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Curriculum Vitae
 Valentine_Resume_2009.doc
Statement
I am a working artist currently exploring encaustic as a medium. My work is abstract in nature, combining influences of my emotional landscape, an interest in anatomy, bones, and a love of nature. Twenty years ago I was working in fibers and creating sculptural forms with waxed linen over a support. The forms were non-utilitarian and very organic. Today my pieces provoke memories and experiences of my past, and move into my present life. For the past five years I have worked consistently with wax, exploring layers and surface treatment. I have found a medium that allows me to continue to explore my own inner landscape while allowing the joy of chance that wax creates. The process I use is one of building and covering over of layers which create a diverse range of expression. Unification in the materials and forms create cohesion in my work. To me, my painting speaks of time, life and nature. My hope is that the viewer can see tension and calm intertwined, and make up their own interpretation of the piece and allow it to speak to them. This body of work was initially informed by a CAT Scan of a brain. As the work evolved, I also began sculpting/forming small wax shapes, which reminded me of vessels and possibly body parts. Their sizes are only two to six inches. I began drawings of some of these sculptural shapes and would include them at points in the surface. Vertebrae began appearing in the work, which was a revisit of previous work. I find experimenting with drawing within the painting helps me build my own language in the work. I work to translate this ancient medium of encaustic into a contemporary form. My work uses the transparency and translucent density which is an inherent quality of the wax. For me it combines many disciplines; collage, paint, printmaking imagery, and sculptural qualities which all are combined in my final result.
Press Release
An exhibition of new encaustic paintings by Cathy Valentine will open on February 26th and will continue through March 29th 2008, at the Davis and Cline Gallery in Ashland. There will be a reception for the artist on the First Friday Artwalk on March 7th from 5-8pm. Encaustic paintings are made by applying hot pigmented wax to a surface. This ancient technique results in translucent and soft focused artwork that can be polished to a high luster. Cathy Valentine's encaustic paintings are dense, crisp and unencumbered compositions that suggest volume, form and transparent content. The sides of abstract forms bulge with pressure while connecting lines suggest stressed structural elements of basic materials like straw, threads, and wire. Valentine currently resides in Mount Shasta, California and has exhibited in widely in Northern California and Oregon. This is her first exhibition at the Davis and Cline Gallery.
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