Encaustic Invasion

Well, I'm just about recovering from a very exciting past few weeks in Provincetown and at Castle Hill.
The streets were a buzz, the weather was perfect and the 250 people who came from 35 states and 5 countries were so welcomed by town and to land of wax that I was "faklempt" a lot of the time. (yiddish for all choked up)

I wasn't really able to just sit and watch any full demo or talks. I moved in and out of every room, taking photos, listening, watching and feeling the people of the rooms. Joanne and I made a great team. My relaxed being and her slightly worriedness came together in perfect harmony.

The last 2 conferences I went to in Beverly, Joanne Mattera (founder and director) had said to me (on more than one occasion) I don't know how you do this..... (meaning run programs all summer long). She was stressed out in a big way. This time.....she admitted she was kind of relaxed. She was beaming with relaxedness. (my word).

First of all the Castle Hill staff was pretty incredible. We all worked way over 40 hours both getting ready, during and after! The professionalism that they shared, the ease they made it look, and the constant questions being asked was a wonderful thing to watch. We never did anything this big. We all worked as a team that created a seamless and wonderful conference together. None of us could have done it alone and all of us made it happen. So thank you to Erin Woodbrey, Chris More, Dana Dunham, David Ellis and Brian Taylor ! You really do rock!! Also thanks to Ari, who worked on the tech side of things.

So...lets talk about the conference. I am going to do this in a bunch of separate posts, since each moment felt like it could be discussed a bunch.

Thursday night, 28 people showed up at El Mundo (brand new Mexican place in town)  to eat mexican food and begin to catch up. Lots of new friends came together for the first time. People who only knew each others work from Facebook, had names now attached. Lots of old friends joined together like a family reunion + the Margaritas were great too!

Dorothy Furlong Gardner - Monoprint Marathon - kicked off the Conference

David A. Clark - showing a stencil approach during the Monoprint Marathon

Kimberly Kent - Demo on the basics of Encaustic

Joanne Mattera & Maura taking in Toby Sisson - who spoke on the Art of Critique

This was day one....it was a nice opening, the Monoprint Marathon brought 3 people who approach Monoprint with Wax in totally different ways. We projected on a big screen and had a live feed though out the conference - this made a huge difference. A large room, that people could walk in and out of and be able to see in the back!! Thanks PTV for loaning us equipment.

The vendor room was extremely popular. A colored candy store of encaustic paint to gather up....7 vendors 6 paint makers (R & F, KAMA Pigments, Encausticos, Evans Pigments, Mile Conrad Fine Art and CUNI water based encaustic from Spain. Then we had Jane's Frames who made very beautiful panels from Canada.

Cuni from Spain

Miles Conrad - lovely special colors

Encausticos - Katherine & Mike playin' around before the crowds arrive

Vincent talking about his new products from Kama Pigments

Hylla Evans made special Provincetown Colors!

Jane's Frames panels were very beautiful! Now I need a bigger studio!

Hylla doing a little check out while gazing at the sea.

R & F Handmade Paints all look SO GOOD while being all lined up like that.

I think I spent over $1,000 in the Vendor room....I would buy something and then need a little more of something else, each vendor had something different and unique to offer. I'm afraid to add up my receipts. This was also a good room with tables in the middle to just relax and hang out, check your mail and make contacts with. 

And then there was the light of Provincetown out the window. 70+ degrees and sun each day. A little crisp at night, perfect melting wax weather.

Here is a link to the Article in Provincetown.com 
Here is a link to the Article in Provincetown Magazine
Here is a link to the Article in the Provincetown Banner
Here is a link to an Interview with me in Artscope Magazine


We got great press! Thanks to the media.

This is a little note I received today from Dorothy Furlong Gardner:

Joanne and Cherie,

I'm full. Circuit overload. Still in a daze, 

but it's slowly being absorbed.

I was welcomed, engaged, nurtured, nourished, inspired, 

inflamed and 20 of my 82 years melted away like winter's ice.

Thank you!

Dottie