This is the second in a series of blog posts, conversations, focusing on the many entries we received for our call “The Photographic Performance 2018”.  The “PhotoSynthesis” exhibition juried by Kevin Tully and Amanda Smith, was in the Salon gallery from May 25 to June 24, 2018.  Participating artist in the exhibition were Jeri Eisenberg, Sherrie Posternak, Janise Yntema, Lia Rothstein, Michelle Robinson, Wayne Montecalvo and Fran Forman.

“The Oxford English Dictionary defines art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination…producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” The most accomplished artists have the experience and intuition to utilize the medium that most successfully contributes to the ideas they are trying to put forth in their work.

Artists must ask themselves if their preferred medium is the best path to expressing their vision. Sometimes, a combination of mediums can have a profound result that could not have been accomplished any other way. Synergy, when one plus one equals more than two, can happen when artists work with the mediums of photography plus encaustic. They take advantage of the inherent characteristics of each, but bring their work to a higher level. The viewer may have a difficult time distinguishing where the image produced by the camera ends and the strokes of wax begin, or whether one is looking at a  “real” or altered reality that represents a synergism of image and encaustic.

Applying wax to a photograph can exponentially extend the meaning of an image. The texture of the surface and the invitingly sensuous and tactile sheen of the waxes add to the visual and emotional impact of the underlying handmade photographic work.  What is revealed or concealed, contextualized or isolated and emphasized or obscured, as well as the ambiguity of foreground vs. background; all are called into play when wax, resin, pigments and other materials are used with photography.

The artists selected for this exhibition display technical mastery in both encaustic and photography and employ both mediums to their maximum expressive capabilities. They also demonstrate a wide variety of techniques and accomplish their artistic goals by utilizing luminescence, texture, translucency, opacity, color and composition effectively.”