Ceci n'est pas une chaise

I just finished an encaustic piece to donate to the Bisbee Women's Club Chair Auction this weekend. The piece is called "Ceci n'est pas une chaise", or "This is not a chair".

So here's the finished 8x10 piece - my one and only created this month. It was hard to get back in the studio after completing the "Mirror Mirror" series. Now after a little breather, it's time for more encaustic studio AND photography!!!

 

 As you can see the chair has a bit of motion to it ala Dali, "Still Life, Fast Moving".

Side View

After going round and round with the fact thatthis  is NOT a chair that I'm donating to the chair auction, I finally came up with the text and title, "Ceci n'est pas un chaise.", of course inspired by none other than:

Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1928-29

From Wikipedia:
Magritte's work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte once was asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.

Of course my image is not a chair, just try to sit in it. Hope somebody likes it at the auction though.

After showtime

Well, Mirror Mirror show at Subway Gallery Bisbee was a success, and with lots of sales which is nice! Show comes down on Thursday this week. Seems I'd have lots of time to blog after getting the show up, but it's been just the opposite. I started working p-t at the Copper Queen Library. I'm getting used to my new work schedule, and pondering what may be "the next series" to work on in encaustic. Also working on a "chair" in encaustic for Bisbee Women's Club Art Auction and Home Tour.

All that said, I've been thinking about an installation I did in honor of my mother for Day of the Dead show in October 2009. Central School Project Bisbee used to have Day of the Dead show annually, but did not have one this year. Had they had one I think I would have been motivated to do another installation along the line of what I did in 2009.

Anyway, at this point, I just want to post the piece I did for my mom a little over a year ago.
The photos  are scanned from an old photo of my mom from when she was a tender age eighteen. Music, "A Night in June", was incorporated into the piece, as June was my mother's birthday, and it just seemed fitting. There is also a poem written by my mom incorporated into the little encaustic photos of a rose and some with barbed wire - a delicate balance of life, death, beauty, love, loss.

I've thought of taking all the little 3 x 3's and making one large wall piece or quilt. I hate just storing them in my flat file, but that is where they currently reside. Well, back to the studio and re-grouping this week.