Who turned the thermostat to Hell?

The world works in mysterious ways - clichéd but true.  I've finally had my first meaningful combination of photography and my new encaustic skills, but it took a heat stroke and exhaustion to pull it together. 

Let me back up a bit and explain the past few weeks and their effect on my life.  During the past 4 weeks there has been no let up.  I shouldn't complain because mainly it has been good stuff - art workshops, openings, visits from family and friends, and one slightly over-wrought photo shoot.  It was the photoshoot that finally did me in.  A show deadline and the opportunity to shoot in an amazing location killed the tiny voice of logic inside my head whispering "Its over 100 degrees outside...you really shouldn't shoot in a 3 story house that smells like roasted bat guano!"  I blame the recently art engorged right hand side of my brain for squashing the sanity my left hand side was trying to provide.  Needless to say, the photoshoot didn't exactly go as planned.  Out of a 3 page list of image ideas, I got one possibly useful shot and I wasn't paying attention to some pose tweaking I should have done for that shot to be perfect.  Ug! <Insert scream here.>  The backlash for these activities and brain baking craziness was an art block.  Ideas stopped flowing, photoshop and paintbrushes alike betrayed me, and that little negative voice disguised in the back of my head as me but with a goatee had a field day.  I did all I could do.  This past weekend I threw in the towel and slept at least 12 hours both days.  There is light at the end of this fried tunnel at last!

In desperation to do something productive, I shot the interesting bits of an unfinished piece from Arrowmont.  Its one of those pieces where it was a great learning experience and I want to explore the idea more somewhere down the road but its not something I want to hang on the wall - you know?  

 

Perhaps I should not be surprised that in my bout of artistic despair, my saving grace would once again be digital collage - aka slapping textures onto a form.  That is the place to where I always, eventually return.   Hallelujah!  The thing about home is once you return, its the one place where they have to let you in. 

Below is a sneak peak of a couple of digital pieces where I used an encaustic painting for texture.  When I started exploring encaustic about a year ago, it was to get my hands dirty and use my photography to make one of a kind pieces away from the computer.  I still haven't given up on that idea, but I won't turn down the occasional gift from my muse either.