Paintings
I work with the medium of encaustic in which heated, liquid beeswax is mixed with powdered pigments. The wax cools and hardens almost immediately as it is painted onto wooden panels creating a brushed and textured surface. Multiple layers, some opaque and some transparent, are fused together with more heat. Since I was trained as a printmaker, I tend to work with a printmaker's sensibilities. I approach the surface of a painting in much the same way that I would carve into a woodblock. I often rub oil paint into incised lines as in inking an etching plate. Stencils are sometimes employed to apply wax or text in specific shapes as with screenprinting. Some images, done in oil paint, are rendered as in a lithographic drawing. In this way each painting goes through multiple stages of adding and removing wax until a balance and resonance is felt.
