WINGS, BEHIVES AND OTHER WORK


In 1996 I began to incorporate wax on the artwork

En 1996 comence a utilizar cera en el trabajo

Around 1996 I began to incorporate wax on a number of works. Up to this point I had been using gel medium, or marble dust mixed in the paint. I liked both, because I was able to get a paste that would dry faster than oil paint by itself. However, I was beginning to get worried about using marble dust in a small enclosed space - our studio was a 500 foot space in the basement of a warehouse building-, even if we used surgical-type masks to work. I don't know how we came across wax. I think that we had seen a brick at one of the art stores we went to for supplies, and we had bought it. So one day I bought a hot plate and began to melt the wax to then mix with paint - This is basically the encaustic method that has been used by artists like Jasper Jones-. I used this for a short time, but then I discovered that that seemed very toxic in a space with no much ventilation. So I began to apply the wax as a final layer. A way to add another dimension to the work.
At this point I can't remember which work was the first one where I did this, but I am pretty sure that Beehives must have been one of the first. I continued to be interested in language, and in 1998 I began to use actual language - see Wings (1998) where I wrote with white crayon. Later in Modernism. Britannica series I used an actual book (an old discarded Britannica Encyclopedia I found in the trash) as the basis for a work/


Beehives 199x. Mixed media. Wax layers on top


Beehives. Detail


Wings. 1998. Mixed media, newspaper, crayons, wax.


Modernism. Britannica Series 2000 (part of Foot in the Door at the MIA)



Detail of Modernism. Britannica Series.
Wax is very visible on this detail

Posted: Sunday - February 06, 2005 at 12:45 PM          

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