I need a better term for this than hive mind.  I know it’s part of a larger art fad, but how is it that four people in this program decided to toy with encaustics at the same time but independently of one another?

I was only familiar with the painterly approach, so the more collage- or photograph-oriented mentality intrigues me.  I’m not going to do it more than once or twice, but it’s interesting.

I compensated for the sudden reduction in my control by going with a more graphic approach.  (You know, simplified forms, increased contrast, etc.  I could use a better term for this as well.  The way I used it just now oversimplifies the awesomeness of which graphic design is capable.  Sorry, world.)

Going to the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts definitely made me want to do more portraits.  Glorious stuff.  (Theirs, not these.  I like these, but I drooled over those.  And an entire room of excellent art by women….without a sign to announce it and thereby frame it as tokenism.  Glorious….)

(It’s this lady’s birthday today.)