Michael Bossom
What are you doing with an iron in your hand? Want to iron my shirt mate? You can come 'ome with me and do my sheets if you like? Not the sort of comments that you hear on a Craft Fair stand every day, but for Michael Bossom these have been familiar remarks for many years now. Of course, when people see that the iron is covered in vibrant coloured molten wax, they do have second thoughts!
Michael was a wood turner for going on 15 years before meeting a man in a bar who had brought the idea of melting waxes and oil pastels to create artwork over from Canada. The man went back there at Christmas 1986, just after Michael's wife Shona had managed to buy one of the images this guy, Jean Marie had made. Well, for Michael that was the start of a long and intense exploration and development of what he now calls Encaustic Art. Since those early days a whole collection of products has arrived to make this unusual but fascinating arty crafty activity available to anyone who sees it as something worth experiencing for themselves.
Creating fantasy underworlds or imagined landscapes seems a far cry from tearing through logs with a chainsaw, but a pair of hands that have strength may also have an equally careful and tender touch. We all know that craftsmanship is the embodiment of skills. Michael would say that art is creative and imaginative development of skills that reflect and communicate something of the unique personality and being of the maker or craftsman. That is how he thinks an artist is. Not just someone who is skilled, but someone who expresses an individuality that is woven in with their skill to yield a result that is more than just well made. After 17 years of pondering on it he reckons that good art "radiates". Exactly what it radiates depends on many things. But if it does not have that radiant life force within then he doesn't think it good art. Of course, there are two parties involved in this, the creator and the observer. So when you look, when you are the observer it is up to you to find that radiation or not. If you don't then the subject gets passed by and has no power for you. But if you do, then you are connecting to the radiation that was woven into the piece when it was created. Of course, it doesn't have to be a painting to be art, says Michael, art is much more than that.
Thousands upon thousands of people have explored the rudiments of the encaustic phenomenon. Some were elated, others disappointed, but pretty well all of them will agree that it was a fascinating and creative experience. At the simplest level, in a therapeutic sense, anyone with the ability to grip the iron and move the molten wax colours about on the sealed card surface made some effects. If the colours did not mix up too much then the likelihood of an interesting and viable abstract appearing was quite high. In fact, even when the colours turned into mud, the technique is so forgiving that it allows new colours to be added or the messed up ones to easily be wiped off. It has been a big hit with large group gatherings where hundreds of children have played with the intense and stimulating wax colours, proudly taking home the cards to share and keep as a memory of that creative moment. Art belongs to us all they echo. So would many of the challenged people on normal society's edge. The point is that when the skills have been overcome, not mastered, but at least tangible, then there is suddenly an outlet for the art, for the personal expression of radiant energy that can find its way into a piece without the creator even knowing they are putting it there. It might sound odd, but Michael assures me that when he stops trying too hard then the art flows more naturally and the outcomes are usually better. Well, maybe they are.
People who already paint have often found encaustic art a challenge that they were not quite ready to embrace. When I asked Michael why he thought this was so he said "All painting is craft, it is essentially a set of skills. This has been confused in many minds, the idea that painting is art. Well, its not. A painting can be art, but so can serving a meal, or planting a garden. Many painters are used to preconceiving their subject. The more preconceived the subject then the less opportunity for creativity during the making. A defined result means that you need good skills, fine craftsmanship in order to achieve it, to make it, to manifest it. Most painters are used to brushes, not irons. So when they try to approach the encaustic process with skills suited to brushes they stumble. Because the skills are missing they are not competent in their usual way and can not easily complete their preconceived ideas. It is easier to express and create during the process than to complete a predefined image. But some painters who go down the creative avenue absolutely love the wax possibilities."
What is ahead for encaustic art I wondered, where does it go now? Michael has worn out his show days. The internet is a boon for communicating with the ever growing groups of enthusiasts worldwide. He runs a free Encaustic Gallery as a place where wax imagery can be uploaded, viewed and discussed by interested and active users. The encaustic website is full of information and the development of TV craft channels has helped expose the technique to a new and wide ranging audience. But Michael himself seems interested in video production as a way of creatively sharing another creative thing. What nicer way to work than to make movies of a fascinating and visually alive art form? And that's how I got to hear from Michael earlier in the year, when the latest video was done. "It's not a masterpiece" he says," but each time I go through the process of making another film I learn something. It has such a creative potential, combining an art technique as the subject, with the power of digital image manipulation, racing by at 25 frame images every second. I love the feeling, it's like surfing the moment".
The latest offering on both video and DVD is called "A Bigger Picture in Encaustic Art" and was created to guide and help those ready to go onto larger sized artwork. The main image is an A3 landscape of a hilly scene with a stream and lots of foxgloves. Michael shares his insight into the how to approach not only the techniques but the ideas too.
If you like foxgloves, this is one definitely not to miss out on!
Shona & Michael Bossom
Arts Encaustic Ltd,
Glogue, Pembs. Wales SA36 0ED
Tel: 01239 831401
