"I'm Your Density"

What's my login again? Five months? Is that an improvement? At least xmas is over, but I'll get to that later.

Yesterday I had one of my incapacitating headaches. Today I am riding out the last of the heavy meds. I'm kind of numb, kind of jittery, and maintenance keeps setting the fire alarm off so I'm kind of homicidal. It's gonna be a long day. But this post is about a major life step, so Ima sack up and keep typing.

Last November I attended a week of artist workshops in Santa Fe called ArtFusion. One of these workshops was on encaustics, taught by Angel Wynn.

The first time I saw an encaustic wax painting I didn't know what the technique was called, but I knew I was going to do it. But I held off because it's an expensive hobby, sort of maybe toxic (at this point I'm sure I have E6000 and Sparkle Mod-Podge Cancer, so what's one more?), and also it seemed really difficult. So I jumped at the chance to take this workshop and learn what encaustics are all about. It didn't hurt that I love the shit out of New Mexico, bonus, so off I went.

The day of the workshop we all headed to the Encaustic Art Institute to meet Angel Wynn. We arrived before she did, so we had time to walk around and look at her art, which is amazing.

When Angel arrived, we found out that not only is she talented, but also beautiful and a snappy dresser:

That giant grin is because she gets to live in Santa Fe, and it puts me one day closer to buying an Airstream and burning down my house. I'M COMING FOR YOU, NEW MEXICO.

Speaking of fire, guess what?

Ohhhh yeahhhh. I didn't even know that part. GUESS WHO LOVES TORCHES? (Also, get you some of that Gloves in a Bottle because it is rad. When your days are as water-heavy as mine are, you need all the help you can get. My hands should be splitting open right now. Bless you Gloves in a Bottle, and thanks Angel for the recommendation.)

Over the course of the day we slung wax all over the Institute and ourselves and each other, learned about Angel's setup, supply houses, do's and don'ts, and got some frank talk regarding selling your art. We each left with four completed encaustic paintings, but two are a future birthday gift for the BFF so right now I can only show these:

They came out okay, right? I was encouraged by this. So as soon as my plane touched down at Hartsfield, I pulled out the Amex and bit the bullet. It was finally time to meet my destiny.

Here's what I've cooked up at home, and I'll try to list them in order:

I'm having a blast. And I have been so busy cranking these out that I have not bothered to take a photo of my setup. I will do that the next time I fire it up. Which will be soon.

Thank you Angel Wynn, thank you New Mexico, thank you Amex. The prophecy has been fulfilled.