drum roll please...........!

As my second book Encaustic Mixed Media hits the book shelves, I am offering this little lesson I learned in the writing of it~ Enjoy!
And, all new followers and comments to this post will be put into a drawing for three free books! So make sure and share your thoughts so I can look forward to sending three lucky winners a signed copy :)

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore,
is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle

I do not profess to be excellent; far from it. But then, what is the definition? Is excellence a once and done goal to be reached or is it something we strive towards in each and every moment of your lives? Over and over again; seeking to be excellent in this awakening, excellent in this hello, excellent in this next encounter, excellent in this next task.
So in this definition, I am excellent! because I strive to repeatedly make excellence a habit of my day.
And today I give to you a bit of this excellence. Today I give to you the piece of me that strove to be the best encaustic artist and author for this book, Encaustic Mixed Media. Today I give to you the excellence of my habit to prove the versatility and malleability of beeswax to be above all else.

I will have moved to a new place by the time you pick up this book and read my words. I will have moved into a new habit of excellence and begun to work towards a new level of experimentation, or encouragement or excellence. I will look to the words and works of this book, in its most excellent form at release, and see the change that has occurred since then; surely being much too discriminating and determining it not at all the excellence I’d thought on this day of writing!

But that is the beauty, or the bane!, of excellence.
If one is to truly be so, to strive for this habit in character and performance, one has to be prepared to look back from a newly achieved level of excellence and accept the place that was called excellent the day, or week, or year before.
So it is with humble pride, tremendous gratitude and wary release that I give you Encaustic Mixed Media.
Putting all of my current heart, soul and effort into making it the all that it can be; the excellence that is it’s potential-knowing that there will be a new level to share with you as I grow in my habit to be and become most excellent. In love. Trish
A quick peek into just some of the where I am moving as I live excellent now, in this day :)

Musings on the coming of the second book~

As I anxiously anticipate the release of Encaustic Mixed Media next week, and  still digest and assimilate all that EncaustiCamp 2011 was and is, I feel compelled to revisit and edit the opening thoughts that you'll find in EMM. Thoughts to all the creatives out there-oh wait! That's all the world :)

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. Latin proverb
You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. Anonymous

I know this first hand; creativity takes courage. I almost let go of my creative calling; willfully thinking I needed to bury it to the call of the make-a-living world. Slowly I began to watch it die as financial health, societal expectations and ladder-climbing issues snuck in to fill the loss. Alas it would not die a dignified death.  With courage then unknown, I re-embraced this part of me with an irrevocable bear hug as the last glimmer of its spark nearly ran out!

Thank God circumstances took me down this different road and allowed me the courage and veracity to grab hold of my creative will with both hands and even at times, grip it viciously between gritted teeth~

Never letting go again, I am!

Creativity is the juice of the soul that keeps each and every one of us walking upright and inspired for another day. It is the conduit through which God keeps our hearts, minds and souls tuned in to all the power and glory this world has to offer. It is not just in those who title themselves, ‘artist’, ‘author’, ‘designer’ or ‘chef’. It is there for everyone; the mechanic, the engineer, the banker, caregiver, salesman and pizza deliverer. No one is exempt from this creative power in their life because it is an element of human existence in each of us. So take hold of your bit of it. Grab with both hands the dose allotted to you and make a difference in the world. Experience it and pass it on.

And, if your ‘creative’ is in the arts-in this passion for encaustic in particular- then thank you with a double dose! You and I share a link in this creative passion and I hope that, simply by indulging in the portion that is your call you have fed me, that I will be graced the opportunity to feed you well: A bountiful feast~In love. trish

etsy

I did something I've been resistant to do for many years; I started an etsy shop. Actually, I restarted an etsy shop.
In 2009, trying to figure out where/how/when/why I existed in this art world (for the dozenth time!), I posted a few images to an etsy account then quickly let it go delinquent as I struggled with self identity and the presumed need to put oneself out there in order to make a way of this art life.
Two years later:
Find me excitedly, expectantly, joyfully posting a collection, one by one, day by day as they develop, to the previously debunk etsy site.
Why you ask? What has made for the change of heart?
I found self worth.

Okay, a catch phrase; a psychoanalysis; a socially acceptable way of saying 'I want to show off'!
Truly though, it's true!
Not the self worth that's born of a bloated sense of self. But a self worth that's born of the realization that I, me, little toe-head Trish who got teased for missing the softball repeatedly in 4th grade PE, I have treasure!
Not just a gift; not just a pretty package; a treasure!
A storehouse of goodness that's bursting at the seams; that's lived and breathed and been seeking a way out-a path to be shared with the world-for years!
Not me, no. Not me; this treasure in me.
What a wow.
Turning the years of self recrimation into humble thanksgiving does this; opens the floodgates of grace and turns one onto the reality of life.
The REALITY of life!
I'm on it. I'm in it.
A book could be written on how I came to have this lack of self worth; a sense of worthlessness outweighing the passion that drove me to continue 'tinkering' in this 'hobby' of art.

But so could anyone reading say that of their life.
We all have our past and we all have our present. Thank God almightly that we all also have our future.
Nothing less could've brought me to this place of willful sharing. Nothing else could've.
This is not something I have in me, I created in me, I grew in me. It is simply born in me to be lived out. I serve as an instrument. Not as a puppet on a string, but as a willful, passionate, eager attendant to the 'to do' list of the life that is so much bigger than myself.
And as I realize this willfullness, this eagerness, and live in it, I find myself exploding!, bursting!, flowing unstoppably! the amazing treasure stored up in me. So deliciously delighted to have God's grace overflowing from my fingertips~
I get to share!
I get to inspire!
I get to boldly post with delicious anticipation of whatever is to come!
I get to awake to attend to another item on the 'to do' list of one so much greater than myself. And know~
and know! that it is going to be so good!
come visit. often. :)
come see what silliness, what beauty, what joy, what passion He chooses me!, little old me!, to tackle his to do list through. in love. trish
grace: unmerited and undeserved generosity.

Encaustic Mixed Media: Innovative Surfaces and Techniques for working in wax

Ready, set, go! Lucky me lucky me! I got to write a second encaustic book and am thrilled to be seeing it coming to life! Due out in August, Encaustic Mixed Media is an indulgence in everything I've been putting my hand to since Encaustic Workshop hit the shelves in February of 2009. Delving into the hardware store, art supply, craft and thrift stores with eyes wide open to possibilities, this book offered me the opportunity to dispel 'no's' and prove the 'yes's' in encaustic rule! Look forward to posts in the coming weeks highlighting the mixed media products and techniques developed for Encaustic Mixed Media~things from plaster and tar to panpastel and wood icing, nothing is left untouched and unincorporated :) in love. trish
a few of the mixed media product contibutors:
artist&craftsman
colorfin
gauche alchemy
grafix
judy's stonehouse design
environmental technologies
stamping bella
stencil girl products