Working in 3-D with Encaustic and Mixed Media Processes

A new direction! 

Last summer I began exploring 3-D with encaustic mediums. During this journey, I have been entranced with the house, bird, and the circle shapes. I plan on continuing this path. By encompassing the forms, I find I can bring a creative narrative to my work. As an artist, I have not yet been satisfied with direction, as I hear from other artists they too are always moving forward to find perfection. I feel now that I am on the right path. I am excited about the wax, materials, elements and feel of the works. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. 

Artist Statement:

Houses:

The house can be a powerful symbol of the self, and often serves that purpose in dreams and art. This particular symbol perfectly captures the nature of the human self: we are all made of the same basic psychological stuff, but we’re all uniquely complex in our individual personalities and lifestyles.

My encaustic houses are a symbol of personal identity; these house sculptures are part of an inner dreamscape, deep thoughts, natural awakenings, and sensory mechanisms that are part of the soul, some of which I cannot even pretend to explain. The houses are the perfect vessel to be come a reliquary of sorts, to hold those moments or emotions captured within.  

Encaustic Printmaking at the Studio School!

What a fantastic class!

About Encaustic:

Encaustic, a wax-based painting medium characterized by luminous color and lush surface, flourished more than 2,000 years ago in Greco-Roman Egypt.

Encaustic, from the Greek encuastikos, means to "heat" or "burn". Heat is use at every stage of encaustic painting. The medium consists of beeswax melted with a small amount of resin to impact harness and pigment for the rich colors adde to the molten wax.

Painting requires quick work, as the wax begins to harden the moment it leaves the heat source. The heat binds each layer to the one set own before it, so while the image my consist of discrete compositional elements, structurally the entire surface is one carefully crafted mass, a "whole ball of wax", if you will. 

About Monotypes:

Monotypes are prized because of their unique textual qualities. They are made by drawing on glass or a plate of smooth metal or stone with a greasy substance such as printer's ink or oil paint. Then the drawing is pressed by hand onto a sheet of absorbent paper or is printed on an etching press. 

For me, I find the process very meditative. Colors  and textures can be achieved in so many ways with Encaustic, but the paper, ah...the papers! So many possibilities! Here are just a few of the class examples!