The Threadline Series is inspired by seemingly insignificant visual observations made in my studio environment, in nature and on neighborhood walks – insignificant but (to me at least) visually arresting: left-over loops of thread lying randomly about; a crisp white line in a dark gray rock; looms, stitching patterns in fabric; blades of grasses shooting out of a crack in a concrete sidewalk; a white chalk line on a slate blackboard; the play of light-on-metal in a box of freshly opened x-acto blades, textures and patterns found in nature.
In each case, I am attracted by the interaction of line and plane, softness and hardness, regular against irregular, of the organic against the inorganic. This interaction of opposites intrinsically occurs in the way I approach the encaustic medium – my tools are a sharp steel blade and a soft plane of wax. I engage the one with the other in a methodical, meditative and rhythmic manner. I’m borrowing techniques from printmaking (dry point). I like to work either in silence or with repetitive music with the studio lights off - only natural light is used in the creation of this series, both for the stillness it creates and because it helps to reveal the subtle lines and marks as I work the surface with my blade. It calms me and takes me away from the unstable climate of our present world.