Balancing

As the mind explores the symbol, it is led to ideas that lie beyond the grasp of reason. - Carl Jung


Balancing
encaustic, oil paint, pigment sticks, laser transfers, thread
24x24 inches

This is my largest encaustic painting thus far at 24x24 inches. I really love working larger as it allows me more space, more freedom to explore the surface. In my paintings I am often thinking about memory and the passage of time. The surfaces I create often mimic the surface of items, natural or man-made, that wear the effects of time and the elements upon them.

When I was working on this painting earlier this month, I kept thinking of how the encaustic surface retains a memory. Or, it can. There is always the ability to melt or scrape away what has been done. But I purposely work the surface as if it were a memory holder, much like paper, much like skin. Once a mark has been made, even though erased, even though healed, there is an imprint somewhere that it occurred. And sometimes, we are reminded of a scar that we once thought was long gone. A hurt, a smile, a caress- they are stored in our cells and become a part of who we are.

Taking a pigment stick or a dab of oil paint and rubbing it into the wax surface, and then wiping the excess away- the marks, the hidden pocks,a scratch become evident. The surface reveals what was once hidden from first glance. What is often quiet and hidden adds to the richness of what is before us. We often want to hide the effects of time and memory, put them away, but our memories are who we are and deserve acknowledgement.

Thread appeared again in this piece as it did in Is that So? And as I working the thread lines, I recalled how I used thread years ago when I did a series exploring my first pregnancy. And I also used bowls back then as a metaphor for vessel. Five years later they are both reappearing again, but I am a different person now, with different experiences, and the thread and the vessels have grown with me.

Painting is a kind of call and response. During the act of painting one is listening, paying attention to a self, a voice simultaneously recognizable and foreign. - Squeak Carnwath

Right now, Balancing is hanging on the wall at Studio 303 at the Zhou B Art Center. Jenny Learner kindly invited those of us who took Shawna Moore's workshop to hang some encaustic work up. I am honored to have four of my bowl paintings hanging there right now. They are for sale, so if you are interested contact either myself or Jenny.