Patricia Deleon-Alfonso

I work in the ancient medium of encaustic: pigmented beeswax mixed with resin. Working methodically on wood panel, I build up hundreds of layers of color and texture using molten wax. In between each brushstroke I use heat to bind each layer to the one set down before it. [Encaustic, from the ancient Greek enkaustikos, means “to heat” or “to burn”, is found in the portraiture of Greco-Roman Egypt, from 100 B.C. to A.D. 200.] Once the wax is cooled, I inscribe the surface with marks, textures, and symbols that unify the strata of the wax. In my work the figure is at the center of a magical and symbolic universe. The medium of encaustic provides a place for this union of form and content: the wax surface is the skin, the skin bears the marks of a story. It is within this interplay of image, abrasion, luminosity and texture that I create an opportunity to find something, a space for things to fall into place. I find that there is a rhythm to the process of encaustic painting that is both arduous and eloquent: the measured flow of wax melting and wax hardening, the immediacy of each intention solidifying as a brushstroke or drip and the application of heat as confirmation of the thought.