A thank you to everyone that came for a visit today.

You showed up, had opinions and asked questions.  You were from the Bay Area, Marin, Italy, Russia, Berkeley, Peoria and Tracy.  Librarians, architects, artists, engineers and kids!  You helped me understand what you were seeing and how it moved you.  These are the conversations that make Open Studios worth it.

I’m often asked, “How do you know when a painting is done.”  I answered that in a previous blog.  Another common question is how I got in to Encaustic.  That I’ll write about soon.  (It was an accident, like so many good things.). The question that I loved today was:

“Can you remember the feelings you had when you created that painting?”

“Absolutely.”

Oh Love

  The painting on the left was painted in 2014 but I can clearly remember how it began and how I felt during the process.  I had just finished a conversation with an old friend who lives far away and speaks Portuguese.  I don’t know what it is about speaking another language, but I choose words carefully.  If I don’t know the word I have to describe it.  Imagine playing Password every ten words.  Brazilian Portuguese is a delightful singing language.  It’s colorful and ends are beginnings are ends.  There are no edges in this culture.

Oh Love is that conversation.  

The pleasure of a profound friendship that fills you with a calm, loving embrace.

And here is a photo from the Majorelle Gardens in Morocco.  Similar palette.  Similar feeling.  

Majorelle Gardens

Smells operate in the same way.  Garlic and onions being sautéed in olive oil will always remind me of my mother getting dinner ready.  With ease that smell can drop me back into the house I grew up in and I’m nine years old waiting to hear “Dinner!”

Ears, nose, eyes, touch.  Built in time machines.  

How do you time travel?

XOXO

Francesca

PS:  Day Two is today.  Details on my website!  

Open Studio Entry