Celebrate Life

 

I am blessed to be the youngest of three girls born to Boots and Paul Johnson in small town Pennsylvania in the 1950's.  The little Johnson girls are middle-aged women now who lost our Mom to a fall three summers ago.  Last evening we gathered with our husbands and father to celebrate Dad's 82nd birthday.  The occasion was especially sweet following a life-threatening illness a mere six months ago.  The courage and determination Dad summoned to survive inspired all of us, even as the effort to regain strength and fullness of life has left us weary.  We sustain ourselves and each other by gathering for meals and conversation, spirited games of 'Quiddler' and laughter.  The menu changes week to week but camaraderie and abiding love are the constants in this well we draw from with grateful hearts.

Mornings

I wake in the morning and stretch like the cat, allowing my body to catch up with my already wide awake mind.  What is ahead for this glorious autumn day?  Will I be in the studio all day, which means no need for 'full fluff?'  If so, I'll just shower, do my skin care routine and dress in yoga pants and a 'T.'  A day 'out & about' means a coordinated outfit suited to my plans and some time at the vanity table fluffing.  The rituals of ablutions and dressing bring me great joy and I delight in the collections at my vanity and the moments of quiet there, preparing for the work and play of my life.

Stormy Times

We are at the breaking of a summer heat wave, and the storms coming across the Lancaster farmlands have been fierce and beautiful. It feels like the storms crossing the land mimic what my brain has been going through.  I am 8 months post falling from our loft at our home in Maryland and sustaining a concussion.  After evaluation at the Mild Brain Injury Program at Sinai, I've had the benefit of a team of terrific rehabilitation experts, and can see ways I have improved.  Yet, there are days when I'm overwhelmed because I just don't have the cognitive sharpness that I have always relied upon.  The changes are subtle; they are not obvious or logical.  They defy easy explanations or solutions.  It's an invisible change that others don't see as "much of a big deal" but to me and my best friend, Eric, they are huge.  I do things like lock us out of our email with a password change that I just can't recall.  And, surely people who love us don't mean to diminish our situation, but when they say "Oh, I've had that for years - welcome to senior moments." they completely invalidate what is a very real and difficult season in my and Eric's lives.  For today, and tomorrow and the next day I'll keep working on my exercises, and solving brain problems and trust God. 

MILIEUX

Opening with First Friday on June 3, 2011, a collection of my recent encaustic paintings will hang in the Louise Gallery at the Mulberry Art Studios, 21 North Mulberry Street in Lancaster, PA. There will be an artist reception Friday, June 3 from 5 to 8 p.m. and Sunday, June 5 from 1 to 4 p.m..  I hope you will be able to attend a reception. If not, the usual business hours of Mulberry Art Studios are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m..  The show, MILIEUX, will hang from June 3 through the 30th.

My discovery of encaustic painting was fortuitous.  It is the perfect medium to marry a craving to make sculptural marks with an exploration of the nature of color pigments - opaque or translucent or somewhere in between. Encaustic is an ancient medium known for its longevity and brilliance, surviving from ancient Egypt and Rome.  I manufacture my paint from beeswax, tree resin and museum quality pigments from Robert Gamblin, then apply it molten, flowing like water, onto cradled hardwood panels.  As it cools the paint solidifies and becomes sculptural, accepting carving and tool marks.  The heating, cooling and carving process is repeated as many times as the work demands.  The completed painting becomes a cool solid shell bonded to a wood panel, and is buffed to a finish ranging from a soft sheen to a high gloss. The sensual painting experience lives on in the work with the sweet and evocative scent of beeswax.

I pray you will find time to wander and wonder through MILIEUX, a collection of 25 paintings created over the past year as I have explored my surroundings and allowed myself to be changed by what I have seen and heard and felt.  The paintings I present in MILIEUX are a record of this year in my life and meant to share my emotional experience of environment with the viewer.  Through this collection I attempt to celebrate the places traveled in our daily lives. I pray to find and record the beauty that lies therein and, in that beauty, extend inspiration, sustenance and rest.