Minding My Own Beeswax: Exploring Encaustics

Chloe's Icon (Stacy Wills, 2013)

encaustics on wood, photograph digitally altered

This past weekend, I took a class at The Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural  Center in Ocean Springs, Mississippi during their "Art by the Sea Retreat" taught by the fabulous and wonderful, Kat Fitzpatrick.  

Until recently, I had never heard of "The Mary C" (as it is affectionately known).  But a wise friend had sent me a link to their website.  As I looked over the list of classes to be offered, several piqued my curiosity, but   one definitely stood out - Courting Stillness:  An Icon Workshop for the Harried Pilgrim.  The medium was encaustics, which uses heated beeswax to which colored pigments can be added.  I have been wanting to learn about encaustics for some time now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity, as another interest of mine is icon writing.

The facility and staff at The Mary C are top notch, and if you ever have a chance to visit or take a class there, I would highly recommend it.  The teacher, Kat Fitzpatrick, was excellent, well-prepared, generous of spirit and very encouraging to everyone.  She opened the class by anointing our palms with lavender scented beeswax, and for the next four hours, our group was a hive of activity...and with some pretty sweet results all around.  At the end, Kat sang over us an Irish blessing in benediction in one of the most beautiful, full voices I've ever heard.  (added bonus:  listen to Kat serenade her bees)

Above is a photo  of the icon I created using a photocopy of a picture of my daughter, Chloe, which I then digitally altered using my sacred altering process.  Other collage elements included a scrap of a wallpaper border along the bottom, and for the rose window, the center from one of my mandalas.

 I will definitely be exploring encaustics more in the future - it's a truly gorgeous, forgiving  and fascinating medium.  

Rest

Recently, I came across this quote from one of my favorite writers, John O'Donohue.  It can be found in,  Anam Cara:  A Book of Celtic Wisdom.  It moved me profoundly and as is my wont, I wanted to link the words with images and create a video so that others might find the same comfort in his words as I have.  

I create videos as a way of offering a small oasis of grace and peace...meditation or reflection...in the midst of our busy lives.  Weary traveler, may you find Rest here.

The world rests in the night.

Trees, mountains, fields and

faces are released from the prison

of shape and the burden of 

exposure.  Each thing creeps back

into its own nature within the shelter

of the dark.  Darkness is the ancient

womb.  Nighttime is womb-time.

Our souls come out to play.

The darkness absolves everything;

the struggle for identity and impression

falls away.  We rest in the night.

-John O'Donohue (1956-2008)

Takin' the Easy Way

I just learned about this new app today - ProShowWeb - and decided to check it out.  Now I'm not the most tech-savvy person on the planet, but this app made creating this little slideshow/video SO EASY! It gives you lots of options as far as themes, special effects, music and the ability to instantly share to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more, plus upgrades are available.  I'm sticking with the free version for now, however.     When I find something that works, I like to pass it along.  Hope you enjoy watching!

Summer Story - A poem by Mary Oliver

Hummingbird (Stacy Wills, 2013)

alcohol inks on ceramic tile + sacred altering

Summer Story

by Mary Oliver

When the hummingbird

sinks its face

into the trumpet vine,

and the funnels

of the blossoms

and the tongue

leaps out

and throbs,

I am scorched

to realize once again

how many small, available things

are in the world

that aren't 

pieces of gold

or power---

that nobody owns

or could buy even

for a hillside of money---

that just 

float about  the world,

or drift over the fields,

or into the gardens,

and into the tents of the vines,

and how here I am

spending my time,

as the saying goes,

watching until the watching turns into feeling,

so that I feel I am myself

a small bird 

with a terrible hunger,

with a thin beak probing and dipping

and a heart that races so fast

it is only a heart beat ahead of breaking---

and I am the hunger and assuagement,

and also I am the leaves and the blossoms,

and, like them, I am full of delight and shaking

Clothed with the Sun

Clothed with the Sun (Stacy Wills, 2012)

photography + sacred altering

There is a morning inside you

waiting to burst open into light.

-Rumi  (1207 - 1273)

Source image:  Sunrise at Orange Beach, Alabama

The Agate

Agates (Stacy Wills, 2013)

alcohol inks on yupo

The Agate

The Lapidary's skill reveals

that Time has worked her magic -

Was it a rainbow under pressure

that became the treasured agate?

-Stacy Wills (6/14/2013)

With that Moon Language

Eye Candy (Stacy Wills, 2013)

photography/sacred altering

With that Moon Language

Admit something:

Everyone you see, 

you say to them,

"Love me."

Of course you do not

do this out loud,

otherwise someone 

would call the cops.

Still though, think about this,

this great pull in us

to connect.

Why not become the one

who lives with a full moon

in each eye

that is always saying,

with that sweet moon language,

what every other eye

in this world

is dying to hear.

-Hafiz (1325-1389)