outside the box

 I've had this box lying around in an attempt to prod some inspiration.  It was given to me to create a work of art around it for Outside the Box a fund-raising auction in Auburn California.  I knew I wanted to do something in encaustic with but was completely uninspired visually.  

Last week I attended a meeting of artists asked to create mesoamerican installations for the upcoming Festival de la Familia, well the research I conducted afterward became very inspiring for the box project...

First I needed to prime the box with all natural rabbit skin gesso, acylic gesso wont work with all natural bee's wax encaustic paints.  So I went out to the studio and searched my painting cabinet, only to find I'm out of rabbit skin glue...think think...ok we'll use all natural rice paste and all natural mulberry paper to make a nice white all natural surface for the encaustics to adhere to...

Next I sized images I liberated from the www, sized them to fit the box and then printed them onto masa paper.  Of course my printer only prints 8.5x11" sheets so I had to print them tiled and then assemble the tiles onto the box.  I pasted the tiled printouts to the box using rice paste.

The largest surface, on the outside of the box

The inside of the box

 

 outside edges  drying beside the smoke box where I am smoking a pastrami.  Thought I'd use the heat of the smoke box to facilitate quicker drying of box.  Its been raining and everything is taking forever and a day to dry...