Layering: The Art and Experience of Hot Wax
June 26 – August 7, 2021
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit, MA
Statement by Juror Craig Bloodgood:
I have worked with the member artists of New England Wax both individually and as a group. As different as they are, they share a love for their medium – encaustic, which, makes them story tellers, inventors, and adventurers.They plan, but share an openness for the unplanned.When you make art, you set out on a path with a pretty good idea about where you are headed but then you are quickly lead to different paths, and turns, and possibilities that you need to decide whether to follow or not. You have to decide if these twists and turns help you more or less in getting to your goal.This is one of the things that defines making art and it is something these artists embrace.
In choosing the pieces for this exhibition, I paid particular attention to the title of the show, “Layering”. In layers, you see process. I like to think about how these things came to be. I also like to think about layers in a more philosophical sense. Layers represent time and if you look long enough, layers tell stories. I’m particularly attracted to work that tells stories. I looked for that here.
Craig Bloodgood, Contemporary Curator, Art Complex Museum
Layering showcased 52 works of art in both the upper and lower galleries of the Cotuit Center by New England Wax artists: Katrina Abbott, Lola Baltzell, Jeanne Borofsky, Debra Claffey, Kimberly Curry, Camille Davidson, Angel Dean, Pamela Dorris DeJong, Heather Douglas, Soosen Dunholter, Ken Eason, Hélène Farrar, Dona Mara Friedman, Jeanne Griffin, Kay Hartung, Sue Katz, Otty Merrill, Susan Paladino, Deborah Peeples, Deborah Pressman, Stephanie Roberts-Camello, Lia Rothstein, Ruth Sack, Sarah Springer, Donna Hamil Talman, Marina Thompson, Dietlind Vander Schaaf, Willa Vennema, Catherine Weber, Lelia Stokes Weinstein, Charyl Weissbach, and Nancy Spears Whitcomb.