Artist’s Statement: Structure & Flow (from the 2010 Water Series)

Encaustic, oil & mixed media on wood panel

I began working with the ideas of structure and flow in late 2009. My youngest child began kindergarten and I relished this new structure; in it I found long stretches of uninterrupted time. In the studio I want to lose myself in my work, to ignore both the clock and my multi-tasking self, and to get swept along in the tidal pull of my mind. This tapping into intuitive energy and relinquishing conscious thought - the structural side of life - enables the visual decision-making process to flow from within.

My chosen subject, the sea, is a metaphor for this wild, unharnessed energy that exists in us and in the greater world. We can tap into this energy, align ourselves with it, but we cannot control it. The unpredictability of encaustic painting - painting with hot, molten wax then melting it once again to fuse it to the layer below - also offers a freeing loss-of-control. The untamed flow of the hot wax literally forms the painting.

This series is also about multiples, and the ability to form and re-form structure as we wish. The permutations and possible combinations of the small panels enable collectors to determine their own form from this work. All based – intuitively – on an individual response to the flow.

NOTE: Additional paintings available.