New Promise Land Inc. Encaustic Series
Over the course of five years, often while living in my car and tracing the historic 395 route through California to Oregon, I explored the question of how to photograph loss. Loss of home, loss of identity, loss of community. Navigating an America deeply connected to the land — on one side the theatrics of the Sierras, on the other the callous beauty of the high desert — are the vestiges of communities defined by resilience and faith. Some can trace their ancestry to the first settlers in the West.
Forgotten in abandoned homes and junk yards are intimate family portraits from the 50s to the present, memories tracing back to the genesis of these towns. Drawn to opportunities in mineral mines and logging, families migrated to the decadent desserts and forests of the West Coast. Industiral apparatuses, having promised a prosperous place in middle-class America, raped the Earth of its resources for decades and closed.
What remains are communities that feel left behind, marginalized—the gatekeepers of an America founded on hard work, toil, and religious principle.
My encaustic painting series, inspired by these observations, uses a unique medium that celebrates the organic beauty of the Earth itself. Encaustic, a fusion of beeswax and pigments, allows me to create works that capture the depth and complexity of the natural world. Just as the Earth's landscapes hold layers of history, my encaustic paintings bear layers of color, texture, and emotion.
Mirroring how the land and communities have faded and transformed, the encaustic medium undergoes a transformation through fire. It speaks to the fragility of dreams, the impermanence of life, and the relentless passage of time.
In "New Promise Land Inc. Encaustic Series," I invite viewers to witness the convergence of past and present, where moments in time blur in a landscape of decades. Through the rich and tactile encaustic medium, I hope to convey the intricacies of our history, our ever-changing social fabric, and the fading echoes of the American Dream.
