I am an artist working with the ancient technique of encaustic painting. Encaustic is a beeswax based paint that is kept molten on a heated palette. The word encaustic comes from the Greek and means “to burn in” which refers to the process of fusing between the many layers of paint to create one mass. I am riveted by the unpredictable nature of working with pigments in a molten state, which leads to an exciting sense of discovery. Yet, the durability, colorfastness and uniformity of the enamel-like surface of an encaustic painting when hardened, reflects its timeless nature.
In my paintings, I use these two opposing properties of encaustics to capture what interests me about the human psyche (soul, spirit and mind). My work as an art therapist taught me that we are in a constant state of structuring our subjective perceptions to create new meaning in our lives. I use the process of building up and scraping away the many layers of pigmented wax to evoke emotions, record the transformations and capture, momentarily, the floating quality of the passage of time. With the full range of opacity to translucence available with encaustic pigments, I create a luminous visual depth which mirrors the complexity of our internal landscapes and processes. The coalescence of the many layers of pigment into a unified image echoes the way we mold our subjective perceptions into our consciousness and sense of self.
- H.D. Mott