Page 62 - Wax Fusion Spring 2022 Issue 6 WIP v19

Since I was a small girl following my amateur archaeologist

father around in the desert hunting for arrowheads and pieces
of pottery, I’ve been interested in the ancient arts of

indigenous peoples. In Hawaii and the Southwest, I visited rock
carving sites, finding each of the figures unique and powerful.

When I got back from one of these trips, spirit figures seemed
to want to come into being in my studio. It felt odd but I went
with it. I didn’t know how to make them or what they would

look like but as the ideas coalesced, I started to gather
materials: carving foam, wooden dowels, paper clay, rusting

compound, and encaustic. One after the other, the figures
came into being; then one day

the ideas abruptly stopped
coming and I was done with

them. Some of figures
appeared in a series of

encaustic prints I was making
at the same time. The melted

wax seemed to flow and gather
to produce its own imagery.

I’m not much for “woo-woo”

stuf , as a friend calls it, but in
the making of those figures

and prints, I felt like I was
enabling those ancient spirits
to travel outside the spirit

realm and come into our world

from wherever they may
reside.

Pathfinder
Encaustic, carving foam, paper clay,
rust, wooden dowel
17.5 x 4 x 4 in

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