Dances with the subconscious

While more copies of Steampunk Fissure magazine are printing, I'm creating new mixed media collages using beeswax en caustic to replace those I sold at the art show and on Etsy.  This appears to be evolving into two series. The first is  something akin to the seven deadly sins, but not quite.  So far the titles have included "Secret," "Temptation," "Twist of Heart and Soul," "Seek", "Seduction," "Mystery", "The Crow," "The Passion to Exist".
The Steampunk series so far includes "Steampunk: Into the Aether" and "Alchemy."

They are dances with the subconscious.  While there are various steps in my process, very few are planned.  I start out with a panel of art or mat board and then choose a vintage photograph.  The photograph elicits emotions which cause the free association of other images, some relate to botany, to nature, others to writing or love.  It's usually only half way through a piece that I notice a them.  By the time I reach thee stage of adding the 3-D ephemera, I have a direction, a guide, but still no set rules.  It's only after I've completed every step except for the title, quotes and gold leaf that I really know where I was going.  It's a gamer, perhaps a dangerous one because it leads to exposure of the hidden, vulnerability in what I share, but the process is so powerful, I can't stop making them.  I could edit myself, do the more socially acceptable styles of art, but that would water down the experience - and the experience is what I'm after, the art which results is gravy.  
These are the various steps. I often stop mid point, work on other pieces, go to bed in that halfway place additional concepts pop into my head, mini aha experiences and I jump up to search for items in my stash.
I start with laying down the vintage photographs on colored art board or mat board, adding vintage ephemera and postage stamps in addition to contemporary Graphic 45 papers, making the embossed papers using Tim Holtz embossing folders and a Cuttlebug, lathering on the beeswax, adding the metal and paper embellishments (Tim Holtz, K & Co., 7 Gypsies)  and found objects, (many I find in gutters as I walk or in the parking lot at work), researching and hunting down the quotes to go along with the main word or title, painting on the pigments, brushing on the Perfect Pearls, complimenting the piece with paper flowers adding the gold leaf (the most tricky process) and adding the frame of ribbon for hanging.  I really like the ribbons hanging the best since it harkens back to the Victorian method of hanging art.

Milagro Art Show

I went to hang my art for this show at Milagro Studios with much trepidation.  When I committed to being in the show many months ago, I was in the mindset of the Day of the Dead, and I did not work except on Shadow Archer Press.  So when the time crept up on me and I had only produced two new Day of the Dead style pieces in beeswax encaustic collage, I felt guilty and inadequate.  I had three oil paintings which I thought suited the theme, and those two pieces - not enough to fill the wall.  But Bethany talked me up and Kay was wonderful when I hung my work which is made out of bits and pieces mostly and while very personal, is low brow art, not fine art.  I talked to Kay about my Victorian/Stemapunk series and she said to bring it and hang it too. So I did.  These too are encaustics but are form my series of perhaps, some would say, controversial, themes.  They were not ready to hang so I worked like crazy, like a madwoman trying to finish them up and figure out a way to present them.
As often happens when I'm desperate I got creative and found the perfect way to hang them which also fed into my Victorian aesthetic. So at the last minute, I was adding gold leaf, gluing on metal findings and working up to the wire.  I was so ill-prepared in every other way it was embarrassing.  I forgot my business cards, could not find the bags and tissue paper I used for Black Swan Thieves Market, did not prepare at all for an art show with all the little details like I did when I lived in my art studio.
But the show went amazingly well, people actually liked the work.  I thought they'd ridicule it, yet I sold one of my favorite pieces. Wonderful people came out to support me including Mark and Mike - who arrived on his Harley right outside the door - how exciting.  And Vicki came form work with Julia, who took lovely photos.
There were a lot of new people including lots of young folks, thank goodness with their open minds and fresh approaches. The wall also looked a lot better than I'd imagined and offered a small body of work, not a thrown together jumble as I'd feared.

Saturday during Open Studios I talked to Paul Flint only to learn he had been in the same last minute craziness, no time to put title cards up near his massive pieces, forgetting he had to fill the back wall of the Art Bomb. It made me feel better that professional artists like Paul worked down to the wire as well. 
Although now comes the usual round of emotions.  A little depression until I start the new projects, the frenzy of creation, the ecstasy when a project works and then the doubts, the insecurities, the feelings of being inadequate and out of step, always out of step.

Panic time

And of course, since I'm heading into one of my busiest times at work, working on two certifications, almost a full client load, (most of those hours on the road), I'm also running into a crazy hectic creative season.  One art show this Friday night.  It's a Day of the Dead show at Millagro Studios, and will feature some of my new encaustic beeswax collages. I'll take the show down the same night but hope to visit a number of Open Studios this weekend,  And then there's finishing Steampunk Fissure, finishing handmade books, costumes, more steampunk encaustic collages and still trying to write more on one of the three novels in progress. I need to start submitting more work now that I'm inspired by selling The Foxglove Broadsides to Clockwork Chaos for professional level payment (just found this out). 
Whew - no time to breathe, let alone take a break.  And the holidays will swoop down like a hungry hawk and I am so far behind in all things.
And did I mention packing?  Yes, there will be much in the way of packing.  Arrrggghhh! Why are the days so short?