At long last and with much deliberation I decided to join what my students call “living in the 21st century”, and create a blog. Hence forth you will find the chronicles of Krista Svalbonas, an artist, a photographer, a professor, a foodie and now a blogger. I decided to dedicate my very first blog post to a solo show that I currently have up in Rotunda Gallery in Metuchen New Jersey. Next weekend, March 6th, is the closing reception and I am also giving an artist talk on that date as well. Below you can find the details on my ecard.

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I’m both excited and nervous, it’s not everyday I get to speak to an audience about my work. A good artist friend of mine stated once in the midst of her own artist talk that it was very hard to step back and speak about a body of work that you are still in the process of discovering. I am coming to understand that very well. It’s not only the fact that both myself and my work are still in a greater process of discovery but also that often times the materiality of my work can take precedence over its intentions. Encaustic work is growing quite rapidly in the States, more and more galleries and shows seem to include encaustic artists. Even with this increase it stills remains a bit of a mystery, which leads many artists to talk more about the process and less about the art itself. Encaustic is a pretty seductive medium, the smell of melted bees wax constantly permeates my studio, not to mention that heat is the key factor when creating a piece. I have an impressive array of blowtorches. All of this can seem like a scene from Harry Potter if you’re not familiar with the medium. Needless to say, this talk is proving a bit more difficult then I thought it would be when I signed on. No matter, I always like a challenge and have a very rudimentary idea of how all this will pan out in the end. This at least has given me the excuse to sit down amidst my pieces, breathe them in, and in the process, force my loving husband to take a few snaps of me at work in my studio. I’m adding a few below as a sneak peek. Of course these won’t be any substitute to the talk itself! Hoping to see you all there. For more information on my artwork please view www.kristasvalbonas.net

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