Encaustic Photo Tessellations
Some stories are worth repeating, and so it is for photographs. Repeated and mirrored many times over, my encaustic photos become large tessellations with new stories of their own.
I created these strongly geometric tessellations to mark the first and third anniversaries of the Greenville Center for Creative Arts, from photographs of building materials I took in the backyard of GCCA in the early days of the renovation of Brandon Mill.
These are large and weighty works suitable for professional spaces, and two of them have already found homes in corporate collections in Greenville. They are framed in a sturdy neutral gray floater frame.
Happily Ever After? 35"x63" Color photographs and encaustic medium on board. (Greenville series)
What shall we keep, or keep out? And whom? A Pye Pond tessellation of a more varied repetition. 43"x53" Color photographs and encaustic medium on board.
Tensile Strength 83"x23" Color photographs and encaustic medium on board. The tensile strength of steel rebar multiplies the strength of concrete by helping to hold the concrete in a compressed state. The ridges on the rebar improve the bond between steel and concrete. The two materials work well together because they have a similar coefficient of thermal expansion. Contradictions, shared qualities, rough edges. All are essential to erecting strong buildings, and to building strong communities.
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Upstate Strength 35"x63" Color photographs and encaustic medium on board. (SOLD.) (Greenville series) Created from photographs of building materials I took in the backyard of GCCA in the early days of the renovation of Brandon Mill. The colors of the rusted steel resting on the blue wooden pallet drew my attention, as did the contrast between the solid steel and the silent softness of the workers gloves. See the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Upstate's three great lakes in this tessellation?
Textile Strength 51"x43" Color photographs and encaustic medium on board. (SOLD.) (Greenville series) The colors of the rusted steel resting on the blue wooden pallet drew my attention, as did the contrast between the strength of the steel and the apparent fragility of the lone leaf and blades of grass. I wove twenty-four copies of the photo (twelve of them mirror images) into a textile-like pattern to recall the initial vocation of Brandon Mill.
Detail