Here & Now—MM Galleries

The Medium Is NOT the Message







Here and Now—
Encaustics and Time

July 21 to August 25, 2007, a juried show at MM Galleries
101 Townsend, San Francisco in cooperation with International Encaustic Artists, a non-profit organization 100 artists strong promoting encaustic art globally.


Artists included in the exhibition are: Natasia Chan (OR), Eileen Goldenberg (CA), Ruth Gooch (CA), Regina Herod (CA), Howard Hersh (CA), Nikkole Huss (IL), Lauren Lipinski Eisen (CO), Laura Moriarty (NY), Susan Najarian (WA), Carol Paxton Juliano (CA), David Price (WA), Susan Joan Schenk (NE), Patricia Seggebruch (WA), Adele Shaw (CA), Gail Steinberg (CA), Sheary C. Suiter (AK), Rodney Thompson (CA), Tina Vietmeier (CA), Gary Voss (CO), Daniella Woolf (WA).

Most people have no idea what encaustics is.
When they find out it's a kind of paint made of beeswax, tree resin and pigments applied in a liquid state and fused to a surface with heat, the wax trumps all. From then on, it's all about wax. Yes, wax is eye-catching and all, it easily lends its inherent transparency, textural and layering possibilities to a painting or sculpture but there's got to be more to it than that. Oils, acrylics or digital paintings are interesting or not beyond the kind of paint or medium they are made of. That's why we admire the effort behind this rich and very present show at MM Galleries. Content composition and pushing the medium counts.

Twenty artists from all over the United States were selected for this show by 3 judges. The works range from abstract to figurative, and include sculptural and undefinable pieces. The show demos an infinite versatility by artists who have taken their process way beyond their medium.

Laura Moriarty is from New York's work.Her work pushes the boundaries by being painting and sculpture at once and is as delicious as a lavash sandwich. She calls it "a play on plate tectonics, where everything is continually drifting apart and crashing together, layering one episode on top of another. Geologists know that rocks can tell stories if you know how to read them. I follow a similar curiosity-driven path, drawing far-fetched parallels between my work and the way that scientists collect, classify and display fragments lifted out of time" Laura says she wants to keep her work honest and doesn't want it to be too tied to ideas. We are drawn in by the movement of the shapes but stay because of the relationships between the colors. She is an innovator and a master. Can't wait to see more.


Basin and Range is by Rodney Thompson, a painter from rural northern California. Rodney used a Monet like approach to capture the character of the basin by painting the same scene many times over at different times of day. Open space is peacefulness. His amazing mastery of encaustics allows him to have some fun with a "vast landscape" suggesting spaciousness and unrestrained possibilities." It reminds me of that moment when things come into focus, the one Virginia Wolfe calls "Moments of Being, - that behind the cotton wool is a pattern; that we-I mean all human beings- are connected with this."

Gary Voss, a Colorado artist, viewa the crucible as a source of life, a beginning, as well as a vessel for change and metamorphosis. His pieces use ABS plastic, encaustic, computer modeling and rapid prototyping. The translucency provides a diffused glimpse of the interior encaustic which is in opposition to the distinct forms when viewed from above. Notions of body muscles and joints, with surgical implications reveal themselves slowly, defying us to put aside any preconceptions.
His way of probing and combining the materials is unique but only a portion of what his work is about.








Eileen Goldenberg's Teahouse is one of the series that she won a grant for from the San Francisco Arts Commission, June 2007. What's not to like about a structure of parallel lines and open circles in hot, steamy colors? Surface texture, windows and the graphic use of lines and marks evoke "home and retrospection" for Eileen. Her theme of shelters in time is one that Sheary Clough Suiter, a painter from Alaska, is also drawn to.















Sheary's piece, Interloper, represents her idea of a shelter as a refuge for all of us seeking to understand our place in the world, be it real or imagined. She begins each of her works without a pre-plan, preferring to let her intutition rule to create an under painting. From there, she finds the images (sometimes of shelters, or seekers, or architectural forms) and develops them into a finished form.























Tina Vietmeier, a British born painter who lives in San Francisco, paints the objects of everyday life, at least she used to. Her newest work seems to be taking on more imposing dreamscapes with a spaciousness, light, warmth, tranquility and subtle richness that makes me want to get lost in them. What can I say? Fluid? Emotional? Here and Now, she creates the moment. We get to imagine our own stories.









What I love about Adele Shaw's work beyond her playfullness and intelligence is her theme that
" paintings are silent family members with personality, soul and wit." Adele is a San Francisco painter whose work reflects her "research into interior landscapes of reminiscences, laughter and possibilities." Some people talk about generosity of spirit but her work reflects the real thing. It takes a special kind of touch to make regular everyday things catch you by surprise, but Adele reminds us through very accessible images about the unspoken stuff we carry in our hearts.









My own piece, Moments In Time, No Two are Alike, (Gail Steinberg, CA) was inspired by birthday candles.
I wanted Here and Now to be about an experience so immediate nothing else exists in the world. That's how I got fascinated with that moment when you pucker up to blow your birthday candles out. It occurred to me that all the colors in the universe are encapsulated in the flickering flames of those candles. I know, I know, how painfully unhip....Next time maybe I can come up with something mildly subversive. Stay tuned.