Conference Post, Late But Not Forgotten

Late to report (life happens) but here it is.
In Dallas this year, the conference, as usual, was crammed with interesting on-site and off-site programs and presentations that made it difficult to choose just which session or what program to attend.
Highlights for me were he retrospective of J.M.W. Turner was at the Dallas Museum of Art. Wonderful! And by-the-way, this exhibition is up through May 18.
I was particularly pleased to see sessions by artists working in wax...Divas and Iron Chefs, in particular, was a great panel and session. Divas and Iron Chefs is the title of a traveling exhibition of work from artists who range in age, gender and age; who hail from different parts of the United States and whose work presents a variety of messages. The tie that binds is that all the work in this exhibition is made with wax in some way. They began with a gallery talk at their exhibition at The MAC (McKinney Avenue Contemporary) on Wednesday evening.
All artists were in attendance though some came running in just in the nick of time because of flight delays. The MAC, by-the-way, is a great space in Dallas
Divas and Iron Chefs panel session at the conference hotel on Thursday afternoon, included all exhibiting artists as well as Joanne Mattera, (artist, instructor, curator, author) whose topic was Contemporary Encaustic Painting and Richard Frumess, owner and co-founder of RFPaints, whose topic was Encaustic Painters in Ancient Times.
On Friday morning some of the artists held a hands-on workshop at an off-site campus.

This announcement is from Pegasus News:
Curated by Reni Gower of Virginia Commonwealth University, the exhibit features contemporary encaustic paintings from eight artists representing Canada and the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast regions of the United States. Made from pigment, melted beeswax and resin, encaustic paint is fixed with heat after it is applied to the canvas. While an ancient technique, the exhibition highlights the diversity of hot-wax painting, produced in a detailed, sensuous style with exquisite beauty. Once an obsolete technique, encaustic (hot wax) is now recognized both for its exquisite beauty and incredible versatility. The featured artists include Kristy Deetz, Peter Dykhuis, Lorraine Glessner, Cheryl Goldsleger, Reni Gower, Heather Harvey, Jeffrey Hirst and Timothy McDowell are among those who helped turn this legendary paint of the Fayum mummy portraits into a mainstream contemporary medium.

Another personal highlight was the collaborative exhibition of the two newly formed Texas WAX groups in Houston and Dallas. The opening reception was Friday night at Collaborating Artists Media Projects...CAMP. It was exciting for me to finally meet the artists in the Dallas group and see their work in person. See images at TexasWAX/Houston site.
A big THANKS to CAMP for hosting our exhibition and to Deanna Wood, founder of TexasWAX/Dallas and that whole group who did all the ground work for this project.

New Year's This and Thats

Resolutions list finished, goals set, reservations made and the new year has begun. If I keep all my promises, I will be a busy girl.
First things first...new grandchild is due this month and I will catch the plane on the 15th and hope I get to California before He/She ? arrives. Due date: Jan.24. My daughter's first child.
CAA in Dallas comes near the end of February and I plan to attend. And then there's the Encaustic Conference in June up in Beverly, MA. Is there time in-between to get work done in the studio? There better be!
In between travel time and studio time I blog now, and this has added a new dimension to my in-house time.
I am not so patient to spend hours reading on the computer....too long winded and I'm out of there...but some blogs have caught my fancy. The ones I enjoy the most are those that are informative, witty, not too personal and have good pictures.
So far, my favorite is Joanne Mattera's blog. Exhibition reviews-informative, witty comments, good pictures, not too personal. Great! From there, Joanne has a long list of pretty interesting links on her site. I check them out occasionally.
The Forum at RF Paints, is also a good place to visit, with all kinds of good information. Besides, you can shop there too!
When I'm bored or can't sleep, I check out the artists' newly listed web sites. Beats solitaire!
But sometimes I publish a new post on my blog.
Happy New Year 2008!