Encaustic Mixed Media

My encaustic work is often intense and a little dark.  Although I find it thrilling to carefully observe and render my subject matter, my work always gives way here and there to painterly strokes and spatters, or areas of less specificity.  I often try to amplify the contrast between crisp naturalism and abstraction by fusing materials to the surface.  These 3-dimensional protrusions of found objects blur the distinction between what is real and what is illusion.  The images have a sense of being trapped in their 2-dimensional surface, reaching out, trying to break free.  I scrape, melt, and embed materials into the surface to help reveal the depth of the layered encaustic medium. 

Thematically, I am interested in our necessity to strike a balance in our lives between comfort and discomfort.  I am fascinated by the resilience of people who are living in uncomfortable circumstances, but are managing to find comfort in wholesome and healthy ways.  I am equally fascinated by the horrors people experience as a result of being too comfortable or by soothing their discomfort using self-destructive means.  While I work, I often draw inspiration from cycles or waves, and seek to unify seemingly disparate subject matter.  My encaustic pieces typically have an eerie, dreamlike quality, incorporating symbolic or metaphorical imagery.  I love how this can limit and clarify while simultaneously extending the meaning of a piece.  In my experience, this has made my art more accessible, inviting interpretation even from viewers who do not normally consider themselves art lovers.  This versatile medium allows me to not only freely explore, but to also capture viscerally, the nuances of themes like weight vs. delicacy, pain vs. pleasure, clarity vs. confusion, and deterioration vs. growth.