Buffalo Ranch Studio & Gallery

Learn encaustic at two-day October workshop

Harriette Tsosie — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:18:20 -0700

Learn the ancient art of painting with pigmented wax (encaustic) at a two-day encaustic workshop, offered Tuesday, October 7th and Wednesday, October 8th from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM at the beautiful Buffalo Ranch Studio, located on Picuris Pueblo Indian Reservation in Penasco, New Mexico.

(Left: Studio exterior. Windows looking out on Jicarita Peak).

(Bison and calf)

Cost of the workshop is $350 plus a $25 materials fee. Space is limited to six artists, so enroll early.

The workshop is being team taught by artists Harriette Tsosie and Nicki Marx. Tsosie will cover encaustic basics on day one.

(Left: Instructor Harriette Tsosie)

She has more than 20 years experience painting with acrylics and more than five years painting and teaching the encaustic process. Her syllabus incudes such topics as safety, making and pigmenting the wax, painting on rigid surfaces, encuastic on paper, scraping and fusing techniques.

On day two, Marx will teach collaging, embedding, and achieving textures. She has worked with encaustic for more than 30 years and is also an accomplished jeweler.

To register for the workshop, contact: Harriette Tsosie, 505/587-0427 by phone or hftsosie@earthlink.net by e-mail. To reserve a place in the workshop, send your check--including the materials fee--to: Harriette Tsosie, POB 591, Penasco, NM 87553. Checks are payable to Buffalo Ranch Studio, LLC.

Alumni of prior Buffalo Ranch encaustic workshops are eligible for alumni rates to use the studio and materials. Call Harriette for details.

Images, left to right: Book Mobile, detail, 2008, encaustic/paper; Hoop #1, 2005, encaustic/panel; Spontaneous Combustion, 2007, encaustic/panel; Aspen Glow, 2006, encaustic/panel. All images copyrighted by Harriette Tsosie. All rights reserved.

Encaustic Artists Chosen for Group Exhibit

Harriette Tsosie — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 12:13:18 -0700

A group of approximately 15 New Mexico encaustic artists who submitted a proposal to the Albuquerque Arts Alliance for a group exhibition in the Alliance's gallery have been selected by the Alliance to exhibit in July 2008.

The encaustic artists will hold their first organizational meeting on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 in Teena Robinson's Santa Fe studio. Agenda topics will include selecting a name for the group and for the exhibition, electing officers, scheduling studio visits and meetings, establishing regular communication for group members and planning additional group exhibitions.

It's not to late to join the group and/or the first exhibition. If interested, contact:
Harriette Tsosie at 505/587-0427 or e-mail me at hftsosie2earthlink.net

New Mexico Encaustic Artists Organizing

Harriette Tsosie — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:49:33 -0700

I am interested in organizing the encaustic artists living and working in New Mexico for the purpose of annually exhibiting our work.

As a first step, I have submitted a proposal for a group exihibition of encaustic work in 2009 at the Albuquerque Arts Alliance Gallery, Lomas and San Mateo, Albuquerque. If accepted, the work would be exhibited in the summer of 2009. More than 15 encaustic artists have committed to the exhibition as of July 31, 2008. The Alliance will review proposals in late August and notify applicants this Fall as to whether their proposal has been accepted.

I am also developing a roster of New Mexico encaustic artists. If your primary medium is encaustic and you want to participate in this effort, contact me by one of the methods listed on my web site. You can e-mail me at hftsosie@earthlink.net or call me at: 505/587-0427. You can also make an appointment to visit me at my studio in Picuris Pueblo, Penasco, New Mexico.

Harriette Tsosie, Painter

Cradle Project exhibition/sale opens June 7th

Harriette Tsosie — Thu, 29 May 2008 13:04:00 -0700

The Cradle Project exhibition and sale opens with a preview reception on Saturday, June 7th from 1:00 - 5:00 PM on the Eighth Floor, 219 Central Avenue Northwest, Albuquerque. Continuing through Saturday, June 28th, the cradles will be on view Thursdays - Saturdays from 1:00 - 5:00 PM. The purpose of the Cradle Project is to raise funds to help alleviate the plight of an estimated 48 million children in sub-Saharan Africa, orphaned by AIDS and other diseases and victims of unrelenting poverty. My entry into the exhibition is a coffin/cradle. I chose to make the coffin/cradle for two reasons. First, the image powerfully represents the precarious plight of the African orphans, who face death each day and whose cradles could momentarily become coffins. Second, I knew the coffin/cradle image would work artistically, because coffins and cradles have a similar shape.

The mummy inhabiting my coffin/cradle is female, because it seems to me that African women are 'wrapped' with the burden of their culture. They are often infected with AIDS by their husbands and boyfriends, who have slept with prostitutes carrying the virus. The women pass AIDS on to their own children when they give birth or sometimes while the child is even still in their womb.

Historically, the Egyptians created mummies in two phases: embalming and wrapping. During embalming, the brain — thought to be useless except for producing mucus — was pulled from the head through the nostrils and discarded. The heart, which the Egyptians thought of as a person's soul, remained in the body. Four other organs, believed to be needed in the afterlife, were each placed in a canopic jar, the lid of which depicted the god charged with guarding that organ. The man-headed god, Imsety, guarded the liver. Hapi, the baboon-headed god, protected the lungs. Duamutef, the jackal-headed god watched over the stomach, while Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed deity, was responsible for the intestines. (Click to enlarge photos)

The Egyptians placed various amulets within the mummy wrapping, but for artistic purposes, these charms are on top of the mummy sculpture and the mummy is wrapped in gauze rather than linen. The rattle, symbolizes lost childhood; the stick bundle, represents immortality, and the medallion — painted with a diagram of the AIDS virus — tells how the child died. Handprints painted on the mummy wrapping represent the care givers, who lovingly watched over the child during her brief lifetime and just as lovingly wrapped her body after death. The colors of the handprints represent the so-called human 'races,' which are all infected with AIDS. The cradle board on which the mummy rests is painted with African-like designs and is also a reference to the native culture in which I now live.

My thanks to David Lerner of Precise Framing for constructing and donating the coffin/cradle, friends Belinda Edwards and Michele Rilken for encouraging my participation in the project and Nicki Marx for her helpful suggestions and the bones. As always, I am grateful to my husband, Carl, for building me a wonderful studio in which to think and work.

Venus on a Half Shell

Harriette Tsosie — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:59:14 -0700

The Touchstone Foundation presents Venus on a Half Shell, a celebration of spring with works of erotic art by local and international artists. The exhibition opens Friday, May 16, 2008 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Gallery at Touchstone, Taos Center for the Visual Arts, 110 Mabel Dodge Lane, Taos. Works will remain on exhibit through June 15th, with a portion of the proceeds from sales benefiting The Taos Artist Organization (TAO) and the Touchstone Foundation.