“When you work on art a long time, it can get stale,” says Menomonie artist, teacher, and author William Schulman. “You have to try different things.” Schulman’s new book, Scribbles, Images and Words, was his way of trying something different with the material he has fostered over his 50 years as an art teacher along with an entire life spent as a practicing artist. The book demonstrates how artistic exercises, poetry, and verbal/visual relationships led Schulman to encaustic painting: an Egyptian art form that uses heated bee’s wax mixed with oil paints to add a glossy sheen and improve upon the medium’s longevity. Schulman is working on another book expected to be published this year that focuses again on verbal/visual relationships, but with emphasis on his artwork and on Lake Menomin. Scribbles, Images and Words is available at the Janet Carson Gallery in Eau Claire.