Sherrie Gallerie
January 18–February 28, 2009
Artist Statement
The following are a series of encaustic panels that were created using text and the ColorAlphabet system. Each individual work is composed of traditional encaustic medium (bees wax, dimar varnish and pigment).
Every work starts out with a specific title or text. The title is then read and recorded by the artist into a computer so it can be visualized in both frequency (pitch) and amplitude (volume). The artist then uses this visualization in conjunction with the recorded audio to separate the title into sections that correspond to the letters and pauses in the read titles.
This deconstructed audio is then used to create the “letter width” for the stripes in the final work. Each letter and space on the panel is then rendered into a single color that corresponds to the ColorAlphabet system developed by the artist.
The final product is a type of “Rules Based” artform that plays with color, sound, and text, creating works that re-examine the nature of the title in relationship to the work it references. In this way, the basic elements of sign, signified, and signifier are jumbled together to create paintings that directly reference the title on the objective level, yet has no visual relationship to what the title purports to signifiy.