TAKING AN
AESTHETIC LEAP:
How I Moved From
Here to There
Portfolio
Nancy Natale
By Nancy Natale
Last year I began making
a new series of work in mixed
media with encaustic that I call
the Running Stitch. The works
combine the sculptural qualities
of wax with an accretion of
elements to make semi-relief,
loosely-geometric paintings
that allude to the building up
and wearing away of memory
over time. By cutting strips
from materials such as parts of
old books, painted paper and
cardboard, recycled rubber
and patinated metal, I create a
rigorous jumble of texture, color,
reflectivity and material associations
while making a new
abstract arrangement with a rich
physical presence.
The many tacks I use to
attach the elements to wooden
panels superimpose a flexible
grid and add a polyrhythmic
undertone to the main horizontal
or vertical orientation of the strips.
Once I have completed construction,
I begin to paint. Pigmented
encaustic not only adds color,
but also it unifies the elements,
and pumps up the muscularity
of the composition by adding
dimension and highlighting the
organizing grid. Encaustic is the
magic ingredient that turns the
construction into a painting. The
fact that I use a heated tool called
a “shoe” to fuse the encaustic
in the Running Stitch series is
serendipity.
Tingshas, from the Black Relics series, 1995.
Foam rubber and tacks, 12”Hx22”W.
14
Promised Land, from the Running Stitch Series, 2010. Encaustic with
mixed media, 27”H x 42”W.
Spring
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