Booth Museum

On Tuesday I took a trip to Cartersville, Georgia, not far from my studio in Marietta. It was my first visit to the Booth Museum. It's a very interesting museum filled with Western art and artifacts. The building itself is striking and the interior is modern and well appointed. One of the chief reasons for the visit was the Ansel Adams photography exhibit. I truly spent almost two hours looking and just taking in the beauty of so many black & white photographs made by the master himself. I think the last time I saw so many of his photographs was on a visit to Carmel before he died. It was also confirmed that AA dried his test strips in a microwave...I saw him do it in the video presentation.

It's hard to explain just how much I am in awe of those stunning photos. One reason of course is that I learned his method of making photographs and processing the film at the Southeastern Center for the Photographic Arts in Atlanta (Neil Chaput et al). My fondest memory of that time was spent in Brevard, North Carolina learning to use a 4 x 5 camera in the rain, hauling my big camera and Majestic tripod around and having Buck Mills as my mentor...I was his only student for the workshop, lucky me.

I do miss the darkroom, the beautiful B&W papers, even the chemicals. There is certainly nothing like that experience now with digital photography even though I enjoy it for its ease of use.

My second reason for visiting the Booth was my presentation and demonstration to the Booth Museum Artists Guild. It was a very positive experience as the group was a good size for a more relaxed discussion and lots of questions and answers.

I must go back for another visit when I can go earlier and stay in the galleries longer. I only scratched the surface.

Sharing

I conducted an encaustic workshop today and I had a great time. To introduce the process to artists is exciting. Since it's versatile, unmanageable, flexible, unpredictable, shall I go on, there is always amazement at just how interesting an image is possible with a little patience. The group was small and since this was the first experience for most I was amazed at the quick progress some made producing really outstanding paintings for their first try. And of course I had the chance to see the progress over the days time and the finished product. I'm nuts however, I didn't take any photos. Next time. The enthusiasm for another workshop will make it certain that I'll do another one. All in all a good day. Sharing with other artists, I love it!

Tomorrow I'm off to commission land. It's the land of great promise and trepidation. Monday is a full teaching day so tomorrow and Tuesday will be put my nose to canvas (oil paintings are on tap).

White Cube

This morning through a friend of mine I discovered the artwork of Doris Salcedo and quickly viewed her work on the website http://www.whitecube.com . Not only was Salcedo's work interesting but I found a plethora of artists that engaged me. It will never cease to amaze me that I have so much information availabe to me at the click of a mouse.

I have the leisure of surfing this morning as I print information brochures on my upcoming encaustic workshops at the Atlanta Artists Center. Working with a small group of artists is really a pleasure. When I was conducting my "Exploring Abstraction" workshops, we had so much fun. I made as many discoveries as the participants did. That's the way it is with mentoring or teaching, a great way to energize.