Alicia Tormey

 

Encaustic artist Alicia Tormey is well known for her organic imagery and her beautiful use of the shellac technique.  I get a lot of questions from people who don't quite understand the encaustic art process. Alicia just released a wonderful short video about her creative process and gives you a little glimpse of what working with encaustic looks like. Enjoy her video below.


Closing the Gap

I'm a big fan of Ira Glass and his radio show This American Life. I've listened to every single episode through the years.  In a 2009 interview, he shared some insightful advice from his own life experiences on overcoming self-doubt. I found this advise to be very helpful to me when I was just starting to work with encaustic a few years ago.

Every once in a while, I still re-visit his words. According to his theory, there's a "gap" between the quality of work an individual puts out at the start and that person's potential. This frustrating disparity is often clear to the beginners themselves -- they have the "taste" to know that what they're creating isn't as good as they'd like it to be, but don't yet have the experience to achieve that level of quality. But that's normal, Glass says. For anyone with a passion for something, Glass' words are a timeless inspiration and a reminder that experience is the only way close the gap.

Here's a wonderful video created to illustrate Glass' advice by German designer Daniel Sax.


Children's Books - Oliver Jeffers

I have a three year old who loves books and a significant part of my day is spent reading to him. We read before naptime, before bedtime, and throughout the day. Not all children's books are created equal, however, and I enjoy reading some books a lot more than others (I'm talking to you Elmo). One of my favorite go-to authors and illustrators is Oliver Jeffers. His books have unique stories with beautiful illustrations. He has become one of my favorite artists. My most favorite book by him is The Incredible Book Eating Boy because it speaks to my collage-loving heart. The images below show how he incorporates collage and whimsical illustrations throughout the book.

He's published a lot of really great children's books but he's also a wonderful fine artist as well. I encourage you to check out his work and this short video about his process.

Crystal Neubauer - The Art of Expressive Collage

This past Spring, one of my favorite artists, Crystal Neubauer, taught a collage workshop here in San Antonio and I was lucky enough to be able to attend! I've followed her work for the past few years and it really speaks to me because she uses salvaged papers to create beautiful collage pieces. She was also one of the instructors at EncaustiCamp. Like I said, lucky me! Her new book The Art of Expressive Collage just came out and it's wonderful. The book details her process for making collage and has beautiful photos of her work and other collage artists. Great Job Crystal!  In the photo below, is my copy of Crystal's book along with my original Crystal Neubauer art work. I can't wait to get it framed and up on my wall!