“OLD, NEW, BORROWED, AND BLUE”

A solo exhibit featuring Encaustic Artist Flo Bartell

Join us during Art After Dark Friday, October 4th from 6-8pm
Show runs through October 28th.

“‘Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue’ is about a thirty year journey. For years I amused myself with color and line. In the early nineties through the beginning of this century, my work was mostly abstract water media painting that began with pouring. Swirls of red, yellow, and blue informed my next steps, kick-starting an evolution to blocks of color in my finished pieces. This exhibit will take you from that point to the present, showing my progression from hard edged water media paintings to flowing encaustics, through a period of adding texture and dimensional elements to wax, then sculpture and the addition of fiber, a few side journeys with graphite and ink, and finally, a new piece of digital art. 

Through it all, I have sought escape, entertainment, and the satisfaction of creating finished projects. Eventually those were not enough. I wanted my work to mean more. While I became more mindful of content, I also looked back at older work and realized I unknowingly had been painting my story. Now I paint or sculpt with more insight into my content. Perhaps you will be able to see when telling my story became more deliberate.

In addition to my shift to new media, I can see color changes through the years. In the beginning of these three decades, color was varied, then red was predominant, then I used neutral with a bit of bling to convey a feeling of time passing and beauty in age.

I am eager to put this show together. I suspect I will gain new insight and learn more about myself when I see these selected pieces, some of my favorites, gathered in one place.”

-Flo Bartell