Gradually more folks who are interested in art are learning about an ancient method for carrying pigment generally referred to as encaustic. Better known of course is that water or oil are used as carriers. Less known is that beeswax has been used for centuries as a medium for painting, such as the Egyptian Fayum funerary portraits which still exist in nearly perfect condition today. As more convenient methods for heating wax became available, artists such as Jasper Johns initiated a revival of this process.
The primary difference is as water and oil paints "dry" upon application, wax paints "cool" - and cool very quickly.
In 2003 I began attending workshops and teaching myself the traditional fusing and layering techniques. Over the years I have gradually developed my own techniques and especially methods for the formulations of beeswax, carnauba and damar resin making adjustments depending on the purpose and effect desired. The addition of pigment, and specific pigment, and heat can further add strength or flexibility or color variation or texture for effects limited only by the artist's imagination and ability.
Inspiration for the show came in spring 2013 when on a road trip in the SouthWest US. Semi-trailer trucks transporting bees to the agricultural regions of southern California were stacked high and wide with variously painted bee boxes created the most luscious images as they crossed the desert on a ribbon of grey.
Many of the major pieces in the show are a composition of rectangles stacked one atop the other - some are shiny and bright and appear new-ish; others are bumped, scrapped and carry history. All, made of precious beeswax, pay homage to the honeybee: bee boxes painted in beeswax!
The verticality of the boxes implies towers, totems, ladders, mountains and trees - all moving energy upward, skyward, moonward and beyond.
And "HEAT" is the process to move the beeswax - heat from a griddle melts it and makes it liquid to be applied to the board. Heat is again used to fuse the layers of was together and yet again to allow incisions, scraping, and modeling to one's purpose.
