KELLIE WEEKS
My encaustic work over the last eight years has taken on many different forms . Although I do tend to work in series , nothing ever lasts for more than a year or two . Once the artwork begins to become a formula or a craft instead of a means of expression , I need to move on to something else . When I happened upon this new series I wasn ’ t quite sure where I was going . Living and working in Massachusetts , I had just come back from a residency at the Vermont Studio Center and my work was changing at the time , but I didn ’ t know what I was trying to say in my work and the language I needed to say it . So I took a dramatic turn toward the geometric ; however , anyone who has been following me from the start can see that this work resembles my early “ Cityscapes ” - oil paintings on canvases which were done ten years ago . I started this current series “ stacking boxes ” - that ’ s what I called it - literally and figuratively . I kept telling my colleagues that I didn ’ t know why I was painting these stacked , leaning , contorted boxes . They said it didn ’ t matter , just keep doing it . So I did .
Eventually through my work I started to think about what the box implicates for me and perhaps for others and what it means in my art , and why encaustic - because I also work with pigment sticks and what I was doing with encaustic could not be translated in the same language with the oil sticks . I started small , and these little 8x8 paintings started to resemble people , to me , buildings , for others - even robots to some . This was exciting for me to get this response because of what they symbolized , as you will see . They became my “ Alter Egos ”, hence the title of the series .
My process is very intuitive . Aside from starting with my main objective of using the square motif , and certain colors chosen , the rest I leave up to intuition . I start each piece by making marks and then respond to those marks . I lay down color and thus respond to that . It is a kind of call and response type of method . The main technique I use in these paintings is a simple yet effective one . I build up the paint and then use an iron to fuse so that the bottom layers of wax come to the top . Letting many layers build up and dissolve into each other over and over again , creating many patterns , allows me to get the effect I want and it lends each painting its own uniqueness . I also use other elements like dried pigments and shellac to create other patterns as well . I incorporate the use of wire mesh to get the textures I want . And the fact that encaustic is a medium that lends itself to the build-up of many layers and requires the use of heat to manipulate and mold it , seems to fit my ideas of “ stacking boxes ”. I have found and developed a visual language that addresses the age old phenomenon of the human condition . And what of that ?