Category: Beneath the Surface

As many of you know, I was first introduced to the use of plaster in my art by Patricia Wheeler, a Maine artist who teaches in Oregon every summer. I have taken Pat’s plaster class five times from her at Oregon College of Art and Craft and over the weeks we’ve spent together,we’ve become friends. Pat was aware that I was teaching my version of working with plaster, but recently I received a message from anartist I have never met, telling me I was “ripping” Pat off and I should be digging deeper to create my own work. I was rocked by her vitriolic words and I immediately contacted Pat to see if she was feeling the same way. Here is a portion of what Pat said:

1. Imitate.
Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique. (from Bruce Mau’s An Incomplete Manifesto For Growth)

You are such a joyful and talented addition to any class and, of course, you have reached the place in your work to be teaching your version of the plaster technique. I learned from Fred, one of the best teachers there is, to GIVE IT ALL AWAY, all the secrets, don’t hold back. He has had many people take up and expand his work in found objects. Fred is NEVER INTIMIDATED OR OFFENDED. it expands the field. You will build your own followers. KEEP TEACHING, KEEP BEING THE EXUBERANT painter you are, just wildly creative. Portland is wildly creative and I hear that in your friends response to your teaching, and god there is NOTHING NEW. There is NOTHING, REPEAT NOTHING, about you teaching a class in plaster that offends. As a matter of fact, teach beginners PLEASE and prep them for one of my intensives…KEEP ON, BE STRONG.

 
Her words bolstered that what I’m doing matters. I teach my version of the plaster class at an introductory level. I teach in two days a portion of what Pat teaches in four or five days. I’ve also taken the plaster process to new levels by using it as an under layer for my oil and cold wax painting, in that case, the plaster is an initial layer of texture, one of a series of processes, techniques, and layers I incorporate into my art.

All of this got me to thinking about teaching art classes. I love Pat’s generosity of spirit with regards to teaching. Michael deMeng wrote about this topic several years ago and with his permission, I share a portion of it:

I have absolutely no fear that someone is going to “steal” my style and run with it. Let them, but it won’t be my art. They may use my techniques but it will never be mine and anything I do will not be their’s. It is probable that other artists using certain techniques of mine will grow in directions that I would have never thought of. In some cases perhaps better. So be it! That is a good thing. If nothing else it keeps me motivated to stay on top of my game.

For a more recent take on this topic by Michael, check out his blog post, The Key to Finding Your Artistic Style, and his use of the martini as a metaphor.

I was introduced to oil and cold wax by my friends Katy and Nancy, who had taken a class from Allan Cox at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology several years ago. I was smitten and signed up for Allan’s workshop at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. I remember running out of prepped and gessoed boards during the four-day workshop (Allan’s process was to put three layers of gesso on our boards), so I found cut pieces of wood in the woodpile at the cabin where I was staying and prepped them using plaster. An idea was born: oil and cold wax on plaster; I’ve used this process ever since.

I then took a class on oil and cold wax from Judi Wise, who introduced me to Rebecca Crowell. I remember lingering over Rebecca’s excellent website, Oil and Wax: Resources for Cold Wax Painting, as Rebecca generously shares every single bit of information on painting with oil and cold wax. I decided I would like to share my experience with oil and cold wax and was invited to teach at a Salem studio. Because the art world is small, I contacted Judi Wise and asked if she would mind if I taught my version of oil and cold wax. Her reply: Yes, of course that would be terrific. No problem on my end; after all, I learned it from somebody, too.

When I teach my classes, I fold in techniques I learned from others, as well as techniques I’ve learned through hours and hours of my own experimentation. My trademark is laying down plaster in a way I learned years ago, then adding layers of oil and cold wax, tearing it away, and adding more layers. This is my style, my brand, my way of using the same materials as someone else. When I teach these processes, I share all my secrets, I give it away. And even with that, what others create will be different than what I teach or create.

I’ve been painting with my friend Cynthia Herron over the past year in preparation for a show in January/February, 2015. Our show, Ricochet, is based on us getting together and painting once a month using a different theme each month. We’ve been working in plaster, oil, and cold wax: our work looks nothing alike, even though we are using the exact same materials and painting the same theme.

In the end, it is all a great big web of generosity, sharing, exploration, experimentation, and evolution. I’m on my journey using all the techniques, skills, and inspiration I can gather together to make it my own.