Things the Mind Already Knows
30 × 40 in.
Encaustic and mixed media on wood.
Available for purchase at Art on the Square in Bentonville, AR.
Another one in the #waxingpoetic series. As I’ve transitioned from a 20+ year career in communications, my center has shifted from mostly words to mostly visuals. But in the end, art is a device. The same way words and poetry are channels for expression. I love the way this Mary Oliver quote makes all my pursuits make sense-- whether it's promoting art and well-being or making art-- and I've adopted it as an informal mission statement:
"Instructions for living a life: Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About It.”
This work is paying homage to the first artist I really loved and studied…the American artist, Jasper Johns. I wrote a 100-page paper on him as an undergraduate art student and that began my infatuation with encaustic painting (though I wouldn’t try it until 15 years later). Johns was the master of layers and focused on everyday symbols, or what he referred to as "things the mind already knows." The alphabet and numbers were important motifs for him. Text can be found in almost every work I create, however subtle. I love the way letters and numbers create movement and patterns and it was fun to give them their leading roles instead of just being in the background as texture. You can almost feel the unique personalities of the individual characters and their interactions—sometimes quiet, intense, weird, playful....
Things the Mind Already Knows
30 × 40 in.
Encaustic and mixed media on wood.
Available for purchase at Art on the Square in Bentonville, AR.
Another one in the #waxingpoetic series. As I’ve transitioned from a 20+ year career in communications, my center has shifted from mostly words to mostly visuals. But in the end, art is a device. The same way words and poetry are channels for expression. I love the way this Mary Oliver quote makes all my pursuits make sense-- whether it's promoting art and well-being or making art-- and I've adopted it as an informal mission statement:
"Instructions for living a life: Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About It.”
This work is paying homage to the first artist I really loved and studied…the American artist, Jasper Johns. I wrote a 100-page paper on him as an undergraduate art student and that began my infatuation with encaustic painting (though I wouldn’t try it until 15 years later). Johns was the master of layers and focused on everyday symbols, or what he referred to as "things the mind already knows." The alphabet and numbers were important motifs for him. Text can be found in almost every work I create, however subtle. I love the way letters and numbers create movement and patterns and it was fun to give them their leading roles instead of just being in the background as texture. You can almost feel the unique personalities of the individual characters and their interactions—sometimes quiet, intense, weird, playful....