Happy New Year 2013 and Overview of 2012

Happy New Year to all my readers! 

As you are use to already, I like to start the new year by writing an overview of the year that just ended, so here’s my 2012 overview. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Awareness (c)

The non-for-profit blog and the Awareness Facebook page I started in 2011, to raise Awareness on Dense Breast Tissue and the current screening methods that cannot detect cancer well on this type of tissue is growing strong. Please, visit the links above, read about this issue, learn about it and be proactive! I also invite you to share your stories, and unite forces with me to build our case strong, to get the attention we need for better technology to screen cancer on Dense Breast Tissue.

Continuing with my continuous education and career advancement, I became an entrepreneur, by opening the doors of my studio/gallery to also teach children and adults, as well as to bring artists/instructors from all over the country to share their knowledge and talents with our local community and beyond. This new endeavor has kept me very busy all year long, and we got students as far as Canada visiting the studio to take workshops, how exciting is that!!!

GUEST ARTISTS at my studio:
*In April I invited, San Antonio, Texas artist/instructor/author, Michelle Belto to come to my studio to teach her signature WAX + PAPER workshop, at the same time that she was working on having her first book printed. So it was very exciting to hear all about it when she came visiting!! To learn more about her new book with links and more, just click HERE.

*In October, I had the pleasure of hosting Philly's artist/instructor, Lorraine Glessner. Her workshop on Mixed-Media Encaustic & Mark-Making was a great success as well! We learned to use fabric and other materials to create the most amazing backgrounds.

 
My Workshops during 2012:
*Encaustic Painting Introduction

*Relief and Textural Effects with Mixed Media in Encaustic
 

I was offered to teach an encaustic workshop at the  Arts Center in Killingworth, during their Fall semester. The workshop was such a great success that I have been invited back to teach two different workshops during their winter term and beyond.
 

Workshops are a great way to meet wonderful people from all over, what an amazing experience!!

Besides the workshops I offer classes on a weekly basis, and last June I hosted my first Youth Art Exhibition at my studio, showcasing the wonderful artworks these children had done since they joined my classes. 

They felt like real artists, proudly showing their works to family and friends.

On another note, and continuing with my development as an artist and as a professional, I attended for my second year to The International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA. The conference was 3 days long, always on the first weekend in June. But I arrived 3 days earlier to deliver my sculpture, PANGAEA 20-12, that had been selected to the Wax Book exhibition, juried and curated by Supria Karmakar from Canada, as part of one of the many of the conference's highlights!!

Pangaea 20-12 (c) by Corina S. Alvarezdelugo
to the right hand side.

Artist/Curator Supria Karmakar with
artist Deborah Wniarski

Artists Nancy Natale, Deborah Kappor
with artist and executive director of the Truro
Center forArts at Castle Hill, Cherie Mittenthal.

Supria Karmakar, with the wonderful help from some of the participating artists in the exhibition, published a book about this beautiful exhibit, and my piece was selected amongst other pieces to go on the front cover. Take a look:

Detail of my Pangaea 20-12 on the top right!

If you would like to have a sneak peak into this beautiful little book, just click HERE. You may also want to purchase a copy for your coffee table!

Encaustic Conference
Founder/Director Joanne Mattera
addressing the crowd

Going back to talk about the Conference, it is produced by Founder/Director Joanne Mattera with Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill and its Executive Director, Cherie Mittenthal, at Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA. So, I enjoyed three full days of lectures and demonstrations on everything to do with the wonderful and versatile medium of Encaustic and the business of art, as well as raising the bar when teaching Encaustic in your practice. I re-encounter with old friends and made new ones, from all over the world!!

I also seize the opportunity and took some of the workshops they offered at the Truro Center for the Arts, pre and post conference. 

Learning from Venezuelan/Sarasota, FL
artist/instructor Elena De La Ville, on
Encaustic and photography.
Picture taken by Cherie Mittenthal

At Nancy Natale's workshop
on Bricolage, during her critique

West Coast artist/instructor, Cari Hernandez,
during her Encaustic 3-D workshop

Continuing with my art career advancement, during the summer time, I traveled to R&F Handmade Paints in Kingston, NY. There I took a sculpture workshop, Sculpting Encaustic: Mold Making and Casting with Kelly McGrath.

Kelly McGrath during a demo

All my work during the workshop

Taking a workshop at R&F when one works on encaustic, is like being a kid in a candy store!!!
 

Besides the WAX BOOK exhibition at Gallery 10 at the Truro Center for the Arts, in MA, I participated in several other exhibitions during 2012. Here images from some of those shows:

 *Three of my sculptures were exhibited at the Barn Gallery in Guilford, CT

My three sculptures on the pedestals

*The Hotel Fair during the 6th Encaustic Conference, at the Provincetown Inn, P-Town, MA

*Two of my sculptures were juried into Connecticut Women Artists exhibition at the Slater Memorial Museum, in Norwich, CT

"Keep it Wild" behind the glass case,
and "Keep on Swimming", inside the glass case
Both pieces (c) Corina S. Alvarezdelugo

 *My sculpture, The Wax Machine, was selected by curator Julia Pavon to the Guilford Art League's annual juried exhibition.

The Wax Machine (c) Corina S. Alvarezdelugo
Mill Gallery, Guilford, CT

Exhibition's catalogue

 * My sculpture Pangaea 20-12, was also juried into the LATIN VIEWS. The 6th Biennial Art Exhibition by visual artists whose roots lie in countries where the Romance languages are spoken, at the Alexey Von Schlippe Gallery in Groton, CT

Pangaea 20-12
(c) Corina S. Alvarezdelugo

 *Participated in the last exhibition of the Pen & Brush gallery, NYC, in their old location.

*Three of my sculptures and 7 paintings were juried into the 11th STATE LATIN AMERICAN VISUAL ARTS EXHIBIT, curated by Balam Soto at the Atrium Gallery in Providence, RI. From this exhibition I was awarded a Citation by the Governor of Rhode Island.

I had other career achievements during the year, like been asked to jury for awards the summer exhibition at the Essex Art Association

Gave an Encaustic Demonstration to Guilford Art League's Members, and has been invited to give another demo at the Glastonbury Art Society in March 2013.

I continue donating 50% of the sales of the pocket mirrors with the printed image of my sculpture "Awareness", to the Downey Sisters' Fund FOR BRCA MUTATION AWARENESS AND EDUCATION, to educate the public and the medical community about the genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer. 

Also participated in the New Haven's City-Wide Open Studios -CWOS- organized by ArtSpace, from Erector Square. They gave me a cute little private space that I got to fill with my art for the weekend.

I celebrated the Annual opening of my studio, the weekend before Thanksgiving. The opening was a great success, good friends and new ones came along, several of my artworks were sold, along with prints, and cards... and 10% of the sales was donated to the Red Cross, Hurricane Sandy Relief.

Thank you everyone who stopped by and to those that couldn't come but sent their good wishes, you all made this opening perfect!!

I have started conversations with Albertus Magus College to offer internships for their Art and Management students at my studio, for which I'm so looking forward to. 

Closing for now, one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to be more constant with my writing here. So, I will be making an effort to write at least once a month to keep you all updated with my work process, invite you to my exhibitions, and share with my readers my experiences in the arts world. So stay tune, and remind me if I get behind…

Wishing you all a new year filled with blessings of good health, love, and a steady job, with peace, happiness and… lots of creativity!!!