ARTIST STATEMENT
I love painting in encaustic because it has unique processes for mixing and applying color that engage my attention and focus my creative energies. For instance, the bee's wax -- an ancient medium that predates oil by many centuries must be heated, and a special resin called dammar is mixed with pigment. The tools used in adhering the paint are modern and industrial: brushes, propane or butane torches, heat guns and tacking irons. Yet, the result is both primitive and intimate.
The process of painting is demanding and thus it helps me to avoid artifice or facade, and to focus on bright color and graphic lines. While the medium and process have ancient roots, my image influences are from pop culture and Japanese Chiyogami paper (graphic, repetitive designs applied to paper in the Edo period).
My work is an exploration of the medium with very little narrative. The attraction for me is the translucency, fluidity, organic and sculptural quality of the medium. Besides the mystery of muted bright color residing beneath the milky surface, the ability to cut into the wax allows me to build and sculpt relief on the surface of the wax. It’s simultaneously a two-dimensional and sculptural exploration of the medium of making marks and applying color, and then going back into the yielding surface.
My desire is to bring you to the surface of my works; and once there to experience the rewards of color and textural nuance that closer inspection affords. While the paintings are inspired by the felt memories of personal experience, what I offer to you in them is not intended to be more than they are: rich surfaces that hold and reveal, suggest and reward in their sensuality. You can bring what you will to this and if this is successful it will evoke a memory of yours that is rich and worth revisiting.
I hope you enjoy my work for what it is.