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PaintMeEmpty — Identity Paradox
Published: 2010-03-24 21:19:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 3573; Favourites: 99; Downloads: 0
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Description
Encaustics (painting with wax) is interesting and fun, although sometimes frustrating. I used a careful ratio of paraffin wax(as a base) and crayons (for the color) to build it, and the tip of a hot glue gun to smooth and shape some details.Related content
Comments: 61
woah, i saw this and it reminded me of my own painting [link]
really well done i like it a lot
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I really like this, its an interesting technique. It turned out great
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I could tell that it was an interesting technique. It came out wonderfully, Enaustics is working for ya
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Thank you dear 
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I'm sure you will, you'll have people like me begging for more XD
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WOW! What creative tools you used and what a striking result -- very well done!
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Heh, thank you
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this is beautiful! ive never heard of encaustics before, but it sounds interesting.
was this inspired by something, it seems very personal.
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I hadn't heard of it til a year before I did this piece & didn't know much about it. So one day I figured hey, why not? And tried it xD Took much trial and error and research to figure it out.
Yes, it is very personal. Inspired by my twisted mental state(s), a lot of different things mixing together. It's about feeling like you don't know yourself, don't have a clear identity, yet seem to have multiple contradictory identities taking over at the same time. It also reflects the mood shifts of being bipolar, which contributes to the opposing and confusing identities, never knowing which you'll be at any second, or both, or more. Also incorporates depersonalization a bit, feeling like nothing's real like you're not real, not a person at all...and therefore also no identity or concrete defining features...everything just 'melts' into itself and chaos follows as you watch from the distance.
sorry, that was long >.> heh
Oh, and thank you
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thats cool. how exactly do you do it? it seems pretty complicated...
im not bipolar, but i do have an anxiety disorder so i understand about feeling like you dont know who you are going to be in a few seconds. the way you described it, it also sounds a bit like what everyone goes through, growing up. trying to figure out who you are. i get the whole thing about everything melting together and feeling like your watching yourself. that happens to me.
haha, thats fine!
your welcome!
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I melted a big block of paraffin wax in an electric skillet type thing as a base wax. I used crayons mixed with paraffin wax for the color and experimented with different ratios of wax-to-crayon to get the best consistency so that the crayon bit was sealed and not as, well, crayon-y, more of the smooth wax consistency, but also careful to not dilute the color's vibrancy too much, as the paraffin wax, while solid, has a translucent off-white tint. For the colors, I mixed them separately in aluminum cans, which I then also put in the skillet (since it all has to be melted/liquid to work with it), so that they were in different containers & didn't mix together. I painted on a canvas panel and used a paintbrush to apply the wax. You have to work really quickly, because the wax starts solidifying as soon as it's off the heat. I just kept building up layer after layer with the wax, first using just the paraffin wax to build up the base to avoid wasting too much of my limited crayon supply, then using thick layers of the crayon/wax mix to create to form and colors & such. It's very hard to get it to mold to the exact shape you want, or do details, or make it anything close to smooth while just painting. So I used the tip of a hot glue gun (the only heat tool I had & hard to use for this since the tip is so small & the body of the gun is bulky, gets in the way) to form the shapes to what I wanted & smooth everything out & remove excess wax, etc. It's a very tedious process, but it was fun. So yeah, that's a brief description of the process. The whole thing was really just one big experiment, I had no idea what I was doing, just trying different things.
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i may have to try that, it sounds really really intense!
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The texture of this is awesome! And the way the colors intersect and splatter in some places is neat~ It goes extremly good with the message (:
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Wow! This is one of the most original things I've seen in awhile. I thought it was acrylic paint at first, until I read about the wax. I like the way it's layered and that the two figures have no facial features. It makes the viewer (okay me at least), think that the person/people in the painting are rather indifferent to both themselves and one another. Very detached, and beautifully chaotic. I love it
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You're very welcome
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autifully transportive image...almost as if one is able to view both sides of the same coinimultan
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WoW...What was that? Beautifully transportive...almost as if one is able to view both sides of the same coin simultaneously 
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what are you? the MacGyver of painters? It's really fantastic.
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Awh
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Thank you! Glad you like it
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no probs! (its really good)
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Excellent job! Not only does it show a lot of craftmanship, but I can see that there's a lot of meaning behind it.
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Thanks so much! This is a very personal piece, it really does hold a lot of meaning for me and hopefully for others as well
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I think that a lot of people feel like they have a dual personality. I certainly feel that way sometimes.
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