Power is Back-We Can Melt, Melt and Fuse

Ike came through Houston (well, most of eastern Texas and some of Lousiana) a couple of weeks ago. Accept for the cool front that passed through the day after Ike and dropped enough rain that flooded my studio and many other places as well, the weather has been pretty good to those of us without any electrical power. Only a couple of really hot humid days and nights....! Good wishes to those of you up in Maine with Kyle. Hope he misses you.

I haven't been able to contact all the TexasWax/Houston folks to see if all were okay. I hope everyone is safe. We just got my power back on yesterday. Two weeks and a day it was out and I feel lucky to have power now. Phone lines have been up for some time and if you get your internet connection is though the phone line you are good to go there too. If it comes through cable, well, in some areas, your are stuck even though you have power.

I still have to reorganize my studio and get things back in place before I can work in there again but the space needed a good clean and sweep anyway. I mostly lost paper products...drawing paper, mat board a few drawings too large to fit in my flat files. Nothing really precious was lost.

In this part of Houston every thing is getting back to order. Nearer the coast, like in Galveston, the situation is much different. Buchanan Gallery for instance, suffered much damage and loss. Fortunately, owner, Kathy Buchanan, who didn't evacuate, survived Ike upstairs above the gallery as the waters began rising and winds whipped through the space taking out the walls. I'm sure she has plenty of stories to tell.

I am grateful for only minor damages and lingering lack of power. Others suffered much worse fates.

My experience of the actual storm however, was via the weather channel on a TV in a hotel in Poughkeepsie, NY. I was there to attend my nephew's wedding. It was difficult, but I managed to get out of town that Friday as Ike approached. I returned home to Houston three days later, Monday evening, along with technicians who were coming to help repair things here, Houstonians returning from vacations in Europe and such. We were all were worried about what we would find.

The good part.....Poughkeepsie is near Kingston where RF Paints is located. I did get over to the store and gallery for a short visit and spending spree that Saturday. Fun!

Palimpsest - Trayce Ware at Joan Wich - Mixed Media Encaustics

Now showing at Joan Wich Gallery on Montrose.....Palimpsest - Trayce Ware's exhibition of encaustic paintings and house-shaped sculpture is on view through September.

On the long wall facing you as you enter the gallery is a series of twelve inch square paintings, each a variation of the one pictured here. Elsewhere in the gallery were her larger paintings and sculptural pieces.

I fell in love with the sculptural pieces. Sorry. I don't have images of these. There were four in all and sized from about two to three feet tall. They were all on pedestals. Inset into the sides of several of the houses were small maybe two inch deep indentions that ran either vertically or horizontally. These made perfect little shelves or windows into which are placed little treasures, perhaps talisman. These secreted spaces draw you closer to the work making the viewing experience very intimate.
Echoing the house and the past with its secrets are the series of paintings from which the two below are a part.
Tracye Wear
Good Housekeeping #1, 2007
encaustic on wood panel
12 x 12 inches


Tracye Wear
Good Housekeeping #4, 2007
encaustic on wood panel
12 x 12 inches

The painting below is one of the Ware's larger pieces in this exhibition.

Tracye Wear
Family Tree, 2006
encaustic on wood panel
40 x 30 inches

It is really exciting to see a major gallery in Houston showing and selling encaustic paintings and helping our art audience overcome any fear they have of the fragility of this medium.

All images here are from the gallery web site.

Call for Texas Artists Working in Wax

Looking for Texas artists who work in Encaustics. Provide information about yourself along with links to your images in the Comments box below.

TexasWAX/Houston September Meeting and Invitation

Our (TW/H) September meeting is this Sunday (Sept. 7th) at three o'clock at Julia Koivumaa's studio. Bring any work or anything else you wish to share.
Gwen is bringing the movie "Sister Bee" by artist Laura Tyler for us to view.
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This is also an invitation to Houston and surrounding area artists who work in this medium to attend our meeting.
Please leave your information in the Comment section below and someone will respond.