Artist's Statement
These most recent works represent an open-ended inquiry. Utilizing cut outs and encaustic medium [hot beeswax, pigment, and damar natural resin], I create conditions that I then follow with great curiosity. I may have an idea. This tends to be the place from which I proceed to get lost. I am often surprised. If there is a longing, I suspect it is for this surprise, and the delight of meeting something for the first time.
In the inevitable process of gaining some mastery over materials and methods, it becomes increasingly difficult to be the wide-eyed visitor, both guileless and fresh. A work may signal that mastery, like ripe and confident fruit, or oppressive facility. It's worth noting that ripeness, too, is dynamic, and short lived. Inquiries have energetic lives that rise, radiate, and decline. They are gifts, and grasping hastens their decline. Thankfully, there are always other miracles to investigate.
When I go to the studio, something happens. It turns out that having an idea may be less important than simply being willing to inquire for its own sake. This involves listening, and trusting that the present provides.