january 2019: Hello, goodbye: ghosts and shadows
LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I’VE FOUND THAT the New Year’s season is often a jumble of beginnings and endings. From here, 2018 looks pretty good after all: I healed some old wounds, built my studio, and took a few blind leaps that tested my mettle. And 2019? It's still just a shadow on the horizon. The one sure thing I do know is that this time of year is ripe for introspection, and a time to welcome both the ghosts and the shadows into our lives.
Contemplating the past, envisioning the future, or staying in the present, surroundings can influence the process. A quiet spot can become a personal retreat, and the presence of art can provide a window into our intentions, or a path to follow.
This new series of encaustic monotypes, Hello, Goodbye: Ghosts and Shadows, is inspired by meditations on beginnings, endings, and their cyclical natures that often blur the distinction between the two. The titles in this series evoke birth, struggle, and renewal — all processes by which we summon or dismiss ghosts and shadows.
This series was created during a peaceful stay at the Oregon coast in late November. Using naturally derived pigments with beeswax and damar resin, I incorporated objects left behind by the tide to print and emboss Japanese Kozu rice paper. Each image is a one-of-a-kind work and cannot be reproduced in a series. (More about the process of encaustic monotype)
Michele Sabatier, January 2019
