My painted collages are layers of images that play off of each other and mood. The images are both personal and universal and like memories you think you have neatly tucked away, they emerge and fade in the strangest ways. They create a sense of place, a sort of snapshot along a journey. I have been working with encaustic collage since 2003. I love the medium, the process of painting with it and its long history. Encaustic is unique in its ability to let me build up layers and create a mystery of what is behind something else. Encaustic offers me luscious colors and a medium to play with transparency. I do feel like these paintings are built, it’s a physical process. Current work starts with pyrography on the wood panels, writing, drawing, layering of wax and collage. I collage with the lifelong collection of my photography, found images and ephemera. There are times I go hunt up a location to get the image I want for a painting. And on a cold winter day there is nothing better than a warm studio that has a faint bee’s wax aroma to it. Natural landscapes and urban landscapes inspire my sense of place. Similar to riparian zones, zones between these two places are fragile lines that make me think. The fragile lines also exist throughout our days as too many of us walk around on this planet together. I find inspiration in those fragile lines in both our physical world, our social structure and the challenges we face as we universally question the way we treat each other and our home (earth). Thank you for taking the time to check out my art.