reconfiguration: mixed media assemblage

...a few works just finished:

Catherine Nash
Phases
Mixed media assemblage in an antique sewing machine drawer, wood carving, encaustic branch, roots, paper “leaves”, seeds, mirror, nautilus shell.
31”h X 9”w X 6”d 2011

Below:
Catherine Nash
Peephole
Encaustic painting in found weathered
woodworked cylinder with log section
7”h X 8”w X 4.5”d 2011

The work below is still up at the Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson
in a show entitled Dislocations thru the 29th of January.

Catherine Nash – Artist Statement

Many are afraid of the night, the dark, the inability to see. But our eyes will adjust and shapes can be discerned. There is a gradation to the night sky, to the depth of space. The turning of day to night is a display of vast beauty, subtle color shifting as the earth moves. The ancients observed the spiral unfolding of nature in all around them, mirrored in the sprouting of a seed, the radiating center of a flower, the proportions of the human form, the relationship of the Earth to the solar system, the turn of a galaxy. The spiral is a profound image of the movement of time and space.

“Sacred geometry charts the unfolding of number in space” -Miranda Lundy

I am inspired by things that make me wonder. I can spend hours staring into the sky, mesmerized by the expansiveness of the sky...pondering on our place in the universe. In my recent work, images of skies are seen through a frame of branches which act as a window frame or a containing matrix. Skies represent the infinite, represent spaciousness. I am interested in discovering a secret and intimate inner space.

Can I unfold that within myself?

Meditation. Quietude.

Sanctitude. Silence.

Trust. Peace.

all images and text ©C.Nash'11

Catherine Nash
The Circle Cannot Be Squared
assemblage with vintage drawer, antique market finds, encaustic,
raku fired ceramics, log, circle rock found in the Four Corners area of northern Arizona.
15”h X 17”w X 9”d 2011

above: full view below: 2 details

below:
Catherine Nash From the Outside In
Encaustic painting in found weathered woodworked
board with patinaed redwood shingles.
16”h x 13”w 2011

below:
Catherine Nash
Geometry Lesson
Encaustic painting in an antique drawer;
wax pencil and chalk on old school slate;
page from a vintage Japanese math book;
cross-section of a nautilus shell; antique calipers;
photo of Galaxy 51, oil stick.
17.5”h X 32” w 2010

below: closed, full open and detail
Catherine Nash
Eclipsis Lunar
Mixed media assemblage, encaustic painting in an antique box,
wax pencil and chalk drawing of a ca. 1552 lunar eclipse diagram on an old school slate;
antique copper compact, mica, branches, handmade paper with walnut ink and encaustic.
17.5”h X 25”w (open) X 10”d 2011

below:
Catherine Nash
Reliquary to the Dawn
Mixed media assemblage with vintage drawer, encaustic, nautilus shell, antique market finds, raku fired ceramics, lashed pine needles from the Gila Wilderness, NM gathered at dawn.
14”h X 13”w X 5”d 2011

some new works...

Secret Sky
encaustic painting in a vintage wooden game board

5.5”h x 9”w x 1.5”d closed
5.5”h x 18”w x .75” open
©C. Nash

I am constantly thinking about things, contemplating how to create around an inspiration....trying to recreate an inner sensation after being in the woods or the desert...passages from certain authors or poets can invoke imagery.



Peephole
encaustic painting in found weathered woodworked cylinder
1.75” h x 3” diam.
©C. Nash

I can plan an entire work in my mind as I am traversing my busy non-studio days. Perhaps it comes from my beginnings as a printmaker, where so much has to be preplanned to create a color litho or a woodcut.

It carries me to the point when I finally do close the studio door and start to work...then I have a beginning point from which to jump. I have learned to let the initial idea get me started and then banter back and forth with the work. It has taken me many years to shed the control issue.

Sky Within (No. 70)
encaustic painting in a vintage mechanics machine parts box
9”h x 6”w x 2”d closed
9”h x 11 1/2”w x 1”d open
©C. Nash

I teach. The whole "happy accident" spiel I spout to students from kids through adults, I am still striving to embody. I can finally flow when the mind quiets, "I" is lost and creative action becomes an intuitive dance.

It's about trusting...

"I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.

-Barbara Streisand

From the Outside In
encaustic painting in found weathered woodworked board
8.25” x 9”w
©C. Nash