Encaustic, Beeswax, and Mixed Media Paintings - In Progress

Finally, I have some more pictures of my current projects! Woohoo!

Here are the two series of encaustic, beeswax and mixed media sculptural paintings that I have been working on.

I am struggling with the identities and material choices on these two series. I would love to hear what you fabulous artists and art-lovers have to think about these.

The first series, tentatively called "Stories" includes the piece "Weaving my Story" which was selected for the Women's Caucus for Art juried show "Herstory" earlier this year.

"Stories" series, encaustic and mixed media on 12x12 in panel
(c) Jaime Lyerly

I finished the two other pieces after "Weaving my Story" was selected for the show and hung at the Women's History Museum, and then was moved to 8Teen Art and Cultural Center for "Herstory Exposed". Similar materials were used, but I am not sure if they still go together since "Weaving my Story" has lived so long away from her sisters. I finally got her back from the 8Teen last week.

Here are some details of the series:

"Stories" series, March 2009 - Untitled - detail 1
(c) Jaime Lyerly

"Stories" series - March 2009, "Weaving my Story"- detail
(c) Jaime Lyerly

"Stories" series, March 2009 - Untitled - detail 2
(c) Jaime Lyerly

The second series has no title and the pieces are more in progress exploration than finished pieces. Still working on where I want them to go. Any suggestions?

Untitled, Two pieces, April 2009, encaustic, beeswax and mixed media on 12x12 in panel
(c) Jaime Lyerly

All I know about these ones is that I want to hang them together like this. I embedded color in the bottom one and may carve into it to excavate the colors. The bottom one may have more string on it too.

Untitled, 1, April 2009, (c) Jaime Lyerly

Untitled, 1, April 2009 - Detail 1, (c) Jaime Lyerly

Untitled, 2, April 2009 (c) Jaime Lyerly

Untitled, 2, April 2009, detail (c) Jaime Lyerly

Your Turn: Are any of these pieces working for you? What can be changed? Do you work with mixed media? How do you struggle with the endless choices available and how to make the transition from one material to another? I would love to hear what you think!

Update on Mural Painting at 8teen

Update: May 10th painting session has been canceled due to illness.

The mural painting will continue on Friday, May 15 from 9 am to 3 pm.
Email on Friday to see if work will need to be continued on Saturday.
Clear coat will be put on Sunday at 11 am.

Please see message below for all the details. Thanks to those who have already come out to help! Cythnia says that they are "having a blast!" Please join us!

Original message:

Want a way to help your community while doing something fun? Come help the Women's Caucus for Art, San Diego (WCA/SD) paint a mural this weekend!

At the 8Teen Art and Cultural Center, the Women's Caucus for Art group and volunteers will be painting a large mural on the wall outside of the building. The group will be lead by WCA/SD V.P. Cynthia Gott, M.F.A., who is also painting instructor at Southwestern College.

We need your help!

Here are the details:

Who:
You, the Women's Caucus for Art, Art students and community members

When:
Friday, May 8, 2009 from 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
Saturday, May 9, 2009 from 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday, (Mother's Day - Bring your Mom Day!) May 10, 2009 from 1 pm - 5 pm - CANCELED DUE TO ILLNESS

Added dates:
Friday, May 15, 2009 from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - if needed, email for times
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - clear coat will be put on - 11 am

Come to any of the days for as long as you can. You don't need to be there the whole time.

Where:
8Teen Art and Cultural Center
North Park area
3925 Ohio Street, San Diego, CA 92104
Map and Directions

What to bring:
Medium and Large brushes
Please wear a hat, sunscreen and lots of water.

Questions? Please contact Cynthia Gott. Hope to see you there! ~ Jaime Lyerly

San Diego Community Mural Painting at 8Teen - Everyone Welcome!

Want a way to help your community while doing something fun? Come help the Women's Caucus for Art, San Diego (WCA/SD) paint a mural this weekend!

At the 8Teen Art and Cultural Center, the Women's Caucus for Art group and volunteers will be painting a large mural on the wall outside of the building. The group will be lead by WCA/SD V.P. Cynthia Gott, M.F.A., who is also painting instructor at Southwestern College.

We need your help!

Here are the details:

Who:
You, the Women's Caucus for Art, Art students and community members

When:
Friday, May 8, 2009 from 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
Saturday, May 9, 2009 from 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday, (Mother's Day - Bring your Mom Day!) May 10, 2009 from 1 pm - 5 pm
Come to any of the days for as long as you can. You don't need to be there the whole time.

Where:
8Teen Art and Cultural Center
North Park area
3925 Ohio Street, San Diego, CA 92104
Map and Directions

What to bring:
Medium and Large brushes, if you have them
Please wear a hat, sunscreen and lots of water.

Depending on how much of the mural gets done this weekend, it may be extended to next weekend. But don't miss out on this weekend's fun!

Questions? Please contact Cynthia Gott. Hope to see you there! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Beeswax / Encaustic Sculpture Pictures Coming Soon!

My enthusiasm about social networking has gotten me in trouble again!

I volunteered at the Women's Caucus for Art, San Diego board meeting to help get the WCA/SD blog and social networking into gear. This has been great so far. The blog has recent posts; we have groups on Facebook and LinkedIn; and even have a Twitter account for members to tweet as a group.

But what happened to my time? Oops, I neglected my own blog and social networking connections. I promised my twitter followers some pictures of my new 3-D beeswax / encaustic sculptures that I was wondering on last week. I even took pictures on Friday of them for posting over the weekend. Alas, I ran out of time and now it is Tuesday.

Update 7/15/09 - pictures are finally up on this blog post - Unique Beeswax / Encaustic Sculptures by Jaime Lyerly.

Until then, come connect with the Women's Caucus for Art. We would love to have some followers and interactions!

Happy art-making (and time management)! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Call for SD Artists - Alley Cat Juried Art Show

Image from Alley Cat Juried Art Show

Call for San Diego area Artists!

3rd Annual Alley Cat Juried Art Show
Sponsored by the Friends of East County Arts, Inc.

Entry Date: June 5th

Jurors are Vickie DeLong, Director of Bonita Museum and Richard Todd, Coordinator of Arts and Culture, City of Chula Vista. More about the Jurors.

Fees: $25 first entry, $10 for each additional entry

Show runs from July 17 - August 14, 2009 and the opening will in conjunction with the Alley Cat Summer Festival on July 17 - 18th.

Prizes will be awarded in different categories. See the Friends of East County Arts for more details and Prospectus.

Happy Art Making and Show Entering! ~ Jaime Lyerly

Selling Art Online

So I have only just begun to think about really selling my art online. I tried a few years ago to sell on eBay, but mostly it was just stuff and not art.

As I look to this new bright future with my art going out into the world, I am overwhelmed by the choices available.

Here is a quick list of free or pay per sale places that I have come up with:

Etsy
Foundmyself
eBay
ArtFire
Deviant Art
Imagekind

Then there are also the pay to be a member ones:

Boundless Gallery
ArtSpan


And there are the ones where they make your art into stuff that people buy like T-shirts and coffee mugs:

Cafe Press

I am sure that there are a million more of each of these categories. This list does not even include when you sell art from your own website or Google shopping cart. So many choices!

Your Turn: Help me sort these out! Any suggestions on which one of these is worthy of my time to turn my art viewers into art buyers? I am also looking for art exposure more than quick sales if that makes a difference on which one to choose. Share your knowledge!

Overwhelmed by choices - but still Creatively yours ~ Jaime Lyerly

Choose NOT to be Scared

Swine Flu
Layoffs
Recession
Terrorism
Foreclosure
Salmonella
Unsafe Travel Abroad
Plane Crash
Tijuana, Mexico Gangs
Life after College

I choose not to be scared.

For the past months (dare I say years?) we have heard nothing on the news but things to be scared about. Swine Flu is the newest threat and everyone could get this airborne disease and die. We are in a recession so our homes go into foreclosure. You may get laid off of your job so watch your pennies. Salmonella taints your chicken and who knows where tuberculous could strike. Go traveling abroad and you may get kidnapped and held hostage or shot down in Tijuana; provided that you don't die in a plane crash before you get there.

I choose not to be scared.

I am making the choice not to be scared, no matter what the news says. Applying this attitude to the last scary item on my list is harder - life after college.

Being in college now is wonderful. I can make art, learn everyday, study abroad all while working part time and receiving scholarships, loans and grants to help me pay for it. But what happens when I get my BA? In this scary economy, where will the jobs be? What will I be able to do with my BA in Art, emphasis in sculpture? Is there a job with this type of training or do I need to go on to a MFA? Could I even pay for a program like that? I am only a year away from graduating - what happens then? Family tells me that I have to grow up (I am almost 32 years old...) and get a real job instead of doing this whole art thing. But why would I want to do that?

I have to choose not to be scared. No matter what the news or family or the environment tells me, it is my choice on whether or not to react to it.

I choose not to be scared. What is your choice?

Artists - Design your PowerPoint presentation

photo (c) Freefoto.com

Isn't great when the information you need falls into your lap right when you need it? Talk about synchronicity, energy, attraction or whatever - it happens all the time.

My connection today is has to do with my Japan and China Study Tour scheduled for this summer. Although the trip is not going to include studio time like I had originally thought, we are still going to visit two art colleges, one in China and one in Japan. Now to the exciting news...

I have volunteered to give a presentation of my art a group of about 50 students at a university in Japan! It is a great opportunity for me.

I am so excited to present my art to a captive and international audience. Public speaking is hard for me, and I am not sure how the language barrier will be addressed. Will there be an interpreter? Do I need to calculate my presentation time and speech to include this interpretation? Are they going to be culturally offended by my artistic nudes? Are all the students going to be studio art majors? Will there be time for questions? These questions lead back to presentation itself.

Enter the synchronicity! The article waiting for me in my inbox today is called Design your PowerPoint presentation from Alyson Stanfield, the Art Biz Coach. This post reminded me that 1. Start working on my presentation NOW, 2. Text on the slides will just distract them from my art, and 3. Practice, practice, practice my speech so I won't be so nervous. Wonderful! Please check it out.

For artists who are not in the know yet, let me enlighten you to the power of the Art Biz Coach. Alyson Stanfield's Art Biz Coach newsletter, blog, and book "I'd rather be in the studio!" are amazing resources for artists who are marketing themselves. The newsletter comes every Monday and is brilliant start your week. It will help you promote your art, figure out why you need to blog, and help you make your time out of the studio more productive. It kicks me into gear to promote myself, and reminds me why I started my blog - to connect with other artists! If you haven't noticed, most of my blog posts are written on Monday. Guess why? You got it!

So now that I have turned you on to the Art Biz Coach's fabulousness, you can help me with my "Your turn" section! I love hearing from you super-talented and super-helpful artists!

Your Turn: What do you do to prepare for a presentation of your art via PowerPoint? Is there something in Alyson's article that you don't agree with (bullet points, perhaps)? Anyone ever had to deal with a language and cultural barrier when preparing and giving a presentation?

Until next time, happy art-making! Enjoy the journey! ~ Jaime

April is National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and I almost forgot!

When I was an English major, poetry, especially American poetry, was my specialty. I wrote it, studied it, memorized it, listened to recordings of it and talked about it. Now poetry is not a huge part of my life. I miss it. I still have many poems trapped in my brain, but now they are snips and clips of there former selves.

So to honor the National Poetry Month and my , I give you former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Ironically, his poem "Forgetfulness" is one of the only poems that I can still quote by heart. He is by far the most accessible contemporary poet. With his causal and non-elitist voice, he brings poetry to the masses. There are many recordings of him reading his poetry which you can access on his website. He also uses the ordinary to access the extraordinary which I think is the goal of most poetry.

Enjoy this poem and find others to connect with!

Forgetfulness by Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusions, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a small fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watch the quadratic equation packs its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever you are trying to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up a date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

Your Turn: What poems can you not live without? Are you celebrating National Poetry Month with reading or writing of poetry? Can poetry be made necessary in everyday life?

Selling Art Online

So I have only just begun to think about really selling my art online. I tried a few years ago to sell on eBay, but mostly it was just stuff and not art.

As I look to this new bright future with my art going out into the world, I am overwhelmed by the choices available.

Here is a quick list of free or pay per sale places that I have come up with:

Etsy
Foundmyself
eBay
ArtFire
Deviant Art
Imagekind

Then there are also the pay to be a member ones:

Boundless Gallery
ArtSpan


And there are the ones where they make your art into stuff that people buy like T-shirts and coffee mugs:

Cafe Press

I am sure that there are a million more of each of these categories. This list does not even include when you sell art from your own website or Google shopping cart. So many choices!

Your Turn: Help me sort these out! Any suggestions on which one of these is worthy of my time to turn my art viewers into art buyers? I am also looking for art exposure more than quick sales if that makes a difference on which one to choose. Share your knowledge!

Overwhelmed by choices - but still Creatively yours ~ Jaime Lyerly

Substance over quantity?

I love blogging. I can honestly admit it now. Writing about art and life. Having interested (and interested) readers responding to what I write. Wonderful!

But I still question how long it takes me to write a post. I have tons of ideas and want each one of them to substance and relevance to my readers. (The fact that I actually have readers makes me want to jump up and down, yelling "YIPEE!") As being a visual person, I also need to have pictures on each of my post. Yet I cram all this into an already jammed tight schedule, shoving out other worthy activities to satisfy my craving for some blogging. Something has to give, and I am not sure what it is going to be.

Do I give in and just post "fillers" like this to keep my blog active? Is there room in my life for all of the above? These questions linger in my mind as I watch the time gallop towards the eight P.M. hour.

Your Turn: My question to you, my beloved reader, do you want substance or quanitity? Personally, I want them both, but I am usually happy to get substance once a week over fast food every day. But what do you want? Please share your thoughts with me as I work out how to go further with my blog.

Body Worlds Exhibit - Amazing Uncomfortable Learning!

Since yesterday was so busy, I am blogging about my new "uncomfortable learning" experience today. Find out about my last uncomfortable learning experience here.

Yesterday, my Life Drawing class went on a field trip to the San Diego Natural History Museum to see the Body Worlds & The Brain- Our Three-Pound Gem exhibit. It was amazing!

The exhibit is of real bodies and body parts preserved using a method called "Plastination" which was developed by the show's creator Gunther von Hagens. The bodies were donated by people for the purpose of being used for this exhibition. The plastination process is too complex to go into here, but you can learn more about it by going to the link above. The result of this plastination are real bodies preserved for us to study anatomy in a whole new way!

This experience falls under my category of "Uncomfortable Learning" because of the creepiness factor. These are real bodies - very human and very similar to my own body. Last time there was a show like this in San Diego, I talked myself out of going. Do I want to see real bodies without their flesh on? Is it going to be like attending an autopsy? Ick! No, not for me.

But this time, it was required for my Life Drawing class (although I could have gotten out of it), so I had to go. The tickets are quite expensive for the show too, so that was also a factor. However since we got a group rate and a student discount, I couldn't pass up the chance to see them. Gross or not, I was going!

As an artist, I am fascinated by the figure, especially figurative sculpture. It is also one of the hardest areas to study because all of the learning materials are two-dimension representations or live models who have to move positions frequently. There is a book called "Virtual Pose" which is the newest form of learning the figure. It is has .jpgs on a CD-rom which are viewed with Quicktime. These models, which are posted like they would be for a figure drawing class, can be rotated 360 degrees, and zoomed in to see all the details. As great as these references are, they are still lacking - and usually with that pesky skin covering up all the muscles!

So my uncomfortable learning experience was to go through this exhibit and sketch some of the plastinates (their proper name for the preserved bodies). My instructor required only one drawing of leg muscles, but I found myself sketching throughout the exhibit. Here are two of the quick drawings that I did that day.

Drawing is not my strong suit, but I think you get the idea of what I was seeing and experiencing. The full body drawing was of a woman who was five-months pregnant when she died. The baby is preserved inside her belly and it is silt open to see how it fits in. The back is also slit open so you can see her black smoker's lung which the cause of her death. This makes me so sad, but it also is a rare opportunity to see inside our most amazing bodies.

There were other fetuses in the show, as well as embryos in viewing tubes. This is the most controversial part of the show. I have no problem with this show, and think that anyone, but especially artists, could benefit from seeing it. The most uncomfortable part of the show for me was seeing the fetuses, and the shock of those first few plastinates.

Towards the end of the exhibit space, they had plastinates in very dynamic poses. The pose called "Head Diver" was particularly spectacular. It had the internal organs in a standing stationary position, the head and some muscles leaning forward in a diving position, and the skeleton and rest of the muscles leaning backwards. The words do not do it justice.

I am so glad I got out of my comfort zone and experienced the Body World exhibit!


Your Turn: What kind of uncomfortable learning experiences have you had? Ever step outside of your comfort zone and been amazed by the experience? If we have amazing experiences, why do we stay in our comfort zone?

Encaustic Painting Series - "Forbidden Fruit"

"Forbidden Fruit" series 1 - Installation view

For all you artists who have been enduring my rambling about things other than art, thank you! I am happy to share with you my new series of encaustic paintings. The photographs of the piece could be better, and I am still working out exactly how I want to install them. However, I think they are ready for your viewing pleasure. I would love to know your opinions on these.

First - The skinny on the "Forbidden Fruit" series -

Technique: 16 6x6x2 inch artist boards. Self-portrait ink jet photographs printed on rice paper. The photos are layered with encaustic medium. The medium is manipulated with tools and heat.
Concept: "Forbidden Fruit" explores the idea of Eve and "original sin." With one bite of the fruit, Eve brings knowledge but also pain and suffering. The fruit that has caused all the problems is now gagged into the mouths of all women. This gagging is my main interest.

Now to the piece:
Forbidden Fruit - by Jaime Lyerly. April 2009. Installation view above, and details of individual pieces below.

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 1

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 2

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 3

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 4

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 5

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 6

Forbidden Fruit series 1- Detail 7

Forbidden Fruit series 1 - Detail 8

Your Turn: Please share your thoughts with me about this series. Do they affect you? How about the installation? Anything else you want to say?

Happy Art Making! ~ Jaime

Closer to my journey - China and Japan Prep

More good news was delivered to be via email today, with the disclaimer of pending final approval from SDSU...

I have been selected as the 2009 Fu Scholar!

What does that mean? It means I win a scholarship for $1000 from Scholars Without Borders donated by the Charles Wei-Sun Fu Foundation to help fund my upcoming study tour of Japan and China. To read more about my special trip, check out this post.

I am, again, humbled and honored to receive something so special. Add this to my Mortar Board acceptance, and we have a super start to the week! I cannot wait to see what tomorrow has in store for me.

Speaking of tomorrow, we have the meeting for the Japan and China study tour tomorrow, which should be fun. I hope we will get the itinerary, since I am dying to plan my art making accordingly.

In preparation for my adventure, I was thinking of preparing some travel-friendly substrates and/or journals to write and collage in, but I am not sure where to start. Maybe I can print out maps of where we are going and glue them into the pages to have an instant background. Nothing is scarier than a blank page. Any suggestions on what I should bring to create on-the-spot art and memories?

Thanks again for letting me share my accomplishments with you. For all of you who are waiting patiently for me to get back to talking about art, I have a new encaustic painting series completed and I am working on getting photos up for it. They are not your typical encaustic paintings, but I hope you will find them intriguing. Until then, help me out with answering my "Your Turn" challenge question.

Your turn: How do you get prepared for an art related trip? Do you prepare substrates before hand so they are ready? What are the bare minimum supplies you would take for this kind of adventure? Love to hear your ideas!

Keep creating and leaping for your creative dreams! ~ Jaime

Nerdiest Art Major EVER!

Today was a shock! In my Life Drawing class today, we did two three-minute warm ups with charcoal. Then my instructor said we were going to move on to something else. As I am drinking my tea and cleaning off charcoal from fingers, I look up to see about 5 people all in black graduation caps and gowns. My heart skipped and I got all shaky. They call out my name, and I raise my hand. They read the following piece of paper aloud to my class:

"Jaime Lyerly is an Art major and a Psychology minor with a 3.93 GPA. She is a member of Scholars Without Borders, the SDSU Foundry Co-Op, the Women's Caucus for Art, the Association of Nontraditional Students in Higher Education and the American Association of University Women. Jaime volunteers at the Women's History Museum and Educational Center and (formerly) Avocado Elementary School where she gave monthly art lessons and has helped redesign the entire Art Docent program to include multimedia"

I stood there shocked as they pinned a little blue ribbon to my shirt and handed me a black folder with my name and Mortar Board written on it. I mumbled a thank you and my instructor asked them to tell the class more about this society. I waited patiently to get back to drawing.

I was selected for the Mortar Board, a senior Honor Society my university, San Diego State University. Out of about 3,000 eligible students, I am one of the 41 selected. There are over 33,000 students at SDSU, so I am in the top 1% of the university.

The students must apply, and be outstanding in all three areas of Service, Scholarship and Leadership. We must have great grades, professional and leadership affiliations, service to our communities, and have a recommendation from a former professor who thinks we are super. The trick is that they don't send you a nice letter or email notifying you. They notify the selected by "tapping" you unexpectedly during your classes. This is what I experienced today!

So I have officially earned the title of "Nerdiest Art Major EVER!"

Thanks for letting me share my accomplishments with you. Will be posting some more art related stuff soon, so come back to my blog often!

Until next time, keep creating your dreams! ~ Jaime