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Levitation I |
I work with encaustic on wood, canvas and print to combine pigment, beeswax, and fire with collaged text and aggregates. Melting beeswax and damar crystals, applying brushfuls of colored molten wax, and “burning in” with the torch, all merge the concepts of evolving form and psychological layering that I explore in my work.
I layer up and dig down to find a hidden path to meaning. Repetitive shapes and marks cross the surfaces like shorthand messages; they cover information and questions that lie beneath—the “play within a play.” What is seen on the surface is not the only story.
My work seeks to explore the discovery that I can use diverse materials from my past art to develop a body of work that integrates several past and present themes. I'm looking for a way to transform weaves and strands that sometimes veer off into tangents. I investigate diverse forms and media with a signifying mark and color dynamic and seek not to repeat myself--series of explorations start out strong, use their ingredients to the max and then lead me to another series--an ongoing process. The physicality of the materials that I choose and the engagement of what is revealed and what is hidden, how these layer, cover, and replace one another, show my vision of art as life's process and the reliquary of art as object.
Studies in ancient Greco-Roman painting, sculpture and drawing,
Asian calligraphy and
Joseph Albers’ color theories influence my work. Recently, I have
been captivated
by the illumination and levitation of the light, water and land of the
Columbia/Pacific
area of SW Washington state.
Joan Stuart Ross
2009