I have always wanted to be an artist, but it hasn’t been a straight path to the studio and the art that I make today!

With the belief that it was important for me to “make a living” in art, I studied as a graphic designer, working at the University of Cincinnati’s school and the Gewerbeschule in Basel. In those days, graphic design was a hands-on art, requiring the dexterous use of cutting and measuring tools, as well as glues, solvents, waxers and so forth. With the advent of computers, I was at a loss when the physical aspect of making art to solve a problem was substituted by a process of computing with virtual materials. I knew, at that time, I had to get back to the studio.

Since then, I have experimented with various types of media, including acrylics, oils, charcoal, paper and found objects. But wax – a material that was a staple of my graphic design studio – has re-emerged as a basic component to my current focus: encaustic art.

One of the most basic and ancient of applied media, encaustics are composed of an alchemy of beeswax and damar resin – all cooked into a warm potion to which oil-based pigment is blended. The process is both additive and subtractive, building up layers of opaque and translucent colors, often over a ground that has been prepared with a base medium or other two dimensional art that I have created as an under-layer. Through the process of adding, melting, carving and fusing, the physical aspect of encaustic art touches me and is both focusing and intense, yet, soothing and familiar.