November Show at Capitol Contemporary Gallery

Connie Wood’s work springs from her attempt to see the natural world and its inhabitants clearly, to explore, discover and uncover its patterns and layers, and to share what she sees. The most recent work explores the vastness of the great southwestern canyonlands distilled to its essence in abstraction. Wood’s work reflects her vision of the geography and sense of place. Layers of history and discovery through accretion and excavation in Wood’s paintings become metaphor for her experience. Artistic process mimics natural process: building up and carving away, sedimentation and erosion. Wood draws on the intuitive and the decisive while applying and effacing the multiple layers of paint and wax, freeing the viewer from the distractions of literal depiction.
Wood gives a nod to the Abstract Expressionists in her work. These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. The imagery was primarily abstract. Even when depicting images based on visual realities, they favored a highly abstracted mode.                                                       From Wood's internalized landscapes she extracts memories of visual impressions— the vastness, the light, the shifting colors and textures, then distills her experience to its essence using encaustic wax, oil paint, and cold wax on panel.  

Encaustic Arts Magazine →

I am honored to have the cover and an article in Encaustic Arts Magazine Winter Edition 2022. Copies are available by order on demand at the link provided.

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Featured Artist: Connie Wood

Emily Dickinson wrote that “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” This year it has been those “things with feathers” that have filled me with hope. 

Meet Local Artist, Connie Wood

Connie Wood is an Idaho artist working in encaustic and mixed media. She lives in the Hagerman Valley and pulls inspiration from her surroundings for most of her artwork.  As a high school and college art and graphic design instructor she’s taught in all mediums. Settling on the ones that most suited her, she left teaching and started working full time as a visual artist. 

We asked Connie a few questions about her career as an artist:

Where did it all start? When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

I always liked to draw, but more than that, drawing became a way for me to really see and learn about the world.  I decided I had potential as an artist after drawing birds, maps, and portraits at the age of 10. I received a camera for my 12th birthday when I lived in Great Britain and began developing composition skills while recording images. Photography helped me build my visual vocabulary. 

What inspired this recent body of work? 

The pandemic isolation has been the perfect incubator for this new body of work. For me the only true way to see is to take the time to thoughtfully, quietly and meditatively observe. I began identifying various species in my backyard—creatures that previously fell under the generic umbrella of bird. Casual observation led to study, then to tracking migrations, close-up examination of individuals through the camera lens, and eventually to paintings.

Through frequent and extended observation, I came to recognize and appreciate their individuality—their differences from and similarities to humans. Time spent studying their habits—their determined travel across oceans and continents, the merciless predation of one species on another, and the cooperative behaviors—the V-shaped flight patterns of geese and the fish herding of pelicans—reinforced my affinity for birds and my desire to depict them. 

I came to see birds as companions and neighbors in the enforced solitude. The cedar waxwings that festooned the Russian olive trees, the chittering kingfisher that greeted me as I crossed my backyard, the dozens of species of waterfowl that paddled politely out of easy camera range as I walked the shoreline at the WMA, the excitement of sighting my first pair of Sandhill cranes striding across a field—these moments of immersion in the bird world were a gift, not a cost of the pandemic. 

Emily Dickinson wrote that “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.” This year it has been those “things with feathers” that have filled me with hope. 

How have our Idaho communities inspired you as an artist?

I’ve lived in Idaho the majority of my life and have sometimes found it challenging to see beauty in the dry desert monotone surrounding me.

In taking time to look closer, to explores complex ecosystems, and consider the fragile environment, I’ve found and embraced that beauty. This year I’ve been stunned by the variety, intricacy, and beauty of the bird community in our midst.  I often use animal imagery with indirect reference to human behavior in hopes of raising questions about how our environment and resources are being used and misused. If we examine our interactions with the natural world and treat it and our fellow humans with compassion close to home, that action will reverberate outward and have positive effects.

What kind of challenges and opportunities have you experienced in recent months? 

Being of a certain age where travel is a long-awaited pleasure, I’ve found being grounded, isolated, and cooped up a bit of a challenge this past year. But experience has taught me to make the best of time, so I looked closely in my own backyard at what nature had to offer, bought a bigger lens for my camera, and started following the birds in the Hagerman Valley. 

What’s next? 

I will keep making art, growing, learning and interacting with fellow artists. I may take a break from the birds for a bit and move toward more abstract landscapes, but I generally circle back to birds and animals before too long.   I think my post-pandemic travel may become more bird centric. After a trip to Biosphere reserve in Celestun, Mexico, to see the flamingos along with this year of tracking and identifying the birds locally, my passion for bird imagery has intensified. I’m sure they will continue to inform my work. 

Connie’s work is currently on exhibit at the Capitol Contemporary Gallery through the Month of May. You can find more of her work online at http://www.conniewoodart.com/

Capitol Contemporary Gallery announces a new exhibition, Birds and Bare Branches— a show of recent acrylic paintings by Anne Peterson and encaustic work by Connie Wood. We will also feature furniture designed by Derek Hurd of Studio 1212. The artists will be in attendance for an open house reception from 4 to 8 PM on First Thursday, May 6th. The show is free, open to the public, and runs through May 31st.

451 S. Capitol Boulevard
Boise, ID 83702​

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BOSCO Feature

Connie Wood’s need to make art comes from a deep seated desire to understand and interpret the world she lives in and to share her interpretation. In the past her work was more nature and ecosystem focused, but circumstances have moved Connie in a new direction.
Her current body of work, The Handwriting on the Wall, is Wood’s interpretation of the incoherence of information being disseminated by political leaders, with the deliberate intent to confuse, cause mistrust, to agitate, and create a division amongst the populous for capital gain at the cost of humanity. When working in layers and various media, Wood moves beyond materials and meaning and gets lost in the cathartic act of painting.
Encaustic painting is her media of choice for the past 10 years., although after teaching computer graphic design, photography, pottery, painting and drawing to high school and college students in Twin Falls Idaho for twenty years techniques from each media tend to seep into her work.
Connie has a BFA in Art Education and Photography from Boise State University, continuing education credits from Savanah College of Art and Design, Chicago Art Institute, NNU, Idaho State University, University of Idaho, and Adobe certifications in computer graphics.
Wood has continually shown her work in gallery settings and shows since 1996. She is currently represented by Capital Contemporary Galley in Boise. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections.

Connie Wood Studio Tour →

Complex Ecosystems

Complex Ecosystems from a Curatorial Point of View

We observe in the work of Theresa Burkes and Connie Wood two seemingly dissimilar
reactions to environmental change, our human measure in that change, and the medium of
encaustic to provoke dialogue. On the one hand, Burkes’ abstract works offer us existential
places to ask questions about our connection to natural phenomena. Working in the
tradition of the Abstract Expressionists, Burkes opens up a personal and subjective space for
us to follow her into.
On the other hand, Wood’s humorous, Aesopian figures allow us to question our
understanding of the impact we have on our landscape, in which we are not sole residents.
The juxtaposition of traditional portraiture and a hare is a surprising one, and the humorous
take is akin to the ancient Greek perspective of Plautus, in which his Calidorus jokes about
seeing himself “in the wax.”
Our exhibiting artists are not alone in this inquiry. Encaustic has been used as an artistic
medium throughout ancient and modern global history as a dynamic mediator of artists’
observations and our participatory responses. Ancient Greeks decorated hulls of ships with
vibrant, encaustic patterns, including eyes at the bow. Functionally, this served to waterproof
a water-borne vessel; it also transformed the bulk into a metaphorical sentient being
navigating open waters. Roman Fayum Egyptians painted encaustic portraits on the exteriors
of mummies. This allowed the visage of the dead to be known in the afterlife; it also made
the wrapped linens appear to take on human features once again. Burkes and Wood also
bring to life a relationship with landscape often forgotten in our daily, mundane routines.
Many contemporary encaustic artists work in small dimensions as the technique of working
with wax requires hot temperatures of melted wax that can cool quickly. But some artists,
like the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, defied those limiting sizes. Rivera completed
Creation, an encaustic mural of 1,000 square feet, in 1922 at San Ildefonzo College in Mexico
City. It, too, examined our human connection to nature. Burkes and Wood continue this
ambitious tradition.

CONSERVATOR’S NOTE: Beeswax is often the binder for pigment to a surface. It can
provide surprising results: an almost glass-like sheen or a sculptural, relief texture. The gloss
startles us as we expect a more matte and waxy texture. The relief is dimensional enough to
tempt us to reach out and touch the material. We must refrain, though, as the medium is
sensitive enough to adopt the prints of our fingers, changing the work entirely.

References

Anreus, Alejandro, Leonard Folgarait, and Robin Ad le Greeley. (Eds). (2012). Mexican Muralism: A Critical History. Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
Carlson, Deborah N. (Jul.-Sept., 2009). Seeing the Sea: Ships’ Eyes in Classical Greece. Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of
Classical Studies at Athens. 78(3), 347-365. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25622699
Cooney, John D. (Feb., 1972). Portraits from Roman Egypt. The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 59(2), 51-55.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152416
O’Bryhim, Shawn. (2010). Phoenicium in the Wax (Pl. Ps. 20-37). Mnemosyne. Fourth Series, 63(4). 635-639.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/25801890

FEATURED ARTIST AT GALLERY FIVE18

November 3 marked my Gallery opening at Gallery Five18 this year.  Hanging a body of work in a professional space is always a thrill. Getting to see your work on clean white walls  hung at just the right height and spacing, having the lighting accentuate the work perfectly, and seeing it all up at once in an area big enough to accomodate it is fulfilling. Then the crowds come in to see the work. I enjoy watching people study what I've created and having them ask questions whether it be about the process or the meaning behind the work. Now on to the next. 

THE NEXT STEP

I ‘m excited to be joining the wonderful artists in Gallery Five 18. Some of them I’ve known for years and some I have admired from afar. I’m looking forward to stimulating conversations and the opportunity to share within this community. There is no better critic than another good artist.

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER

William Morris was a designer in the late 1800’s whose work is immortal. His designs were at the forefront of the development of the Arts & Crafts movement, an era and style I am particularly drawn to. Morris believed in a combination of simplicity, good design, and craft work. The philosophy was that industrially manufactured items lacked the honesty of traditional craft work. The wallpaper design in the background of “The Yellow Wallpaper” is one of William Morris’ designs entitled “Larkspur”. It is a design I am drawn to for its woodblock print quality and curvilinear movement.

 The title of this piece is from Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story from the same era as the Arts & Crafts movement.  Her work is considered important contribution to early feminist literature. The story depicts the effects of confinement on the narrator’s mental health and her decline into psychosis with nothing to stimulate her but the pattern and color of the wall paper in the room in which she is confined. 

While in the throes of carving, filling, and fusing wax,  the endless hours of staring at the same work transports my mind and I too begin to read the wallpaper. 

The blue heron is bird I see often in my backyard. My neighbor has a pond full of gold trout that attracts them. He spends much of his time figuring out ways to distract them from his fish while I look at his fish as a draw for beautiful birds. 

The compilation of the above elements was randomly based on design elements that I wanted to fuse together. 

WAX ON WAX OFF

I can’t help thinking of Mr. Miyagi when I’m in the studio putting wax on and taking wax off. It may not be the same circular motion that builds muscle memory for karate, but it does have a meditative quality that requires a memory for technique to improve. 

It is a tedious process and a repetitive one that makes me wonder why I’ve chosen this particular medium and technique. I’ve decided that it is the laborious method of putting wax on and taking wax off that draws me in.  It gives me ample time to think about what the next step in my process will be. 

Once the initial additive and subtractive background layer is finished I will put a transparent textured layer over the top and begin the next step. Working on a piece of art is like a good novel, it is the journey through it that is so satisfying that you hate to see it come to an end.

THREE HOT DAYS IN KETCHUM

I recently had the pleasure of showing my work in Ketchum Idaho at the annual arts festival. It was a hot three days and a good trial for encaustic paintings. I’m still in the process of figuring out my booth design, and air flow was obviously not a consideration when I set up shop. My new panels tended to draw heat due to their dark color. My booth was well above 90 degrees all three days. While the wax did get a bit tacky in the heat, no damage was done.

I love the communal effort that fellow artists exhibit at these shows. The second day there, my neighbors and I figured out how to share the flaps of our tents to create more shade and to allow cooler air to flow through. It also opened up a conversation pathway that had been blocked before. 

I find it amazing how neatly and fast the artist village goes up and how and beautiful it looks in just a few short hours.  

The tear down is just as effective. I had to wait for the weather to cool down before I could pack up my work. It gave me an opportunity to watch the well lubed machine of nomadic artists break down and head in their respective creative directions. 

GOOD MORNING ARTISTS

This artist village is getting ready to come to life. This time, along with the set up and tear down, is most enjoyable. The artists showing up for work; getting their coffee and donuts, opening up their tents, and wandering around talking to one another before the throngs of people show up. It is my tribe. Every person needs a tribe they can call their own, those people that you can talk to with common interests, skills, and talents. It just makes me happy. 

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title given to a triptych painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch. It has been housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. Dating from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between about 40 and 60 years old, it is his best-known and most ambitious complete work.        Wikipedia

In a recent conversation a friend asked what a triptych or diptych was. It surprised me that she wouldn’t know, but also triggered thoughts of various works of art that I’ve been drawn to that fall into this category of multiples. One of the most fascinating to me is the above by Hieronymus Bosch. First, because of the date that it was created, second because of the composition and surreal content in it. When I saw it at the Prado it was a highlight of my trip to Spain. Odd I suppose, but that’s just the way us art buffs are. 

ART & SOUL

Spring provides a lively moment of texture and color on southern Idaho's high desert before heat and drought reduce it to arid monotone. 
Weather rolls across unobstructed skies in theatrical display as ravens squawk in the wind, a raucous ballad in a barren landscape.
Reminders of human attempts to tame and control the barren terrain curl and cut the wind, Nature's decisive refusal to concede.
I try to mirror my subjects with the processes of encaustic painting.  Spreading molten wax with blowtorches, I have to accept both the limits and the serendipity of the media and roll with it. Layer upon layer of varnish, wax, and pigments are bonded with fire, sealing the past to the present and shaping the future of each piece. I add and subtract, incising lines and shapes, layering translucent wax, allowing colors to meld of their own accord. The process of controlling and letting go gives me satisfaction and hope that a clear, cohesive piece of art will ultimately emerge

EVERYDAY OBSERVATIONS

One of the many things I love about Italy is the layers of time that are reflected in the ruins. I find it fascinating to think of the millions of people that have passed through and and left their imprint through the centuries. The history shows up in peeling frescos or a bronze statue rubbed to a sheen. It is both additive and subtractive. 

Stanley Kunitz

     The Layers

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.