midwest artists who share an interest in encaustic, a method of making art using pigmented wax fused to a surface by heat.

Come out on Friday and see how this turned out!