People in all cultures throughout history have painted, pierced, scarred, tanned or lightened and adorned their skin to set themselves apart, to create a bond, to punish, negate, or to make themselves more beautiful or sensuous. With skin, as in the surface of the earth, what is visible on the top doesn’t tell it all. The old adage, “beauty is only skin deep,” suggest digging deeper for the rest of the story.


These are just some the things I am thinking about as I work. While I strive to keep the paintings in this series as non representational as possible, the translucent nature of encaustic paint (beeswax, resin and pigment) the repetitive process of layering, marking, burning, or scraping back into the painting, together create tactile, skin-like surfaces that are somewhat suggestive of human skin---the brand new, as well as old and timeworn. I want to continue the discussion about notions of beauty, creating work that challenges popular beliefs surrounding “the beautiful” and offer opportunity for revision.