Concentration: Storge 1 & 2
Hello all!
I have "finished" (is art ever really finished?!?) my first two concentrations in my series, The Four Loves! It went fairly well considering that I have no previous experience with encaustic. I am still getting acquainted with it! I'm finding that it's equal parts soul, blind, bold experimentation and caution, thoughtfulness, and careful planning. There are some things I like about the medium so far- especially how diverse it is- and some things I don't prefer, but art is so much about putting yourself out there and overcoming those mountains and struggles that you have to create a work that means something to you.
My only prayer is that I can do well at reaching at something within each one of ourselves through each piece- love is one of the only things that makes life worth living, thus, our understanding and perception, which is, honestly, so narrow, so blind, so distorted, and so imperfect. One of my goals to the viewer is to reach that person, and to show them something about love that they need in their lives, whether it be a correction, an affirmation, or a new idea- I don't know(!) but I know the Lord steps in in that way and makes himself known and his Truths, his Love known to us all in different ways!
Okay, so my first piece:
I swear I thought I took progression photos, but I think I was too concentrated.
Comments:
So this is the 2nd to final of my first photo. I had a limited color palette to choose from, and so I was relatively limited in how bright or dull the colors turned out.
What I like:
The blue at first was a disaster on top of all those bright warm colors, but once I melted it down and it bubbled out almost like a contained splatter, it looks really cool. I think that this is very appropriate for storge. I know everyone seems to think that red is the best color for eros, but I disagree. Well, at least I think that this dark magenta and red are a beautiful choice for storge. Storge is affection- the best relationship to describe it is a familial affection such as fatherly/motherly love and the child's love for their parents. I like how the divide I put separates the photo- remember, our love is not perfect, and even though the love a parent has (ideally) is so strong, there is a lot of messiness, a lot of mistakes that happen. Sometimes divisions are made and sometimes, they never heal, sometimes they heal but leave a scar. Furthermore, the love a parent has for their child is warm, strong, messy, overwhelming, etc. This love not only mirrors God's love for us, but also reminds us how great, how deep, how wide, how beautiful, how strong, how overwhelming, God's love is for us (you guys should really check out Reckless Love by Hillsong, it's really good; on my blog I might put musical inspirations or accompaniments to my pieces when I'm finished with it all!).Improvements:
I think it just needs to become clearer, whether that be through a clear color design, or layout, etc. It's just a work in progress!
Love is vivid, dark, messy, broken, beautiful. The love a parent has for their child is one of the most beautiful, though beauty is actually a major characteristic of any good and true love. I hope some of these feelings and truths will channel into each and every piece.
Anyway, sorry to rant! Here's my final P1...
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| C. B. C. The Four Loves: Storge 1 January 2018 Encaustic wax on |
Storge 2:
My next piece is hardly as in tune, but it's okay. I think I just want to achieve balance by maintaining the same level of harmony from the start of a piece, to the finish.
Comments: Originally, when I did this, I did not actually have storge in my mind, but philia, so it shows in the different colors I used this time around and the design. I loved the first few steps, it seemed like I could do nothing wrong to ruin the lovely design I had by layer 3. I did take semi-progressional photos this time, which I'm thankful for, because now I know some of the things I did well, and problems to avoid.
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| It's scary to start after you have a base down! What do you do?!?!?!?!?!? |
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| Layer 2 & 3 |
I like using this yellow as a base to start them on, it is somehow bright and soft at the same time, and I think it's a great feel- not too harsh or overwhelming, and just bold enough. Then I used a stencil (which later got ruined (!OOPS!)), and made the lovely design using this salmon/peachy color I mixed. I feel like the layering on this one started out marvelous- the stencil came out imperfect, but still rustic and the perfect thickness. The key was, I think, to let the paint get really liquidy and use a spongey, dab on technique to allow even application of the wax. Also, a lot of patience...
At this point, I was ready to call it quits and hand in this as a piece because it was going well and I really, truly did NOT want to ruin it! It's so cute!
But, I was happy with layer 4, which added complexity without having to totally cover or hid much of what I had already done.
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| Layer 4 |
Layer 4 added another color, and added depth, texture, and some complexity. The bare edges now have a kind of framing, and I reallllllly wanted to stop after this layer because everything after this layer was difficult!! Here's the final piece:
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| Final Storge 2 |
Well-done:
Layers 1-4 went well, they showed a strong direction and good association with the ideas I'm dealing with. The blue "frame" helped really tie in every part of the picture by the end, and I think the piece would look much worse without it.
Improvements:
The piece took a turn with the dark, dark, blue tree. The trees look fine, the only thing is that the stencils take time to learn how to do them well. The grid at the bottom with the red color could do more to "blend" with the above, I think the best thing I can do is put it to rest for now, and I can come back to it later with fresh eyes and will be able to see solutions or see it better. Additionally, I think this kind of inner-tension between whether the piece is more "storge" or more "philia" is what really caused me to doubt what I wanted to do with it. Next time, as my usual attitude is, I will put quality over deadline, and take more time to be prudent in what direction the piece should go in. However this one ends up, it's not so bad, I am just bothered by how hastened the stenciling seems (blobby and messy), and how globby and thick the gridding in the bottom half turned out- BUT I figured that one out- melt the previous wax from the grid as much as you can to clean it, then, when you put your layer (s), make sure to use a thin layer.
