Meet Frank. My brother owns this photograph and keeps it at his cabin in Northern Wisconsin. During a visit this past summer, I turned a corner and saw it hanging in a new spot—and instantly, I was transported back to Ireland and the days when I first fell in love with photography. I spent years… Read More »Meet Frank: An Irish Story Through My Lens
It’s Done! Now How Do I Photograph It? If you’ve ever tried to photograph your finished encaustic artwork, you know how tricky it can be. The surface, the shine, the texture—getting it all right in a photo feels like chasing light itself. Let me walk you through my process. When I finish a piece, I… Read More »Photographing Encaustic Art: Tips for Capturing Texture, Color, and Shine
It’s done…..now what? It’s such a great feeling when a piece is finally finished—until you suddenly realize the work isn’t actually done. There’s a whole process that comes after the art-making, and it’s just as important for honoring your work and preparing it for the world. The first thing I do is clean the edges.… Read More »Your Art Is Done—Now What?
Why photograph horses? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself lately—especially after spending a week at a dude ranch and realizing I am definitely not a horsewoman. I didn’t grow up around horses. I wasn’t the little girl obsessed with ponies. My only horse memory from childhood is visiting my cousin’s horse, Danny, in the… Read More »Why I Photograph Horses
What Images Work Best for Printing on Tissue Paper? This is one of the concepts my students struggle with most—and it’s no surprise. When we photograph, we rarely shoot against clean white backgrounds unless we’re working in a controlled studio environment. But when it comes to printing on tissue paper, your background matters more than… Read More »How to Choose Images for Tissue Paper Prints
Somewhere between Painting and Photography. The Artistic Image online class kicked off again this week, which means it was time for one of my favorite assignments. I ask students to go online and gather examples of photo encaustic work they wish they had created. Then I have them look closely at what draws them in.… Read More »How Encaustic Transforms Ordinary Photographs
I’ve never been one to live on the edge. But this week has been full of edges. I’m just back from an amazing ten days in Oregon (opening the 2016 National Photo Encaustic Exhibition and teaching two back-to-back workshops). Before I left I was fixated on the Oregon coast. Couldn’t wait to get out there.… Read More »Exploring the Edge
Bee Inspired. A couple of months ago, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum reached out and invited me to be part of the opening exhibition for their new Bee and Pollinator Center. My answer was an immediate—absolutely, yes. Of course, once I said yes, the next question was: What work should I show? My horse images weren’t… Read More »How Bees Inspired My Latest Encaustic Artwork
The Story Behind Time Slips Away. Art has this beautiful way of carrying us somewhere else. A single image—sometimes even the smallest detail—can pull us back into a place, a season, or a memory we thought we’d left behind. It becomes a thread connecting who we were, who we are, and who we’re becoming. And… Read More »The Story Behind Time Slips Away
Meet Lee Anne White. It’s funny how we can hear something repeated so often that we simply accept it as truth. Early in my photo encaustic journey, I was told—again and again—that black or very dark photographs should never be used with encaustic. The wax would supposedly cloud the shadows, dull the richness, and ruin… Read More »Student Highlight: Lee Anne White