The Enso Circle: Exhibition Catalog, December 2022

Copyright © 2022 by Lyn Belisle and Michelle Belto for The Enso Circle. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher and the artists whose works are included except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2022

The Enso Circle

An invitational online Artists’ Residency

Created and led by Michelle Belto and Lyn Belisle theensocircle.com

The Enso circle symbolizes many things: the beauty in imperfection, the art of letting go of expectations, the circle of life, and connection-- the imperfections and contours are exactly what makes the Enso beautiful.

INTRODUCTION: THE ENSO CIRCLE

When Lyn Belisle and I began the work of establishing the Enso Circle in 2020, we were primarily focused on bringing the experience of an artist’s residency to others. We kept hearing about others who were floundering, often alone in their Covid protected studios. It was that need that the Residency was designed to meet.

At the time, I never dreamed the Enso Circle would have such a profound effect on my own work as an artist. These last five terms of setting goals and being accountable has transformed how I make art and inspired a new direction in my work. I am humbled to realize that the Circle has been that kind of spark for those who come through our virtual doors.

As mixed media and encaustic artists, Lyn and I originally thought that those who applied for the Residency would be mostly the student artists we knew from our teaching. But from the very first term, The Enso Circle has drawn women and men creators from various time zones and a multitude of mediums. In fact, diversity has become the hallmark of the Residency. The one thing we all have in common, though, is the desire to create and deepen our work.

The outstanding artwork represented in this Exhibition Catalogue is only a fragment of what has been created this term. The images you see point to what has been accomplished, but that is not all that has happened in these last twelve weeks. Lifelong friendships have been forged in this virtual community with bonds strong enough to inspire road trips to meet one another in person. A heartfelt thank you to each of these amazing artists for allowing Lyn and I to be a part of their life and their creative process.

Co-Founder, The Enso Circle

January 6, 2022

Michelle Belto

This fifth catalog in the Enso Circle series is once again tangible proof that “what if” can become a reality. When Michelle and I presented this “virtual Residency” concept to the arts community in early 2021, we had no idea how that community would respond. The fact that Michelle and I are in the planning process for our sixth Enso Circle term in 2023 is an overwhelming affirmation, and we are incredibly grateful.

During this twelve week term, I expected that each of these amazing Residents would produce competent, skillful art, and they succeeded my expectations. And I was once again surprised by the function of the Enso Circle group itself as a source of creative courage. What happens individually is supported and enriched by what happens collectively. We can risk without fear because the Circle is a safety net. Perhaps a better metaphor would be a trampoline – if we fall, the circle helps us bounce back even higher with authentic, eclectic work. And it’s fun!

Chuck Close said, “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get the work done. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you’re not going to make an awful lot of work.” The artists whose work you’ll see in this catalog showed up. They worked hard toward their goals. Behind the scenes, in our online Enso discussion group, they shared personal challenges, frustrations with process, fear of failure, deadline stress, triumphs small and large, and some pretty shady jokes! What was blessedly absent was competition, criticism, and comparison.

It has been an honor to work with these generous, giving, talented people. And it is a joy to see the results of their time as Enso Circle Artists-in-Residence displayed on these pages, both in words and images.

Lyn Belisle

Co-Founder, The Enso Circle

September 10, 2022

WHAT IS THE ENSO CIRCLE?

The Enso Circle is an invitational art residency, a dedicated three-month time period in which Residents join a community of creators for a specific self-chosen goal that is unique. The online residency provides the comprehensive artistic support that allows artists to focus and strengthen their work.

Those who are accepted have access to workshop sessions, a private online library of resources, regular Zoom critiques and group discussions, and presentations with guest artists. During the three months there will be opportunities to share work in process, troubleshoot stuck points, get positive and supportive feedback, and meet one on one with Lyn and/or Michelle. The residency culminates in a shared online exhibition and catalogue.

WHO IS THIS COMMUNITY FOR?

Artists who are ready to focus on a conceptual goal in their studio practice through flexible structure. A goal might be a social theme, an exploration of media, a series of work that analyzes personal struggles or celebrates overcoming difficulty.

It’s also a space for those who feel stuck, who may need the externally imposed order of a community of creative colleagues, and who value the exponential wisdom of the group.

Finally . . . .

If you feel the need for a balanced experience that encourages both personal creative time and guided encouragement from like-minded working artists, you will find a home in the Enso Circle with Lyn Belisle, Michelle Belto, and your fellow art Residents.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE APPLICATION PROCESS, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.THEENSOCIRCLE.COM

CURRENT ENSO CIRCLE RESIDENTS

DONNA CAFFREY BARBARA FRIEDSON SANDI HALL GAIL HIGENELL CHERYL LEWIS MAGGI PEACHEY NAN ROCHE

MARY FRANCES SPEARS CATHLEEN SULLIVAN HOLLY THOMPSON

NEW SOUTH WALES

TEXAS CALIFORNIA ONTARIO TENNESSEE TEXAS MARYLAND TEXAS FLORIDA TEXAS

About the Artist & the Work

DONNA CAFFREY

I am a mixed media artist. I’m into tactile and the places it takes mezen moments - when I make with my hands and my heart. I explore my ideas in collage, assemblage and stitch using found and altered papers, found objects, fabric and fibres and contemporary clay.

My work takes time to emerge. Working with my hands is both mediative and mindful. I become absorbed in the act of making. It is a time when the brain rests and the world stops.

This small study was conceived during a four week stay in the heritage village of Oatlands, Tasmania. Oatlands is steeped in early military and convict history and has many, many original sandstone buildings. I was enchanted to the point of transfixed by the sandstone walls. I explored the concept of walls.

Walls can provide security, protect, detain, restrain. Walls can keep people in or out. A wall can be a living wall. A wall does not have to be a physical object but may be a metaphorical invisible barrier such as a prejudice or ignorance.

“I stitched last night. It’s been a long time since I did that (stitch at night in front of the TV) and it was wonderful. I can truly say it was mindful stitching. The time passed. The music rang out & was mostly mellow. I was caught up with putting the needle through the fabric – in & out, in & out. Not constant. I would rest & watch the TV but for the first time in a while I can say that my mind was entirely engaged in a mindful way. I noticed the music, the costumes, the colour of the fabric in my hand & the stitching – in & out, in & out.”

(Excerpt from my journal)

About the Artist & the Work

BARBARA FRIEDSON

When I was a teen I worked in my parents’ lady to wear store in a small town in Texas surrounded by hats, shoes, clothing, and fabric with textures, shapes and colors. This was the first art museum I saw at a young age. Receiving a sewing machine as a child allowed me to create doll clothes, puppets, and much later art quilts.

Now, enjoying exploration of abstracts allows me to paint intuitively. Loosing myself in the movement of the paint or sanding through a previous layer or adding texture leads to curiosity. A palette knife is my favorite tool to use, which allows me to feel the surface to scrape and create different shapes with different edges. All the above brings joy not knowing what will be until the end when I refine the design to tell a story or an emotion.

The book,”I Will Not Die an Unlived Life,” by Dawna Markova mentioned the Hebrew word Tikkum OLam which means repair, improve or rebuild. After being involved in a school shooting. I have been taunted, needing to repair my soul, so I joined the group to create art. My torn edges signify need to repair. The collage pieces give me support to heal while using a limited palette gives harmony. Using a knife to scrape fear away reveals layers which give support to the next. Circles mean wholeness, keeping the journey of healing on going.

About the Artist & the Work

SANDI HALL

Since the early days of my adulthood, prayer has encompassed who I am. It grabs ahold of me and doesn’t let me go tell it’s done with me. Art has become a vessel of that prayer… that vessel happens to create a piece representing my visual imagination. I generally draw my work on an I-pad then continue to create as I “sew” with cotton and silk (repurposed ties). I love the feeling of fibers and like to allow them to move as “they” desire over the piece… and all the time I am praying for the piece’s eventual owner.

This piece is a prayer vessel of healing over a short series of traumatic events that happened in my own life, ending with the unexpected death of my pup Scout-tie. Scout-tie was never seen without his pensive eyes and pink ball. He was shy, yet outgoing; serious yet, comedic and always adventurous. He was a caricature of my own Self. As I attached Scout-tie’s tags to this piece, I realized how much healing this vessel had given me.

About the Artist & the Work

GAIL HIGENELL

Growing up in urban cities, where nature was limited to postage-sized backyards, I developed into an artist who is passionate about the natural world and our present and past relationship to that world. I was born in Birmingham, England and emigrated to Canada as a small child. The rolling hills of Fonthill, Ontario have been my home for the past 35 years, as well as the setting for my creative workspace, Studio 1795.

Many years ago, I transitioned from a career in science to one in art. This shift gave me an opportunity to share and integrate ideas from each discipline. The value of this assimilation is original and is expressed through my experimental techniques and conceptual themes that run through my paintings. My art acts as a bridge inviting the viewer to cross over and re-establish or restore a faded connection with nature.

The interconnectedness of nature is a key element in my work and surfaces through suggestions of belonging, enchantment, awe, and mystery. My previous paintings captured my experience of the ‘sense of place’ of a location. I was inspired, during this residency, to intentionally create a ‘sense of place’, directly on the substrate. This image is one of eight in a series called The Geography of Belonging. It was chosen because it best represents a ‘new geography’, one where belonging links matter to place. Images of ancient materials merge with images of contemporary nature to create the essence of belonging. Within the natural world I find myself exploring and investigating the minute details one often misses in nature: texture, line, form, colour, and pattern. These become the elements that I use in my work.

My process involves layering original and manipulated photographs, with paint, paper, wax, asemic writing, text, and fiber. This ‘new geography’ offers the viewer an opportunity to pause and sparks the imagination. The remaining pieces in the series can be seen on my website: gailhigenell.ca

About the Artist & the Work

CHERYL LEWIS

Everything I create flows from my kinship with nature and appreciation for the life it gives. As a woodturner, I honor fallen trees that have hosted a rich community of organisms and animals, even as they enable our breathing.

Using a lathe, I shape remnants into new forms. Then, utilizing an ancient art process, I paint them with molten, pigmented beeswax reinforced with tree sap.

Bees are also an integral part of our ecosystem and essential to our existence. My goal is for my art to celebrate nature and its many gifts.

My current work takes what has long been practiced on flat panels and pushes it into the realm of 3-D to reflect the fullness of nature.

I’m also exploring recovering imperfect forms created and rejected by woodturning colleagues. These forms are not lost to the discard pile but are upcycled to further honor our natural resources.

BEES AND TREES

Beeswax, tree sap, pigment, oil paint pigment stick, pastels on wood 8”x7”x3” $750

About the Artist & the Work

MAGGI PEACHEY

I’m not an artist, I just like making art. That’s what I believed as I pursued a higher education in business and worked in the healthcare industry for over ten years. In 2018 I did a 180 and quit my full-time job to pursue art as a career. I was emerging and had all of 2020 planned out but everything was canceled. This was my first major lesson in the art world. Nothing goes according to plan and adapting is a must. Thanks to my time in The Enso Circle I was able to reconnect with my inner artist to refine what I wish to explore and how best to achieve it. Currently, I depict personal narratives and observations to create a lasting legacy and emotional connection. I utilize primarily painting, block printing, and 3D figures/assemblage to express these ideas. My name is Maggi, and I am an Artist. Does one’s abilities for artistry come from within or is it forged over time through nurturing, encouragement, and perseverance? This piece loosely depicts personal memories that resulted in a revelation about one’s own creative origins. To capture these memories I incorporated beloved personal effects, fabric, paper, acrylic paint, color pencil, and gel medium on wooden plaques connected with hinges.

THE DOVE AND THE CARDINAL Mixed media on wood 35.5” x 11.5” $250

Years

A daughter is recognized by teachers for artistry and creativity. Classmates dismiss it. It’s only because the mother is an artist. Could this be true?

A Grandfather’s only hand painted work. Birds and flowers on black tin trays. Testament of Mother’s gift passed to her daughter. It must be true.

later. Mother and daughter admire the trays. Something reveals itself. Numbers? Numbers beneath each color of paint. Both in disbelief. A veil lifted; acceptance followed by

An artist mother teaches her children art concepts and history. She encourages them to create, to explore mediums throughout childhood. This is normal life.

About the Artist & the Work

NAN ROCHE

Restless hands have been my life and a curiosity for how the objects I see around me are constructed and why. It’s a good recipe for an artist, a scientist and for an interesting life. It’s a compulsion that I cannot remember ever not having. The people and things that have held me closest, my parents, my teachers, my friends, an encyclopedia of encounters with words, objects, books, all have had a hand in this desire.

My mother was a painter, my father an engineer. Making things and questioning things were present from my earliest memories. Collecting ideas and objects was a family avocation that became my own. I was always an artist, I became a scientist and the two pursuits never seemed separable. These are the scaffolds that inform what I do every day.

My work is informed by writing poetry. I have learned that my best words are born of a mysterious process of emptying my mind, a ride on an undercurrent not wholly of my own making. One never knows quite what might be revealed by some “unseen hand”in the series of words and thoughts that emerge from a particular beginning.

If I am lucky, it surprises me. This process is what I strive for in my drawings. At its best, each line, each color forms a kind of inevitability for the next and if I am lucky, it surprises me. I hope the viewer will be surprised by this piece, just a little, too.

A Simple Molecule

10/22/22 Nan Roche

It starts with a trickle of water which knows where it must be going. Some subtle declination gives it its destiny.

Strange stuff, the simplest of molecules, eventually to reach the sea and turn the planet blue.

Life’s potential bathed in it. Holding up whales, turning them into creatures of lithe grace like massive ballerinas.

Power over land, it carves even granite yet is soft as a baby’s skin. It can raze whole towns when pushed and surged by a fickle wind, spun up in equatorial waters. A simple molecule. There would be no life without its existence as it bathes the embryos of crocodiles, cuckoos, and cassowaries alike, mimicking the mother sea on land in both egg and placenta.

Solidified by cold, it sits on the poles and mountains like a nesting hen, sending glacial fingers into unsuspecting valleys. It drives the earth’s weather like a mixing bowl. Glaciers will disappear, ice will melt, the cities of man will disappear, its undeniable power will rule this fragile orb with impunity and impudence. Yet, such a simple molecule.

About the Artist & the Work

MARY FRANCES SPEARS

Mary Frances is a conceptual artist seeking an intersection between intuitive driven abstract and representational works. Traveling and exploring our public lands and monuments in her mobile studio/RV she connects and responds to place, history, and environmental narratives. She is seeking to bring forward stories and metaphors that encourages connections to our world and each other.

As a multi-media artist, how the viewer experiences a visual tale or memory, are primary considerations. Whether choosing, encaustic painting (wax based), fiber-based assemblage, photography/printmaking, or drawing mediums; the media she uses act as the “lens” through which the viewer enters her interpreted world.

Mary Frances began life surrounded by colors and textures of fibers and fabrics passed down by her grandmother. Her grandfather, a naturalist, instilled a love and wonder of nature. Artistic influences include, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Cezanne, William Turner, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Each one innovative in the approach to their environment.

While visiting San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, the legend of the Lady in Blue, captured my imagination. A 17th century Spanish abyss visited the American Indians 500 times over ten-years, using bilocation. Traditions suggests where her blue cape touch the ground blue flowers sprouted.

This art doll began with the ingredients of an Indian medicine bag for Love, Kindness and Healing, wrapped in white cloth attached to twigs from the Espada Aqueduct to form the armature. Each component used represents aspects of her and the legends and history she inspired.

For more information search “the lady in blue story and history”

On Instagram, follow Mary Frances and her mobile studio @rvistaquest

About the Artist & the Work

CATHLEEN SULLIVAN

As a young adult, I could be found Saturdays painting at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Even though I was immersed in NYC culture, art, choirs, and summers spent in Germany, or traveling the USA, a career in the arts was not in the cards until later in life.

In 2003, pottery found me. Clay satisfied my need to build sculptural forms and experiment with the chemistry of glazes. With my children in school, I could be found at every open studio, later constructing my home studio and teaching. After a pottery tour of Italy, I realized I needed to learn the history and language of art. For me, college was the greatest gift that I savored daily as I studied art history and new mediums, branching out my creative processes into many incredible areas that have catapulted my art into many more directions.

In 2017, encaustics found me. I am attracted to this incredibly challenging medium, having attended many workshops including an independent study at college. In 2020 I took a 2-year hiatus, relocated to Florida, constructed a new studio, and resumed working in encaustics in conjunction with the Enso Residency.

Today, I am enjoying what I was meant to do; working in my studio, opening Treasure Coast Pottery, teaching, and being involved in the arts on many levels in this wonderful community that has embraced me. “Two Moons Rising” is an encaustic painting reflecting a journey. I started this painting in NY in August 2020. It traveled with me to Florida where it sat until I finally picked it up to complete it. The lower moon represents the journey of my artistic life, still rising. The golden half-moon represents a bit of my art-related success despite the obstacles buried within the wax.

About the Artist & the Work

HOLLY THOMPSON

Holly Thompson is best known for creating a broad range of intricate pieces of work that sometimes lean toward the “bizarre” (she believes that everything can be improved with a snake, spider or cockroach).

Her work is described as unique and complicated, whether it be jewelry, sculpting, painting, quilting or other mediums. Art has always held an important position in Holly’s life – keeping her centered and sane (relatively-speaking).

In her most recent body of work, accomplished while a member of the Enso Circle, Holly has fully embraced encaustic collage. Her goal was to create a series of pieces (in coordinating pairs) that were colorful, vibrant, and of course, a bit bizarre.

THREE PAIRS (part of a larger series):

SNAKES BARDOT and THE GYPSY DANCERS

Collage, encaustics

8” x 8” x 1.5” (each piece)

NFS

THE ENSO CIRCLE RESIDENTS

DONNA CAFFREY

Albury, Australia

Email: djcaffrey@pobox.com Web Site: www.donnacaffrey.com

“Practice any art ... no matter how well or badly ... to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.” Kurt Vonnegut

BARBARA FRIEDSON

San Antonio, Texas

Email: Jifbaf1967@yahoo.com

“Life is weird.” Eli Lunik

SANDI HALL

Vacaville, CA

Email: SandiSays@icloud.com Web Site: cottonandsilk.wordpress.com

“I can be ordinary any day; today I choose to be extraordinary” Sandi Hall

GAIL HIGENELL

Fonthill, Ontario, Canada

Email: gail@gailhigenell.ca Web Site: www.gailhigenell.ca

“You can’t know who you are until you know where you are.” — Wendell Berry

CHERYL LEWIS

Nashville, Tennessee

Email: cheryl@almostfirewood.com Website: almostfirewood.com

“A tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.” —Hermann Hesse

MAGGI PEACHEY

San Antonio, Texas

Email: maggi@maggipeach.com Web Site: maggipeach.com

“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” -Neil Gaiman

NAN ROCHE

College Park, Maryland

Email: rochebender@verizon.net

“When you start working, everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, your enemies, the art work and above all your own ideas - all are there. But as you start painting, they start leaving , one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you are lucky, even you leave.” - John Cage

MARY FRANCES SPEARS

San Antonio TX, and Beyond

Email: Me@maryfrancesart.com Web Site: @rvistaquest and @artbymaryfrances

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.” - Marc Chagall

CATHLEEN SULLIVAN

Port Saint Lucie, Florida

Email: cathleensullivan@rocketmail.com

Web Site: www.sullieart.com

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” ― Earl Nightingale

HOLLY THOMPSON

Austin, Texas

Email: HOLLY3CATS@GMAIL.COM

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.” –Andy Warhol

Samples of Residents’ Works in Progress

ENSO CIRCLE FOUNDERS

LYN BELISLE MICHELLE BELTO

TEXAS TEXAS

MICHELLE BELTO

My best work has always had components of image, story and dance. Without the immediacy of live performance, I’ve had to wrestle with the limits of the visual form. How was I to merge narrative in my work or give a sense of movement in what is basically a two-dimensional static image? My questions and my ensuing study led me to paper and wax as mediums of choice. Paper, as an organic material, is useble only after it is transformed from grass into pulp which becomes canvas. Wax, in its molten state, incorporates movement as an essential quality in both application and process.

LYN BELISLE

Human faces, ancient or contemporary, fascinate me as summaries of life stories in the moment. Clay, paper, beeswax, and fiber are my instinctive, beloved media but mark-making through abstract painting challenges me to develop my own language of expression and translation.The more aware I am of the little day-to-day things that capture my attention by calling to me in a mysterious way, and the more I take note of them, the more understanding I gain about the purpose of my art as basic human communication, both to myself and to the viewer.

About the Artist & the Work

MICHELLE BELTO

During the last four terms of The Enso Circle Residency my artistic goals centered around cold wax as a medium. Since my introduction to this intuitive way of oil painting in 2014, I have been interested to see how a subtractive wax process could be integrated into my current encaustic work.

When Clouds Part is a combination of these two wax mediums-cold wax used as an underpainting and encaustic applied as finishing layers. Cold Wax is a heavy bodied oil painting medium that allows for mark making techniques at differing levels of dryness, adding visual history and rich texture. Once fully cured, the painting is ready to accept thin layers of encaustic.

Scraping back to reveal what is below and adding wax to shape what I see is at the heart of the interaction between these two mediums. Finding a way from Intention to Attention speaks to what I hoped to discover in this residency in my ongoing search for more authenticity in my work.

About the Artist & the Work

LYN BELISLE

Like every Enso Circle Resident, Michelle and I set a personal goal for the twelve-week term and work alongside the Resident fellow artists as part of the community. This practice ensures that we are not just the Circle “leaders,” but are empathetic participants in the process.

And like many of the Residents, our goals often shift or morph as we pursue them over the weeks. Here is the description of the goal that I set for myself at the beginning of this term:

Explore the construction of mixed-media feminine/female/woman/ binary sculptural figures using material a metaphor and working with a combination of:

Indigo-dyed fabric - communication, meditation and peace Bone – mortality, permanence - contradiction Earthenware – reconnection with natural forces, transformation Wood (reclaimed) – service, protection Beeswax – fire, resurrection

The figure that resulted (right) was actually a continuation of a piece that I had started several years ago. It never had a sense of completion, but as I looked at my goal, I realized that it lacked the quality of metaphor that could be achieved by the addition of symbolic materials. I added wood and bone, and more beeswax. The silk fiber I used was not Indigo-dyed but was instead dyed with natural tea tannins. The title, Flights of Fancy, refers to the liberating power of human imagination.

FLIGHTS OF FANCY

HOW WE CREATE IS A VARIED AS WHERE WE CREATE. HERE ARE SOME STUDIO PHOTOS FROM ENSO CIRCLE RESIDENTS.

Congratulations to the Residents of the Enso Circle for an excellent exhibit!

We are so grateful to you for your creativity, courage, and diversity!

Michelle Belto is a multi-faceted artist and teacher, whose work as an artist, educator and author spans more than forty years, three continents and multiple publications. She holds degrees and certifications in Fine Art, Theater and Expressive Arts. Michelle’s teaching schedule includes instruction in her signature work with paper and wax (Wax and Paper Workshop, Northlight Press 2012) and her life’s work developing an insightful process for deciphering meaning and purpose from the art we create. Her work is in private, corporate and museum collections. Michelle is a R&F Teir Instructor for R&F Paints and an adjunct faculty at Southwest School of Art where she teaches a variety of encaustic painting courses.

Lyn Belisle is a multidisciplinary artist embracing encaustic painting, earthenware, digital imagery, sculpture, textiles and found objects. Her artwork gives expression to her quest to discover and connect synchronistic shards of meaning through collage and assemblage. She teaches mixed-media workshops at Lyn Belisle Studio in San Antonio, and also teaches nationally, most recently in Santa Fe, Provincetown, Washington State, and Taos. Her online workshops and ebooks cover an array of topics for all levels. Her signature media are earthenware, paper and fiber. She recently retired from the faculty in the Computer Science Department at Trinity University to work full time at her studio.