MOUNDS AND STONES
2011 - 2014
This is a series of impressionistic images of ancient stone circles and mounds inspired by old photos taken by my father, who studied these sites for most of his life.
When I was a teenager, we took a trip to Ireland, England and Scotland and searched out all the Neolithic earthworks, mounds, and stone circles we could find. Though I was a surly 17 year old, I never forgot the experience of walking among those stones and mounds. The stones were like groups of people meeting together and the mounds like large mammals hibernating.
The paintings, which are an exploration into family heritage and place, reference my father’s astro-archeaological research photos. Using his images has been a profound way to connect with him. In 2013 I traveled to England to visit many of those same monuments and take my own photos. The images and experiences from that trip informed additional paintings.
When I began the series, all I knew was that I wanted to paint these images, wanted to see what my father saw and remember our time together. But as I painted, I started to reclaim those sites as mine, despite the fact that it has been many generations since my ancestors lived there. This was a big step since I have mostly felt embarrassment about having ancestors who participated in the colonization of North America and profited from enslaving Africans. But there was something so powerful and beautiful about them that I was drawn in nonetheless.
WATERCOLOR ON ENCAUSTIC TECHNIQUE
Watercolor on encaustic medium is a technique I developed that allows me to use watercolor in a flexible manner. Instead of painting with pigmented wax, which is the common encaustic procedure, I layer watercolor washes on top of the wax surface, which I then seal with a final layer of clear wax. The layers create a delicacy and stillness that also references moving through time and memory. The spontaneous and watery nature of this style also captures the odd and ancient qualities of the images.
