Full Circle
“ Create around one at least a small circle where matters are arranged as one wants them to be .” - Anna Freud
Pressing plants from my neighborhood park led me to try encaustic in 2003 . My husband Rich and I lived in a house next to a 34-acre park in the city of Lowell , Massachusetts . Our house sat at the base of a drumlin , a low oblong-shaped hill that was formed by the last Ice Age . It had been farmed for several generations until it became a city-owned park designed by the Olmsted firm in the early 20 th century .
Neighbors and I took care of the park . After tending its grounds for a number of years , I became interested in collecting and pressing some of its plants — clovers , dandelions , tree leaves , pine needles , grasses , and even poison ivy by accident ( oops ). As I tried to figure out how to work with the plants , I had a vague memory of trying encaustic in a college art class about materials and techniques . Armed with Joanne Mattera ’ s book The Art of Encaustic Painting , I began to work in wax .