My work draws on personal history and ideology. I create abstract corsets: the morning ritual series, pod forms and other 2D and relief paintings using wax and porcupine quills, which act as a metaphor for beauty and pain.
The use of the corset harkens back to an earlier time in my life. As a child, I would watch my grandmother being hooked into her corset, her figure transformed from its natural shape into a womanly ideal. The quills represent the stitches and hooks and lacings reminiscent of the garments worn by women of her age and today’s woman as they strive to fit into the cultural norms of the time.
I leaned toward simple black and white forms for several years, pouring pure wax onto a surface and imbedding quills. But it was time to get back to color in the smaller works. I layer colored wax, papers, inks, shellac and other materials burying these waxes and materials to create a history. It can be reshaped by scraping the wax away and or by adding more layers. The encaustic paint is very versatile, a seductive mixture of beeswax and resin lending itself perfectly to this layering process.
While the larger paintings primarily explore color they also speak to a meditative space that exists simultaneously with areas of chaos and complexity. I haven’t decided where this exploration will go or what meaning this dichotomy holds, but I’m listening and fully present in the process.