(posted 04/10/2021)
I am truly intrigued and inspired by this image. My great-great Aunt Sade was the keeper of books and periodicals in our family, and she had cut it from some old newspaper or magazine in the late 1800s. I am certain, when she did that, she never in her wildest imagination thought that it would become part of some encaustic art pieces done by her sister’s great-grandchild.
Some of my first abstract encaustic pieces began with this image. I scanned it, then cropped it in Photoshop, and printed out some variations. They were then pasted onto wood panels and subsequently drenched in molten beeswax. The first two I did were called “Suspension.” When I look at the original image, it makes me think of the cross-section view of a building. I ultimately chose the name because to me the word “suspension” connotates some stress, but also a lot of strength. The paintings sold long ago, but the images still show the amount of labor that ensued by applying layers of wax, pastels, and carving and scraping the wax to reveal pieces of the image underneath.
Fast forward to roughly seventy artworks later, I revisited the old battery frame image and created a series of four from it. These were a bit smaller, and a bit simpler. I wanted the original image to take more of the limelight, and the texture created by the beeswax medium was a lot subtler. I found, however, they were just starving for some color. I added swipes of rust and golden yellow and looked at them for a few months, still unsatisfied with the surface. I recently purchased some metallic PanPastels in beautiful copper, bronze and gold shades. The minute I thought of using them, I knew it would give me just the right contrast I wanted. The illustrations are encased/preserved in the wax and the molten metallic liquid is floating on the surface. This changes how we see them, but does not overshadow the original antique drawing. To me, it speaks of the treasure that these images are to me. I named them “Articulation” in order to evoke a scientific feeling to my creative process that is quite unscientific and full of emotion and intuition.
Thank you, Great Aunt Sade.