Elizabeth Poston Foundations I Jeri Allison 3 December 2009 Art Review 3: Turchin Center Encaustics Encounters Out of the

exhibitions Ive seen at the Turchin Center this semester, Encaustics Encounters was one of my favorites. Im not very familiar with the medium, so it was interesting both to see something different, and also to see how the artists in the exhibit used encaustics with materials that Im actually familiar with- like charcoal, paint, etc. I particularly liked the work of Molly Cliff-Hilts and Jhina Alvarado. Both artists had a similar style, but used very different media to achieve what they wanted to in their work. Molly Cliff-Hiltss pieces depict a series of utility poles and power lines with a mixture of encaustic painting, litho ink and pigments. In each work, the viewer looks up towards the sky with the poles appearing to go up into space. Her work shows a stark contrast between dark line and lighter, more organic shapes. Clouds in the background are painted lightly, overlaid with poles done in litho ink, and a more darkly painted bunch of trees and bushes makes up the foregroundagain creating the effect that the viewer is looking up into space. By using these contrasting elements, Cliff-Hilts is able to draw the viewers eye into the work, so that it moves through the dark trees, up the poles and then into the clouds in the background. The sharp contrast between the clouds and poles because of their linear quality and dark tonemake the poles the focal point of her work. Jhina Alvarado uses charcoal and paint with encaustic to depict falling leaves in her work. She uses the charcoal to draw out the leaves on several different layers of wax. This

technique creates a fading effect so that the leaves on lower layers appear further in the background than the ones in the front. It gives her work more depth and interest. She also uses pigments and paints to create thick lines on the top layer of her works that evoke the idea of trees in the foreground of the piece. However, the high detail of the leaves and the contrast between the black charcoal and the very light color of the wax made the leaves the focal point of Alvarados work. While Alvarado and Cliff-Hilts use very different media with encaustics, they still have a similar style and their paintings evoke similar moods. Much of the work in Encaustic Encounters depicted organic shapes that flowed into each other, since encaustics lends itself to that sort of use. But in Alvarado and Cliff-Hilts work the use of media like litho ink and charcoal created a very realistic, sharp sort of look. While both artists still had with the pale coloring characteristic of encaustics present in their work, they used it to their advantage to get a different effect than many of the other artists whose work is in Encaustic Encounters.