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My work is a journal of human contact about strangers, juxtaposing the figure with an abstract form or other echoing counterpart. My collection of thousands of orphaned, vintage photographs is the catalyst for my painting and printmaking. I am intrigued by the conflicting, reciprocal, and parallel relationships of people, objects and environment in a photographic image. I deconstruct a photograph to create stirring, figurative images through a fusion of encaustic* paint, graphite drawings and solar plate** etchings.
This website exhibits selected work from my encaustic / mixed media paintings and solar plate etchings whose imagery is bound by a narrative that unravels a fleeting moment, defined by time and circumstance.
* ENCAUSTIC is luminous, pigmented beeswax. Damar, a tree resin, is added to the beeswax to render hardness. Encaustic paint is applied in a molten form with a brush to a rigid surface. A propane torch or heat gun is used to fuse each layer. This many layered process makes all imbedded material such as drawings or photos integral to the encaustic structure as well as creating a visual depth that is unique to this medium. The use of encaustic is first noted in the 4th century B.C. painted on the hulls of Greek ships. The most well known examples of early encaustic painting are the Greco-Roman, Fayum funerary portraits, from 100 B.C. to 200 A.D. These two thousand year old encaustic paintings are in good condition and can still be seen in museums around the world. ** SOLAR PLATE is a UV sensitive, steel backed polymer plate used as an alternative to traditional hazardous intaglio and relief printing techniques. The intaglio image is incised below the surface of the plate. Ink is applied by hand to the plate surface; the incised image holds the ink and the surface is wiped clean. The plate is laid on damp paper and sent through a hand turned press where the paper is pushed into the recessed lines and picks up the image. The solar plate etchings in my series Analogue were created by using three plates each containing a unique color and image. The paper is run through the press thee separate times to pick up and layer the image of each plate. |
