Some like it hot.
Take for example iconic artist Jasper Johns.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Johns became one of the first creatives to chose to use encaustic or hot wax to make art that entered – in his case, dominated – the mainstream with his world-famous “Flag” series.
But Johns was not the first to leverage the magic of the medium.
For that we have to go back in time to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks.
Encaustic comes from the Greek enkaustikos, which means “to heat” or “to burn.” The word applies both to a type of pigmented wax, as well as to the process involving heat by which colored wax is melted and, later, applied to a variety of surfaces.
Examples include the famous Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt (produced around 100 – 300 AD) and the icons of Greek art, which date as far back as the 5th century. Fast forwarding to the present, also the paintings currently on display at Telluride’s Slate Gray Gallery in a show titled “Waxing Rhapsodic” (up through July 2).
“Waxing Rhapsodic’ features the art of Judy Kohin, Shawna Moore, and Amy Van Winkle. What all three mark-makers share is a singular ability to render the aura of their muse – Mother Nature – with breathtaking chromatic audacity.
“‘Waxing Rhapsodic’ is a celebration of wax as a medium and the versatility of encaustic painting. Each of our three artists has developed a method of working with wax that results in an image entirely her own. And, in different ways, they each pushed this ancient technique into the contemporary realm. We’re excited to open the summer season with this strong body of colorful new work,” explains gallery director Allison Cannella.
Judy Kohin, more:
Judy Kohin fills her latest body of work, all quietly juicy canvases, with flattened planes, a mix of bright and muted colors, and pared-back compositions that capture close up and personal details of the majestic landscapes that surround her home, which is her playground. Those ever-changing views, the changing light, clearly sets her imagination on fire.
Collectively Judy’s paintings evoke the natural world with spontaneity and honesty that underlines the notion of bucolic escape, both grand and serene. Her images, in effect, liberate forms from trees, rivers, rocks, plants, birds, sky, wind and sun with a richness in the variety of shapes that informs and inspires the artist and lover of all things outdoors. Though she conceals or blurs the descriptive qualities of her aforementioned muses, the tour de force that defines this collection lies in Judy’s ability to retain and capture the energy that animates them all.
“I am most at home when I am outside, completely immersed in the wildness of the world. I want my work to convey the exuberance and vitality I feel just being alive! The natural world is a source of joy and ecstasy. I am in awe of its beauty, power and resilience.”
Judy’s demanding process begins with hand-dying fabrics. The enhanced material is then glued onto a panel, which is brought to vibrant life with paint, drawing and encaustic wax, then framed by the artist. So sealed, signed and delivered.
Shawna Moore, more:
Shawna Moore’s art integrates elements of painting and drawing while reflecting her education in architecture and fine art.
Here Shawna puts some method to her particular brand of madness:
“Each line I draw describes a moment in my life as an artist. The interplay with materials is a visual diary of my life experience and my contemplative journey. Most fascinating are the passages which remain visible and those that disappear. The surface is a visual record of selective memory and how, despite our best efforts, outcome is subject to so many forces beyond our control. The ability of encaustic paint to reveal and obscure creates mysterious surfaces and depth-filled fields of line and color.”
Shawna’s work, really an exploration of her life via art, has been described as “freewheeling,” “inventive” and “provocative”:
“Running like a river through my art are questions and implied answers about the nature of art, the boundaries between life and art, and the necessity of exploring those boundaries. Moving from conventional painting methods into experimental materials and a fascination with found objects helps connect me to the world around me and the interactions I experience each and every day. I am not interested in style as much as I am in spirit.”
The drawing, layering, melting, scraping and watching define the moments when artist gets to immerse herself in her materials, tools and process.
“As a person who often thinks about the nature of mind and the experience of being alive, the patterns of movement that surround us provide insights into our everyday reality. The spin of the globe, the movement of the stars, and the changing of the seasons bear witness to the nature of change as the only constant. In that context, not doing, slowing down, seems very important. My work is about nature, stillness and movement.
“This show at Slate Gray Gallery highlights the individual method we three artists use to express ourselves using similar materials. Pigment suspended in wax-based mediums (cold wax, encaustic or mixed media) lends itself to the creation of lush surfaces and luminous layers. Our differing approaches should give the audience a glimpse into the boundless possibilities we artists get to explore with this medium,” adds Shawna.
Amy van Winkle, more:
In today’s wild and crazy world finding balance is like trying to find the Holy Grail. Amy’s encaustics offer a reprieve. They allow us all to exhale.
At first glance it is the overall compositional integrity, the solid geometry of rectangles, circles and hexagons, the repeating patterns, that satisfy our craving for order and symmetry. However, that feeling of serenity that comes from viewing Amy’s paintings goes beyond their solid architecture to her compositional elements: dense, layered images make the past present and the present richer.
Amy’s paintings, dialogues of opaque and transparent layers, are about connections too. Hers to the accumulated language of modern art. Hers to the places she has lived – Massachusetts, Chicago, Hong Kong, Santa Fe and Telluride. Ours to ourselves through associations to the numerous discrete element exposed through the heating and scraping of surfaces.
In that regard, collectively Amy’s work could accurately be described as a palimpsest, defined as “something reused or altered, but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.”
In Amy’s new paintings layers seems to float to the foreground, then recede into memory. What was partially rubbed out, however, remains highly evocative:
“There’s a distinct relationship between the layers of my paintings and my own life experiences. Choosing to reveal certain elements of my history and keeping certain memories hidden and private.”
Amy’s work begs comparisons to Mark Rothko, an Abstract Expressionist renowned for luminous, transcendental landscapes and in-your-face fields of color. While similar, however, the two artists part company on intention: Rothko was after spiritual transcendence; Amy, well, she’s a talented woman after a good time.
“It’s simple: I create art because it makes me happy. I try not to overthink the process of what I’m painting and let my intuition be my guide. I love laying paint and making marks that are both hidden and seen by the viewer. Painting is meditative for me. It’s one of the few ways I stay grounded and in the moment.”
And here’s what everyone can look forward to at Slate Gray over the rest of the summer season:
• A solo exhibition with dreamy landscapes by Sylvia Benitez
• A solo exhibition with vibrant sky-scapes by Mark Bowles.
• A sculpture show with work by local ceramic artist Julie McNair, and new work from Lisa Pressman and Joan Fullerton, both of whom will also be teaching classes at Telluride’s Ah Haa School for the Arts.
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