[WILLOW BADER] I always took art seriously.
I always knew I would be an artist.
♪♪
In high school, I started looking at
what my options would be for art school.
I knew I wanted to go and I found the Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia,
and they are the oldest art school in the United States,
and they are one of the few still teaching
a very traditional education.
The only things they teach are drawing,
painting, printmaking and sculpture.
I discovered encaustic in my last couple of years
of art school. I would go to the first Friday
art walks and certain artworks would catch my eye.
I would see that there was there is a different surface
with more texture, more three dimensionality
and kind of a luminous look to it.
It was always really appealing to me,
and with those artworks
that caught my eye, I would always look at the tag
that would be next to the artwork on the wall,
and the tag would always say encaustic.
The simplest way I can describe what encaustic is
is that it's hot wax with resin
and pigment added to it to give it its color.
And I apply the paint with a brush
and I scrape with a tool and I use a propane torch.
(whirling flame)
When I walk into the studio
at the beginning of a painting day,
the first thing I do is turn on my griddles.
I need my paint to be hot in order to paint with it.
What I really love about the process
of encaustic is the immediacy.
There is no waiting.
It's very direct.
Once I pick up my brush full of paint,
I have about 3 seconds to get it
on the painting where I want it, how I want it.
I think the encaustic lends itself
particularly well to my interest.
I have a love of movement in my paintings
and when you're forced to work quickly
because your paint dries
so quickly, I think it makes for a good partnership.
The mirror in my studio is actually a tool
to help me see what my work looks like.
It adds
distance as if I've walked across the room,
but it also flips the image around
so I get a fresh perspective -- that can help.
♪ dramatic music ♪
My first tango classes were in Philadelphia.
She was just teaching it by herself and I thought, okay,
I think I can do this.
This is not very comfortable, but I think I can do this.
And then on
I think the third lesson, her dance partner came
and they did a little demo in the middle of the room
for us to see.
And I just about gulped and ran for the door.
At the time, to even be that close with a man,
and that intimate and moving together,
was not an easy thing for me to do.
If I'd known what I was getting into,
I never would have made it to that first class.
So good thing I didn't know.
♪♪
I met my partner dancing. These days,
we get out dancing usually 1 to 3 times a week.
And when we travel, we always pack our dance shoes.
Just about any large city in the world
has a community of Argentine tango dancers.
You don't have to speak the local language.
All you need to know is how to dance.
It's a it's a language of bodies.
♪♪
One of my new friends said, “Why don't you paint tango?”
And I'm like, “Yes, I think this makes really good sense.”
It has the human figure.
It's in motion, it's romantic.
And so now I've been painting Argentine tango
for like 18 years.
And every once in a while I take a break,
but I always come back to it again.
♪♪
I enjoy bringing people together
to share food and wine, and my partner also loves that.
I would say my ideal day
actually is painting and gardening and cooking.
Have a dinner party at the end of the day
and then go out dancing.
♪♪
I paint what I know.
My painting
is not separate from myself
and I don't feel myself if I'm not getting to paint.
It's okay if a few days go by sometimes, but I feel
so much better and myself when I'm in the studio
and it gives me something to look forward to
getting in the studio to see what it looks like today.
Some panels
have quite a history actually
of a number of paintings have been on them
before I finally settle on the painting that stays there.
And sometimes those remnants of color end up
being what makes the next painting really work.
And whether it's my dining room table or a friend's
dining room table at a holiday meal
or a certain place, I traveled to and danced,
they do have memories attached to them very much.
♪♪
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and any time online at
SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone