Nancy Natale
3) Learn about the
Context and Think
about the Concept
I began to realize that I needed
some conceptual underpinning
for my work because I was unable
to answer to my own satisfaction
the question of what my work
was about. Was it only built on
formal considerations such as
composition or color? I had been
operating from what I would call
an Abstract Expressionist point of
view, which was that my work did
not need any meaning outside
of itself; that it was more about
intuitive process and experimentation
than ideas or concepts. But
even if that were true, my work
fell somewhere in an art historical
context which I could find by
studying the work of other artists
and examining the meaning that
artists, critics and historians gave
to their work. This would allow
me to see how my own work
related to the larger world of art
and understand it from a different
perspective. I also needed an
underlying concept to move my
work from disjointed experiments
to finished works of art.
4) Find Your Concept
(I Remembered
Memory)
I did not have to cast about
too long before I realized that
memory and memory loss
were occupying a large part
of my attention. As my elderly
mother slipped into dementia,
I was seeing at close range the
extent to which memory plays
an integral part in personality
and how memory loss alters a
person’s ability to function. Since
this subject had come to occupy
such a prominent place in my
mind, I allowed it to occupy a
similar place in my work.
5) Invent the
Metaphor
When I began thinking about
books as metaphors for human
memory, I knew that I had found
a physical form for my subject.
All that remained was to experiment
with the many old books I
had rescued years before and
carted around until the appropriate
moment. I began by making
two small series using books,
tacks and encaustic on panels.
The End is Near and
the Beginning is at
Hand
From that point, it all seemed
to fall into place: I defined and
simplified my materials and
superimposed the gridded organization.
The final step was using
a hot tool (the shoe) instead of a
heat gun or torch to give me the
very specific fusing I needed to
control the encaustic application.
The Running Stitch sprinted into
my life.
For more information about
Nancy: http://nancynatale.net/
Portfolio
16
Getso Blue, from the Running Stitch Series, 2010. Encaustic with mixed
media, 12” x 12”.
Photographic credit: John Polak,
JohnPolakPhotography.com
Spring
www.EAINM.com
Red No. 3, from
the Running Stitch
Series, 2010.
Encaustic with mixed
media, 10”H x 8”W