Finally, it's done - my encaustic painting, "Dear M." (click on the images for a larger view)
The ideas behind this painting are of family history, handwritten letters, folk songs and the branches on our family tree, replanted onto foreign soil. A new beginning in Canada. I was thinking of sisters living apart, much like my twin sister M. and me although we don't have an ocean between us. Just hours of driving. And thank god for the internet and a good phone plan. My family has been on my mind these days.
I scanned a story that my Great Aunt Nora copied in her beautiful handwriting onto a small sheet of paper and then I put together certain words and letters to read "Dear M."
Shortly after my Great Aunt Nora died of TB (correction: kidney failure), my mother's name changed from "Lucy" or "Lulu" to Nora. A similar thing happened to J's grandmother - her name was changed after an aunt died. I wonder if that was a tradition in Canada and the U.S. in the early to mid 1900's and prior to that...? Do you have any examples of that happening in your family?
In any case, I'm loving the fluid, wet look of letters written in wax and I'm anxious to start a second painting along the same lines soon.
*encaustic is a mix of beeswax (or similar medium), damar resin and oil paints.
