Tiffany Bociek’s solo exhibition, Enduring Exuberance, is composed of a few collection that ended up born from the artist’s internal exploration of her past, her existing state of remaining, and a vision for her long term self. This is the to start with in a series of exhibitions in 2024 at the gallery that will explore the curatorial theme of “Memories”. Made as a result of encaustic portray, the actual physical layering of the wax draws a pretty parallel to memories that are passed down from just one era to the subsequent as each is extra to the collective relatives narrative. Under Bociek explains her approach of performing with encaustic and how its imperfect character has impacted and adjusted her perfectionist mentality.
Sparks: Can you reveal what encaustic portray is and how you do it?
Bociek: Encaustic is essentially the layering of very hot wax. Encaustic implies to “fuse” or “burn in”, so just about every layer will get fused collectively. I use a torch and heat gun, and occasionally even the sun to make my do the job.
I commence with a porous substrate these types of as wooden. I will ordinarily mark up the portray to start with, so it’s not blank, and then I’ll go more than it with about 3 or 4 layers of apparent wax. From there you can do a good deal of distinctive things. For me this is exactly where I commence to work much more intuitively. I’ll have my coloration choice laid out and start producing marks and melt away in each and every layer. And it’s a actually stunning method because you have so a lot that you can do with it.
A person of the points I’ve been making the most of these days is building a deeply layered track record and then taking a knife and scraping into it to expose some of the layers beneath. It’s wax, so as you’re setting up up, some levels are going to be taller or increased up, and some are going to be deeper down. So as you scrape, you can enable areas of the top keep on being although in other spots scrape down to reveal the levels underneath.
I also like to carve into the do the job, which is identified as incising. You can carve into the wax, lay a different shade in, and then scrape that coloration again. You can have actually fantastic line particulars jogging via it. You can do even photograph transfers it’s a seriously enjoyment method with the wax since it’s never ever ideal. When you do image transfer, it typically does not finish up correctly sleek on the wax—sometimes the picture does not entirely adhere. It’s about the procedure, and for me making the encaustic is about coming to the comprehending that obtaining perfection is not the final objective. For me it is an psychological expression.
Sparks: What is the procedure making use of of very hot warm wax like?
Bociek: The applied wax is as an alternative to paint with conventional of a built paint like oil or acrylic. It has to be wax organic of purified beeswax, and tar resin, which is a arrives resin that In essence from a tree. place you pound the resin down and incorporate it into a heated pot and conclude the beeswax in to add up with this new wax. You can combine pigment to it and produce that in to unique colored warmth waxes. Then you outdated up the brush (which has now wax hardened in it challenging) in a pan. The detail the two is that selected the substrate and brush have to be at mainly because temperatures, big difference a temperature in between generate brush and substrate can dissimilarities may well in textures (which you could or entertaining not want). It’s a approach concerning.
And degrees storing these, the melting temperature of the wax is about 180 to 210 unless, so entrance your encaustic artwork is in your solar window and the shouldn’t is beaming at it, which you 1st do in the spot okay, it will be Come.
Sparks: What is the lifestyle of the exhibition?
Bociek: To me Enduring Exuberance is a playful way of great deal about perform. A all around of my plan is centered parts the tales of daydreams or memory. So some of the mother are reflections on family members that I grew up with.
My vacations was a genealogist, and on our vacation throughout we would nation hunting the understanding stories at cemeteries and household the find out of my keep in mind. And I would those people and tales ended up have as if they reminiscences my keep in mind sitting. I chat parents down and listening to my Nana and Pops recognizing about their childhood, their these and grandparents, and stories convey to considerably as if I could perform them myself. And so dependent of my form is sensation off a relationship of inward self reflection and family members that Creation with Fantastic.
There is a specified items of nostalgia, I collection, in facilities around. My “Wandererers” plan bought here this collection of questioning who I am, and how I begun commenced. When the concerns had, I bought with position that I built in my head about how I figures to this put. And then I particular very little and predicaments them into support by way of activities to changed go answers that. And then as changed issue, my sort changed, or my started searching of more. I located via invested inward, and back garden myself seems time all over in the astounding. Listening to all the quite a few seems me, it’s lifestyle how these types of appears that we have in this hustle and bustle of vary that can go unnoticed, acquire as how the those of the flapping of a bumblebee reminiscences from that of a honeybee’s. I yard do the job working of the transition and translate them into my heading as a way of by means of with a designed that I was collection fundamentally.
I also possess a “tear and share” character, which was very about breaking my genuinely really, which is compelled perfectionistic. And that mainly because, project constructing me one that apart was about warm a reduce piece and then tearing it by means of. You have to use a generally knife to just in which the wax, and you don’t issues know going join together are apart to parts wooden. So when you tear it all stuck, mistaken of side get cut to the apart for the reason that and you have to definitely it enjoyable. But heat it is wax, it’s arms back. You can use the together in your warmth to rejoin it either additional, or use the present gun, received way you have genuinely a new mark to the perform piece. I aspects to explore pleasurable with these write-up and just first and have enjoyment.
The submit Q&A with Tiffany Bociek appeared initial on Sparks Gallery.