Artist Statment

My paintings begin with a meditative system of painting thousands of tiny domes of colored encaustic. Up to as many as 100 layers of both colored and clear encaustic are then added, with heating/fusing between each application. When the piece is cooled slightly, I scrape back the surface to reveal the dots, colors and layers. You can see the many razor thin lines of color surrounding each circle. And because the clear encaustic is translucent, the paintings have a wonderful optical depth.

I began to paint the Tea House series while listening to The Teahouse Fire, by Ellis Avery. (I listen to books on tape in my studio) Something about the description of the tea ceremony set me off painting the matrix of dots that now forms the base for my work. There is a small door that everyone has to crawl through to get into the tea house, this is believed to equalize all, royalty and peasant. For me the doorways represent openings that go in or out, leading to different opportunities in life. These doorways got larger and more complex as the series progressed. Tea House 241 has a huge structure towering over the tiny, but just as powerful, door to the left.

In the Landing series a large triangular form floats down, gently landing on one toe. She is balancing, and she has some support from side walls.

The Array paintings changed direction, having no structures or doors. They are grid based, with a comforting sense of order, dots of different sizes, all interacting with a fluid background. The complexity emerges in the subtle interplay of white on white and the layers of wax creating the thin lines around each dot. I began to use numbers; counting how many rows, how many small dots between the larger ones, and introducing a variety of colors. This changes the feeling again. Others I framed with bold color creating an energetic pop.

In Array 47and 53 I began to create a single line at the lower third of the pieces, almost as a horizon line, with color exploding up and down into the white ground. Large dots, top and bottom gently contain the burst of energy.

Eileen P Goldenberg

79 Sylvan Dr. San Francisco CA 9413
T: 415-753-1233

www.eileenpgoldenberg.com
www.conradwildegallery.com
http://teahouseproject.blogspot.com