Artist’s Statement: The Coral Series (2006-present)

Encaustic, oil & mixed media on wood panel

Everything in nature produces giants and dwarves; the noise of the floods fills the immensity of the sky or the hollow of a shell.

GASTON BACHELARD

The Coral Series is an exploration of the architecture of life. Tiny coral polyps, pulled from parents by moontides, float through ocean depths. They drift toward the light, anchoring themselves —bone to bone— upon the generations of corals past. Each connection adds to the foundation, building upon what has come before, sculpting a reef. No longer adrift, individuals chart a larger pattern: marking the repeated cycles of life, creating something greater than themselves.

The encaustic painting technique also requires fusing, connection. Each wax layer, embedded with pigment, must be heated and fused to the layer below. Layer upon layer of wax is added as fresh forms emerge from the accumulation: revealing, obscuring, sculpting and building anew.

NOTE: Additional paintings available.