Saturday, June 4, 2011

Live Blogging from the Conference #1

In the vendor room

Here I am in the vendor room at the encaustic conference in Provincetown. For some reason the wi-fi is not working in my room so I'm here blogging. Here are L to R Miki, Laura, Vincent and Greg. Miki and Vincent are from Kama Pigments, Laura is from RandF Paints and Greg is Greg Wright of the fabulous surface techniques. And in the center of the image is Bonnie's laptop that I am writing this on. You'll have to imagine me there! (More about the vendor room below.)

This morning we had a fabulous panel presentation on Mastering Media moderated by Joanne Mattera. Panelists were Linda Womack speaking about self pubishing; Jeff Schaller on various promotional tools for marketing his work including calendars, t-shirts, beer and wine labels, a dvd, and more; Cherie Mittenthal, Executive Director of the Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, speaking about producing a printed catalog and organizing classes at Castle Hill, and me, speaking about blogging. This panel was great - full of information, enthusiasm, laughter and experience. We each made a 10-minute presentation and then after a break, we took questions from the audience.

Surprise, surprise!









The Stealth Cake Team plus Lynette Haggard and I organized a surprise thank you for Joanne to show our appreciation for her hard work and vision in organizing five wonderful conferences. The Team - Misa Galazzi (code name Sprinklz), David Clark (code name Cupcakz) and Greg Wright (Code Name Baklavaz), also assisted by Cherie Mittenthal (code name Chocolaz) rolled out these two giant cakes topped with images of the ball of wax (shot by Joanne) that has come to represent the conference (the blue and white cake) and an image of one of Joanne's diamond paintings on the red cake. Next, Lynette (code name Sweetumz) presented Joanne with the Ball of Wax trophy. I am missing the photo of this, but will add it in the next post.


Joanne getting a blow torch from Greg to light the candles on the cakes

As a final salute, while wearing my own Bee Goddess hat, I presented the Royal Encaustic Fascinator Hat to Joanne in honor of her admiration for the hats at the Royal Wedding. (only kidding because she intensely disliked all the trappings of the royal wedding).


On the left, I am holding the card in my Bee Goddess hat, Cherie Mittenthal
center, and on the right, Joanne in the Royal Encaustic Fascinator Hat

Pulling off this stealth mission took some expertise at covert activity. It was financed by contributions from 36 conferees that Lynette and I contacted. We did not want to let too many people know about it because we were afraid the secret would come out accidentally. Everyone was invited to sign the giant card (a product of my unskilled labor, as were the hats).

Vendor Room
So here I am hanging out in the Vendor Room and playing hooky from the presentations in which I am enrolled. Sometimes you feel like listening and sometimes you don't. I thought I would show you the vendor set-ups in this spacious and light-filled room. The vendors are arranged around the perimenter and in the center of the room are tables and chairs where lally-gaggers and buyers can sit, chat and show one another their purchases. Seeing all the wares displayed before you, being able to touch, smell and fondle the paint with exciting new colors and other merchandise is such a treat. It's much more difficult to resist buying in person than it is online. I indulged myself yesterday with lots of new colors to try.



Kama Pigments


Evans Encaustic


Jane's panels

R and F Paints


Water-soluble Cuni paint


Castle Hill


Encaustikos

Finally, here's a picture of Lynette and me, very pleased with ourselves after pulling off our great surprise awards ceremony today. And many thanks to Lynette for letting me use four of the images that she took.


Super Spies

7 comments:

Adrianne in Portland said...

Thank you for letting us know about all of the fun stuff we're missing! Have a good time!

Lauren said...

So happy to see you are having such a smashing good time. I can see from your hat that you are inspired already!

M said...

Thanks for posting on yesterday 's events Nancy. It was a long information packed day which had my my mind going in many directions. I like the mix of process and the professional aspects of being an artist and the cake was an added bonus. And who there didn't find the vendor room a star attraction?

Joanne Mattera said...

I, who know about everything going on in encaustic, was utterly and completely surprised by the cakes. I am deeply moved by the generosity of all on the Stealth Team and everyone who chipped in for the cakes. And the Whole Ball of Wax Award! The cake with my painting was consumed in toto on Saturday; the Ball of wax cake is on the menu for lunch today--after the sandwiches, because no one I know, including me, would ever each chocolate before regular food. (Burp.)

I'm writing this on Sunday morning. Now on to the Hotel Fair!

Nancy Natale said...

Thanks for all your comments. Sorry that I haven't been able to post more. I've been too busy - having a great time!

Unknown said...

Thanks Nancy for the photos, your comments on the conference and for your presentation about blogging! I think your talk blogging will definitely inspire more artists to consider blogging or at least add to the conversation.

Jane Davies said...

Thanks for posting these great photos, Nancy!! I put a link on my blog so my readers could see what a great time was had. What an inspiring weekend! Can't wait til next year's conference.