My work is an intuitive and playful exploration of composition, color and abstraction combined with elements of nature. The initial drawings for this work are derived from found rock formations along the border of California and Mexico as well as, from the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains. I also draw from found lace work. The lace works found in Germany, Italy and Cuba were chosen because they were used inside homes and life changing ceremonies. The lace becomes a screen of interlacement in each painting. Allowing the viewer to stay on the surface or pass through to discover layers beneath. I use a narrow range of dry pigments, beeswax and oil paint. Both materials and imagery are combined in layers recomposing landscape and nature to suggest metaphorical connections between the thrill of making and my awe for nature. Calcium Carbonate, one of the dry pigments used, is a common compound comprised of three elements, Carbon, Oxygen and Calcium, found in pearls, seashells, limestone in streams and lakebeds throughout Texas and the Midwestern United States. Mica, another dry pigment used in the work, is found in the southeastern United States as well as, various products from electronics to paper.
This combination of imagery and materials allow me the opportunity to intuit process, chance and discover unforeseen possibilities while making the work. The fluidity and stillness of the wax allows for the work to expand and explore implicit movement, as each encaustic painting becomes the custodian of past moments in time.
In my most recent large-scale charcoal drawings, I continue to explore nature and abstraction, but I narrowed my medium, palette and imagery. Examining Mondrian’s perfection through abstraction is a counterpoint to Rilke’s poem, Dear Darkening Ground. One artist worked to push away from nature while the other recognized its inevitable power and undeniable presence. I find myself working in a space where nature and the history of abstraction collide to inform one another and invite questions about the natural world I have experienced and know along-side the art history I have embraced.