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Lorraine Glessner
STRATA: Encaustic Paintings
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Lorraine Glessner
Experience is never limited and it is never complete; it is an immense sensibility, a kind of huge spiderweb of the finest silken threads suspended in the chamber of consciousness and catching every airborne particle in its tissue. All living things leave a physical mark; a stain or imprint through the natural cycle of creation and birth, life, growth, death, and the regeneration of life through decomposition. The cyclic nature of the earth and our bodies serve to jog the mind, to remind us of the desire to seek progress within cycle, and to measure that progress against the repetitive constant. Marks on the surfaces of the earth, the body and within urban environments serve as a visual narrative that speaks to this cycle, while also referencing personal, political and cultural histories. Sidewalks, building facades, interior and public spaces of the city read as a palimpsest on which these histories and narratives are written. Layers of holes, cracks, smudges, graffiti and signage that form the urban landscape intermingle and merge to create an iconography significant to the present, yet allude to both the past and future. Just as this process takes place, the notion of imprinting, staining and marking is realized in my work by applying layers of encaustic medium to fabric and found paper that has been subjected to branding, rusting, burying, decomposition, or exposure to the elements. Rubbings, drawings and images taken from billboards, buildings, streets and sidewalks of the city are merged together with the stained materials along with my own intuitive responses to them in paint. In a continuous process of accumulation, concealment and removal, the layers of material create new narratives, which look through and into time, thus reminding us of perpetuation, death and regeneration. My intent is to follow and record these marks as evidence of the spectacle and complexity of human activity and the poetic violence that is life. |
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3805 Locust Walk ~ Philadelphia, PA 19104 ~ 215.573.WRIT ~ Fax: 215.573.9750
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