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I see my new work as referencing but refuting loss, aging and death through the beauty and rich depth I find in the color black and in the human condition itself.
What drives the work are my feelings and observations about aging, mortality and loss of memory. These concerns have become very important to me over the past couple of years as I have become more and more involved in the life of my elderly mother. I have strongly identified with her physical and mental losses and have become more aware of my own mortality and aging.
The work combines encaustic (beeswax and resin) with several other components, primarily rubber and tacks. The work is dark but has a strong frontal and geometric orientation and a very physical and tactile presence. I think it has a strong affinity with work by Lee Bontecou, Judy Pfaff and El Anatsui.
My intention was to make the mixed media elements as important as the encaustic paint and to build up the surface through accretion of small strips of rubber that I tacked down, using them as a mosaic surface. In some works I have used book pages in place of rubber by dipping pages into encaustic, cutting them into strips and tacking them down. I have also treated copper, cut it into strips and tacked the patinated metal down in the same way.