Friday, September 3, 2010

The Sidebar Show: "Skirts" on Encausticconference.blogspot.com

Joanne Mattera has added a sidebar feature on the Encaustic Conference blog, titled "The Sidebar Show". This week it is "Skirts" and I am one of three artists, along with Marybeth Rothman and Mindy Nierenberg, that she features. Please check out the blog weekly for different featured artists, in addition to information regarding the conference and other information regarding encaustic wax. In the meantime, this is what she says about our work:

Looking at the three works below, by Jhina Alvarado (San Francisco), Marybeth Rothman (Tenafly, New Jersey) and Mindy Nierenberg (Medford, Mass.), I'm struck by the evocative narratives of these images, so full of visual information yet so tantalizingly ambiguous. .
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Conceptually these works are united by their use of photographic images as the means of bringing a story from the past into the present. A salient feature in these images is the skirts worn by the figures. Alvarado's figure stands stiffly, her full but unmoving skirt a metaphor for that stiffness. Rothman's adult figures seem more adventurous, possibly ready to let themselves be carried off by the same breeze which flutters one wearer's flowered skirt. In Nierenberg's collage, it is the dancing doll skirt--so evocative of a childhood in the 50s--that lightens a wistful mood.
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Materially all three artists employ wax as a scrim through which to view the image. The diffusion of light through the wax provides a suitably nostalgic lens.
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Technically they tell their stories by different means. Alvarado paints her images from vintage photographs, referring to a past that's not her own. Rothman's images are etchings she has made from similarly vintage and orphaned photos. Both artists isolate elements from the photographs, recontextualizing them into a new story. Nierenberg's images are photographs from her family archive. Her stories are real, though we know only what she wishes to share with us via a minimal use of text and evocative objects semi-embedded into the wax.


Jhina Alvarado, "Girl with Bear," 2010; oil, encaustic and graphite on birch panel, 12 x 12 inches

Marybeth Rothman, "A Tangent," 2008, encaustic and mixed media, 24 x 30 inches

Mindy Nierenberg, "The Time Project," 2009-2010, encaustic mixed media


I have always been a fan of Marybeth's artwork. I love her use of images from old photographs and the colors she uses, which are so opposite of my work. Mindy is a new artist to me, but looking through her website, I can tell I will be a big fan. I love assemblages and the piece featured her is lovely. More importantly, I love the message that Mindy's work has. If you look at her site, check out "art and health". The work there is very powerful.

Thanks Joanne for reviewing our work and comparing my work with such great artists!

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