Exhibitions of my artwork have been shown in across the country including New York City, Seattle, Connecticut, and Virginia. I have an international audience including private collectors as well as corporate entities that have purchased and commissioned artwork.
For several reasons I am drawn to painting scarabs: including the intoxicating quality of color they possess; and how I represent them in a wax medium, with the undulating layers and transparencies of colors. Scarabs are an ancient symbol and possess a variety of meanings from many different cultures. Historically, scarabs were first identified as an important icon in ancient Egypt. My focus in using scarab imagery is also rooted in my appeal of the symbolic meaning, that of renewal, good luck, and protection.
Some of the scarab artworks uses imagery from my original encaustic painting which I have discovered a new vehicle for. My encaustic paintings are created using a small iron to apply pigmented wax to paper. The work is kept at a very intimate size, no bigger than 8x10 inches. Within the body of my encaustic work I have two themes: landscapes and insects. I seek to create imagery that is both calming and compelling, invoking feelings and a desire to look deeper into the image.
The process for creating the multi media scarab artworks is a multi-layered one. The transfers themselves were created by taking various sizes of prints and copies of the original painting and coating them in many layers of clear acrylic, allowing each layer to dry between applications. The paper needs to be removed to leave the image transferred onto the transparent skin. The arduous, careful task to remove the paper involves dampening it and gently rubbing away the paper. I use my fingers for the detailed removal so as not to disturb or damage the image or skin.
With the transfer complete I could then use it in a variety of manners. The recovered barn wood was salvaged from a friend’s farm in Sumner, WA. I recovered the coffee bags from my days as a barista in Rhode Island. The washer’s were found in a salvage store in Seattle.
My acrylic paintings are varied in size reaching up to 4x10 feet, sometimes utilizing multiple canvases for visual effectiveness. There are several series I am currently developing. I predominantly focus on one color family in each work. The work is derived from landscapes, including cityscapes. I find what I see as the most important aspect of the scene, and emphasize that point. The resulting images become abstract, often using the repetition of basic shapes.
Two of the series that I’m working with are: Paused and View. Both have similarities of intent. Both have been created as means of reflection. View is about allowing yourself to slow down and experience, see, what is around you, the ‘view’. Paused captures the same theme, of holding onto moments and feelings. It embraces the ideology of being fully aware and present. Allow yourself to take in details of seemingly small unimportant moments alongside the obviously important ones. Paused is a moment of time, the exact moment of the pause are represented by the numbers on the canvases. The number can be the time of day, date, a counter showing elapsed time, odometer, some form of measurement visually showing when that pause took place.
Please contact me if you are interested in the artwork or are interested in commissioning a custom piece. carolyn.polk@gmail.com
