Blog Triage - HW #3 - "About me" Revamped

Where does your path lead?

Like any slacker student, I am choosing to do the homework I like first before the others. Therefore, for my Blog Triage homework, I am skipping #2 for the moment. Don't tell the teachers!

Blog Triage Homework #3 is about revamping our "About Me" page.

Hooray! I have had roughly the same "About Me" page on Blogger since I started the blog in January 2009. Adding a few sentences over the last few months does not count as revamping, so it is time.

How could my "About Me" be the same if the "ME" part of it is not? Haven't I grown in over a year? Haven't you grown?

So rather than fix up the "About me" page and secretly hope that you never see the previous one, I decided to make a blog post to tell you where I was, and where I am NOW.

"About Me" Before:

I am a mixed media artist trying to bridge the gap between personal narrative and art made for the public eye. My works speak of the ambiguity of our future and our connection to the natural world. As a mother, I try to make the best out of what has been given to me and my art reflects that never-ending effort. It is messy, layered, personal and uncertain – just like everyday living. Found objects, discarded materials and branches from nature blend together with beeswax and hand-knitted yarn to create art that is familiar yet hauntingly distant from its original function. My current work is in exploring the limits and versatility of encaustic (molten beeswax applied hot, resin and pigments) in two dimensional and three-dimensional forms. My explorations include traditional encaustic paneling on panel, but also working three dimensionally with the wax to find out how far it can be removed from its' support. I manipulate the wax using heat, and combine it materials that are not used in traditional encaustic painting. I then examine how it is affected by light, motion, and heat. I love to share my process with others.

This "About Me" is basically my artist statement (which also needs lots of help).

To re-write this, here is a little free-writing...

What's the same:

• Working in encaustic wax and beeswax
• Sharing my process
• Still a mother, artist and blogger
• Being a nerdy, scholarship-winning honor society art undergraduate student
• Tattooed, opinionated, talkative and easily distracted
• Playful and full of enthusiasm
  
• Son calls me "Visser One" and say "yes, my evil master..." when I assign extra chores
  
• Interested in Conceptualism, Art History and Psychology
• Love to read
  
• Experimentation and process art
• Creating something everyday
• Love to support other artists
• Being a procrastinator
  

What is different:

• My son is starting high school next year (that statement makes me feel old...)
• My purple hair
  
• Seeking more of a spiritual connection and balance in my life
  
• Fiber becoming more important to my work
  
• Working more in 3-D encaustic sculpture
• Scientific exploration and research more important
  
• Blogging/documenting a larger part of my creative process
• Started teaching workshops in Encaustic Painting

So let's combine these together...

See my new (and improved?) About me page.

Updated my fancy purple hair picture too in case that natural color was throwing you off.

"Going outside to work!" I holler to my family as I tie up my purple hair and don my wax-covered apron. With encaustic wax melting on a palette in my studio/balcony space, I juggle birch panels, fiber creations and my digital camera as I head outside. Why? Because you need to see an enthusiastic mixed media and encaustic artist at work. And that is why I am here - to share my process with you.

Encaustic (molten beeswax, damar resin and pigment) is an ancient medium that has grown in popularity in contemporary art. It can be combined with mixed media, collage, wood, fiber, and be transformed into paintings and three-dimensional objects with a luminosity that any medium would envy.

Want to know more? Follow, subscribe to my blog, or my newsletter for all the waxy details. I occasionally teach encaustic workshops in San Diego, so do not miss your chance to fling some wax with me.

Fair warning: my blog is not ALL about waxy bliss. I share tips about social networking, art marketing, San Diego events and unique Calls for Artists. I blog about spiritual growth, community involvement and balance seeking. I write tutorials on art techniques and share my own and other artists' artwork and creative processes. I even blog about blogging and make stuff everyday... anything that gets the creative juices following. However, I cannot do all this without YOU!

So join me on this inspirational path as we find out why "Art making is a Journey."

Whew! Let's hope it is not another year before I update that again.

What do you think? ~ Jaime Lyerly