100 Small Pieces of Art - The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Encaustic Project started as my personal recommitment to a daily art practice and an irresistible opportunity to forge beauty from beeswax and a blowtorch. 

Encaustic is a technique that had entranced me for years. It’s a 2,000-year-old practice that uses fire to fuse in layers of beeswax, damar resin and oil paint.  I selected 4” square cradled wood boards that would be manageable to produce for one hundred consecutive days and easy to display when finished.

My goal was to be fearless and experimental; and to learn new techniques while pushing boundaries and breaking rules. I armed myself with a master list of artists and their processes I wanted to emulate. When something happened that I liked, I made a few more using similar materials, techniques or themes.

The project took on a life of its own. The squares became my artist’s sketchbook. Posting daily kept me on track and accountable. Friends, family and fellow artists began to follow along. The pieces that resonated with me became concepts for further experimentation. I discovered and embraced how the variety of techniques appealed to the unique tastes of the individuals who viewed and liked my work. What I might have loved others did not, what did not resonate with me others loved.

Soon enough, requests came in to purchase pieces. A project that began as a way to satisfy my artistic whimsy found an audience. 

Around day fifty, one of my children suggested the living wall as a gallery. All 100 pieces live as an installation on my home, as a piece sells it is replaced with another experimental study as a small work of art.

The images below represent my original 100 small works of art. If you would like to own your own piece of small art, please visit my shop to see what is currently available.