Featured Artist: Steve Novick

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Please introduce yourself to our readers that might not be familiar with you.



Steve Novick, the artist. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

My name is Steve Novick. I was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. I received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. I live and work in Somerville, Massachusetts. My wife, Liane Noddin, is also an artist.

How did you get interested in making art, and what do you do besides creating art? Do you teach? Write? Manage a gallery? If so, give us some details?

In large measure, I got interested through comics. My dad was a big comics fan, and got me looking at things like Rube Goldberg and Winsor McKay (I also ingested plenty of Saturday-morning cartoons, and accumulated a couple thousand comic books in high school). We also went to museums every so often, and I had a grade-school art teacher who would roll her cart in and show slides of Cezanne paintings (he's still one of my art heroes).

More broadly, I got interested in making art by doing it, and have made it a point to keep doing it. Teaching has helped —I teach in the Foundation program at New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University, in Boston—it keeps me thinking about art, and allows me a decent amount of time in my studio.


Please tell us a bit about your work in general. How would you describe your work to first time viewers?


Sculpture and Dunce, 15" x 13" x 7", Plastic, brass, glass, granite, 2009.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

My work is three-dimensional, and involves collecting, combining, and synthesizing found components. I've been working this way for nearly twenty years, though my aesthetic and conceptual goals have changed over time.


Tell us about your most recent objects. Would you share with our readers some of your thoughts and inspirations about your creations?

My most recent work is similar to the things I made during the three or four years prior: stand-alone objects that are simple in form, yet (hopefully) rich in meaning.


Memo (detail), 22" x 15" x 5", rubber and mylar, 2008. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Unlike much of my previous work, none of the most recent pieces sit on shelves or in vitrines—they mount directly to or lean against the wall, sit on the floor, or hang from the ceiling. In that regard, I suppose they're more sculptural.


Before and After, 10" x 12" x5", Plastic, rubber, foam, 2007.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

The imagery is both cultural (representations of and references to paintings, sculptures, etc.) and natural (animals, plants, and the like).


Feeder, 3" x 3" x 5", Wood, leather, plastic, paint, 2005.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I feel that the “cultural” pieces have an anthropomorphic quality—evoked by scale, or method of installation, or some salient detail—while the “natural” work toys with questions of interpretation and allusion, functions which are peculiar to culture.


Ice Cream Flame, 8" x 10" x 4", Plastic, wood, paint, 2004.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I've been paying more attention to installation of late, thinking about groupings of pieces that emphasize certain aspects of each one. This is analogous to combining disparate elements in a single work, and serves a similar purpose: bringing to light meanings which, in another context, may be obscured.


Please describe a bit about your creative process. How does it all start, what working methods and materials do you use? Where do you look for your materials? Can you talk a bit about your choices/decision making on what objects/artifacts to be used to create your sculptures?

I usually find my raw materials at thrift, recycling, and secondhand stores, and sometimes on the street.


Novick studio. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I'll be struck by the form, material, color, or function of an object, and I try to acquire things that seem somehow incomplete. I've found that if an item is self-sufficient, I'll have no reason to do anything with it—it's already been resolved.


Novick studio. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Novick studio. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Next, there's a period of trial and error: dumping things in my studio, maybe sorting them into loose categories, then putting things together on impulse.


Apotheosis (Full Spectrum), 14" x 4" x 3", Cast plastic, composite stone, foam, rubber, 2008. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Often, I'll have an idea for a particular thing before I start playing with it, but the ideas in my head almost never trump the process of seeing what works in real space. After all, that's how other people will draw ideas from the work: by experiencing it as a thing in space.


Garden and Dunce, 12" x 12" x 12", Plastic, rubber, 2008.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Once a piece starts to take shape, I might refine it, usually by stripping out unnecessary elements. If I wind up with something that seems right, I'll keep it set up in my studio. If it still intrigues me after several months, I'll consider showing it—if it can hold my interest for that long, I figure that it might grab other people as well.


What is the most interesting comment you have heard from a viewer?


Dish III, 11.5" x11.5" x1.5", Rubber, metal, 2001–02. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Ten or so years ago, when I used a lot of black rubber and steel, people would tell me that they considered my work dark and foreboding. I would reply, honestly, that it was supposed to be funny.


Balloon Trick III, 12" x 5" x 4", Plastic, string, 2005. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

A couple of years back, when it became much more colorful, and employed a lot of plastic, someone remarked that the work struck her as very funny. I answered, again honestly, that I thought it was pretty unsettling stuff.

When I was in graduate school, I heard a poet, Stanley Diamond, speak. He said something along the lines of, "At the heart of tragedy lies true comedy; comedy is tragic at heart." I suppose that idea stuck with me.


Could you tell us a bit about your solo exhibit held at ArtSpace in New Haven CT early this year? What's the title and concept for this exhibit?

There wasn't a title, or a theme per se. It was an opportunity to install work from several years back alongside more recent pieces. The curator, Liza Statton, selected the work with that idea in mind.

I haven't had much of an opportunity to do something like this. Usually, it's been the "have a show of the work you've made since your last show" approach. That's gratifying, of course, but I enjoyed the possibilities presented by a broader palette, so to speak. It let me identify themes--some that I hadn't recognized when they first cropped up--that had been developing for a while.


Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Image above shows "Decoy" (2008) in the foreground, with "Painting IV" (2004) on the wall. Even though three-plus years separate them, there are common motifs: circles, reflection, representation, artificiality.

I know three years might not sound like a big gap, but it seems like one when you've been thinking about one-year or eighteen-month cycles of production. In that sense, the two pieces are three bodies of work apart.


Decoy (installation view), 18" x 22" x26", Wood, plastic, metal, mirror.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Below are a couple of images from the show which illustrate this idea: from left to right, "Stripe and Cone" (2008) alongside "Building" from 2006.


Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I love the little the reflections on the pink sphere of the 'Cone' and on the purple blob of 'Building', the repetition of the stacking blocks in "Stripe", the grid of tiny windows in "Building", and the mosaic floor pattern.


Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Building, 6" x 2.5" x 2.5", Wood, paint, plastic. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Below images are installation views of "Decoy" and "Painting IV" with "Painting X" (2008) -- a neat combination of wall-, floor-, and ceiling-mounted pieces, which also brings together two works from a series of "Paintings" that I've been turning out intermittently for the last six years.


Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Installation view, Artspace in New Haven, 2009. Photo: Kelly Jensen Photography

Painting X (detail), 32" x 11" x 2", Plastic, metal, tape. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

The show also allowed me to play with the "grouping" that I referred to in my earlier responses, and to consider the sweep and rhythm of work through the space at different eye levels. That might sound pedestrian, but it takes on an outsized importance when your (crowded) studio is less than 200 feet square, with a seven-and-a-half foot dormered ceiling.


How have you handled the business side of being an artist?


Installation view of Useful Things, NESADSU Project Space, 2003.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I've made every effort to document and present my work in a clear and professional manner.

I photograph my own work, and built my own website. I've assembled an e-mail list of curators, writers, and fellow artists, and keep them updated on a regular basis (but not too regular—I don't want them to think "Oh, god, not him again"). Usually, I send a message out when I update my site significantly (about once a year), or if I have a noteworthy exhibition.


Cone, 6" x 6" x 6", Plastic, concrete, painted metal. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I also submit my work more formally to curators at museums and non-profit galleries, including colleges and universities.

As I'm currently without gallery representation—after eight years with OHT Gallery in Boston, which closed recently—keeping my work visible is even more important than before.


What are you working on right now?


Novick studio. Image courtesy of Steve Novick

I have several pieces percolating in my studio, but whether they'll amount to anything is an open question. A couple of things are reminiscent of plants; another resembles a birdhouse, and another a hat with too many holes in it.

Tell us about the awards and recognitions you received in the past.

I am a recipient of Pollock-Krasner and Massachusetts Cultural Council grants. I received a Somerville Arts Council grant this year.

Please provide links to reviews and publications about your work.

• Review of 183rd Annual, National Academy Museum - "The National Academy Museum's Grab-Bag Anthology" By DANIEL KUNITZ, The New York Sun, June 5, 2008.
• UP A CREEK: Paddling Through Boston's SOWA Galleries by Charles Giuliano, Big, Red and Shiny, January 25, 2005

Are you currently showing in the Boston area? If so, where and when?

I'm part of a three-person show—Plastic Fantastic!, with Rob Rovenolt and Brian Zink—at Laconia Gallery in Boston, which runs through August 8. I'm also in a faculty drawing show at the Suffolk University Gallery in Boston, also through August 1.

Are you planning any exhibitions of your work in the near future?

Right now, my dance card is clear.


Painting VI, 12" x 15" x 5", Wood, acrylic paint, plastic, 2005.
Image courtesy of Steve Novick

Are you available for commissioned works? Representing gallery if any?

I'm happy to discuss commissions. Right now, I have no gallery representation.

Do you have website(s) for interested readers to learn more about your work? Would you like to share your contact info with our readers?

My website is http://www.stevenovick.com. Your readers may contact me at snovick@suffolk.edu


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Featured Painter: Joanne Mattera - Part II

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This is a two part interview and is continued from Part I.

Tell us a bit about your most recent work series Silk Road. Would you share with our readers some of your thoughts and inspirations about this newest series?


Silk Road 117, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2009
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Silk Road is the most succulent and reductive painting I’ve done. Each painting in this ongoing series is a small color field—you might call it a color "plot"— achieved by layers of translucent paint applied at right angles.


Silk Road 69, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2006
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

It’s not quite the monochrome it initially appears. Each painting has numerous layers of paint and several different hues. Because of the translucent nature of encaustic, the color mixing takes place in your eye as the layers of waxen color, sometimes as disparate as coral and violet, coalesce into one hue.


Silk Road 86, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2007
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

While you’re up close, you’ll see that the subtlest of grids is formed by the trail of brush marks and intentionally grainy elements within the paint. Because of the paint’s luminous nature and a surface grid suggestive of woven cloth, the series just named itself.

I’ve limned each painting to charge the intensity of its color field and, I hope, to spark the eye so that it travels from painting to painting on a small visual journey of its own.


Here comes the frequently asked question - How long does it take to make one painting (please give us an example)?

It takes 50 years and a week to several months to make each painting. That's life plus the actual work time.

Also, one thing that many people, even dealers and collectors, don’t think about is the significant pre- and post-painting effort involved—from acquiring supplies and preparing panels in advance of the actual painting, to many little things after the fact, such as pulling off the tape and cleaning the edges; attaching a hanging device; photographing, Photoshopping and archiving the image; packing the work for delivery, or actually delivering it.

What is the most interesting comment about your work you have heard from a viewer?

An artist once told me the surface of a painting was so luscious she wanted to lick it. I laughed and said, "Please don’t."


Silk Road 87, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2007
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

My palette contains beautiful hues, but I'd never thought of them as candy colored. Typically I like when I can have a conversation, when a viewer is interested in reductivist work, or color, or geometric abstraction. Those topics provide a gate into a discussion about my work.


Please tell us about your art commentary blog Joanne Mattera Art Blog. When did you start blogging? What’s the purpose of your art blog?

I began the Joanne Mattera Art Blog in June 2006, but it was not until I reported on the Miami art fairs in December that year that I felt I found what I wanted to do with the blog, which was to report on and comment about the art I was seeing in New York and at the art fairs.

After that I started posting a couple of times a week. Earlier this year I added a regular column, Marketing Mondays, which deals with the business side of being an artist.

I tag my blog "Guaranteed Biased, Myopic, Incomplete and Journalistically Suspect," but the fact is that I try to maintain respectable standards—I check facts, for instance—even if it is written colloquially and in the first person.

I find that the best art blogs are well written and generous, and those of us who are committed to good reporting and sharing of resources have all found and linked to one another. And it led to …well I see that's your next question.


Would you talk a bit a recent blog conference you organized at the Red Dot Art fair in New York? What's the purpose of organizing this event, how was the responses, who were the panels?

The painter Sharon Butler and I first organized a little get together in December 2007 at the Miami Art Fairs. Matt Garson, producer of the Flow Fair, allowed us to meet in the lobby hotel where the fair was taking place.

Then we reconvened at the Red Dot Art Fair in New York City in March 2008, where producer George Billis let us have space. While the Miami turnout was small, the New York turnout was satisfyingly large, about 50 people—too many, in fact, to fit into the room we were in, so some of the conferees listened in from the lobby next door.

The panel consisted of Edward Winkleman, Carolina Miranda, Paddy Johnson, Carol Diehl, Sharon Butler and myself. We talked mostly about our responsibility to journalistic integrity.

James Kalm recorded both the pre-conference and the public panel discussion and posted his videos on Blip TV.


The Art Bloggers Conference New York 2008 Part I
Video by James Kalm


The Art Bloggers Conference New York 2008 Part II
Video by James Kalm

Many of us who knew one another only through the blogosphere became friends.

Since then Sharon held a "blogger salon" at Pocket Utopia, a gallery in Brooklyn, in January this year, and I moderated a blogger panel at Platform Project Space in New York City, organized by Olympia Lambert as part of the Blogpix exhibition.


Blogger panel at Platform Project Space in New York City
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

And, of course, who could have foretold that the rise of blogging would coincide with the decline of print media? Now many of us are seeing our blogs listed in artists' bibliographies, galleries are sending us announcements, museums have us on their e-mailing lists. Even publishers are reading blogs. One of the pictures I included in my report of Anish Kapoor's 2008 show at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York is going to be included in a monograph of his work published by Phaidon.


Could you tell us how have you handled the business side of being an artist?

Back when I was in art school, career issues were not addressed. I spent the first few years after graduation trying to figure out how to launch myself into the world. Most artists did.


Silk Road 79, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2006
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Then, when I went to work 9-to-5 in publishing, I saw how even large publications felt it was important to promote their product. Every product had a brand identity and a team of people to promote the product and the brand. Something clicked.

I realized that on a small scale I needed to present myself and my work professionally, that I needed to target specific galleries—not just any gallery whose space I liked—and to create a relationship with the gallery via visits and conversation. Of course I kept painting.

And when I sent out materials, they were in a package whose pages had a letterhead and simple but related packaging. I'm an artist, but since I support myself from the sale of my work, I'm also a sole proprietor. It took me years to overcome the idea that selling myself and my work equaled selling out.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Making art, showing, curating, writing. Everything I'm doing now, just farther along on the continuum.


Mattera studio with Cielo and Madrugada, 2004
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

Take your work seriously. Network. Show, show, show at non-profits, academic galleries and in well-chosen juried exhibitions so that you build up your resume. Then approach a commercial gallery. Especially in this economy, a dealer wants to work with artists who have experience and ideally, a collector base.

Don't let yourself be paralyzed by rejection. It’s not a condemnation of you or your work, simply that your work is not the right fit for a particular situation. If you find your work rejected regularly, reassess where you've been applying.

Do your homework to find the gallery that's a fit for the kind of work you do, and understand the gallery hierarchy so that you don’t go after venues that show artists whose careers are far more advanced than yours.

It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: Visit the galleries you’re interested in. How many times have artists sent packages to galleries they’ve never been to? When you do finally get into a gallery, understand that the dealer is your partner in your career; don’t go selling out of your studio or behind the dealer's back.

Read the Marketing Mondays posts on my blog.

Would you provide links to articles and reviews about your work?


Mattera installation. Wall from solo at OK Harris, NYC. 2007
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Probably the best thing to do is visit my resume online, which has all kinds of links to websites and reviews. But here are a few of the most recent:

• Jackie Battenfield's, Reality Check Interview with Joanne Mattera, June 2009
• NYC Art, GeoMetrics II, Chris Rywalt; March 25, 2009
• Berkshire Fine Arts, Boston's Newbury Street Galleries, Shawn Hill; December 27, 2008
• Steven Alexander Journal, Joanne Mattera, Steven Alexander, March 15, 2008
• Geoform, An Interview with Joanne Mattera, Julie Karabenick, editor
• Look, See, Joanne Mattera's Encaustic Paintings, essay by Chris Ashley, April 16, 2006

Silk Road 54, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2006
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Are you planning any exhibitions of your work in the near future?

Right now, Adler Gallery in San Francisco has a large installation of my Silk Road paintings.

I am also part of a group show, Summer Guest House, at the Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta through August 1. In August my gouache paintings will be included in a work-on-paper show at June Fitzpatrick Gallery in Portland, Maine.


Mattera installation in Atlanta for Mark Williams Design via Marcia Wood Gallery
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Mattera installation. Solo at Arden Gallery. 2008
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Arden Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston always has a few paintings of mine up in the back room. Online I'm part of an international curatorial project called Geoform, curated by the Michigan-based painter Julie Karabenick, which focuses on abstract geometric art.


Silk Road 115, 12" x 12", encaustic on panel, 2009
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Do you offer any art classes, art consultations? Are you available for commissioned works? Representing gallery if any?

Thank you for asking that. Aside from the course I teach to matriculating students at MassArt, I occasionally offer a workshop in getting to the next step in your career through the Department of Continuing Studies at Maine College of Art. I think we'll be running it in October. You can navigate through www.meca.edu or check my blog; it will be listed when the date is set.

In terms of commissions, I have to be really intrigued by the project, so I tend to turn down more than I accept. For commissions and sales I work through my galleries. In Boston, it's Arden Gallery. The others are listed on my resume.

Do you have website(s) for interested readers to learn more about your work? Would you like to share your contact info with our readers?

From my blog you can link to my resume and my exhibition schedule. You may also wish to visit my website, www.joannemattera.com

Would you like to add anything?

I think we've just about covered it, Sand. Thank you for inviting me to share something of myself and my career with your readers.


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Featured Painter: Joanne Mattera - Part I

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First of all, would you please introduce yourself to our readers that might not be familiar with you? Tell us your name, where you are originally from, where you are based currently? From where did you receive your art training, on what did you focus your studies, when did you graduate?


Joanne Mattera with Quadrate 3, acrylic on canvas, 2007
Photo by Claudia Saimbert

I'm Joanne Mattera. I've been an artist for over 30 years. I grew up in Revere, Mass., lived in Boston during my four years of art school—I went to Mass Art and received a B.F.A. in Painting—and then moved to rural Washington County in upstate New York to live sort of communally in an old mill with a group of artists from New York and Boston.

That back-to-the-land thing was fun but short lived. I now divide my time between Manhattan, where I have lived for 25 years, and Salem, Mass., where I recently bought a building, a former auto-repair shop, which houses my studio.


Mattera studio, 2006
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera


How did you get interested in making art?

As a child I spent most of my time with two unmarried aunts, Lena and Antonina Misci, who taught me everything they knew, which was considerable, about knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing and making things by hand.

My friend, the sculptor Nancy Azara, helped me understand that in childhood an unconscious association was forged between unconditional love and artmaking. Isn’t that lovely?

What kind of job(s) did you do in the past?

In college I worked first as a clerk typist for a stockbroker and then as a go-go dancer in Boston's Combat Zone. I made better money as a dancer and worked fewer hours, which gave me more time to be an art student. Yes, it was sometimes scary—but only in retrospect do I realize how scary it actually was.

While living in the country, I worked as a dump truck driver, vegetable picker, sign painter, artist model, glazemaker, janitor, and freelance writer on textile topics.

I worked as an Editor in chief for Fiberarts in the early Eighties, as a result of my freelance work. Then, in the Eighties and Nineties, editor at several fashion and lifestyle publications in New York City. They’re odd choices for a painter, but because publishing was just a job, not a career, I went where the opportunities and salary were.


What kind of job(s) do you do besides creating art?

In 1998 when my magazine job ended, I decided to take a leap of faith and support myself fully from the sale of my painting.

I had a New York dealer, so the transition had a certain organic progression to it. I am now represented by a network of galleries around the country and earn a living through the sale of my painting.

Do you teach, write, curate shows, and/or manage a gallery? If so, give us some details?

I teach one course a semester at Massachusetts College of Art (Senior Seminar, which helps prepare students to make the leap into the art world).

Occasionally I am invited to be a visiting artist, a gig that may last from one day to a week depending on the invitation.

I also do consultations with mid-career artists to help them navigate an art world that has changed considerably since they were in art school.

I try to curate a show every couple of years. This year, I was one of four curators for Blogpix at the Platform Project Space in Manhattan. We were charged with selecting artists whose practice has some connection to cyberspace or the blogosphere.

In 2007 I curated a 14-artist show about beauty for the Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta. The title was Luxe, Calme et Volupte: A Meditation on Visual Pleasure.


Can you talk a bit about your book “The Art of Encaustic Painting"? Where can interested readers purchase a copy of your book? Please give us some details.


Bookcover: The Art of Encaustic Painting by Joanna Mattera
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

I wrote The Art of Encaustic Painting in 2000 because I had questions about the medium and there was no book on the topic.

I figured that if I had questions, other painters had them too. My background in journalism allowed me to research, write and visualize a volume that would be reader friendly in terms of the information, and inspirational to look at.

The most interesting part for me was to make studio visits with artists, and then to compile what was in essence a curated "exhibition" of painting and sculpture which not only showed the range of possiblities with the medium but which had cohesiveness as a group of images. It was published in 2001 by Watson-Guptill Publications and is in its fifth or sixth printing. The best place to buy the book is from Amazon; you can click on to the link above and follow the links right to the page.


What do you do for fun besides making art?

I like to make studio visits, go to galleries and visit museums. I travel frequently, and wherever I am I check out the art scene.

Art aside, I like to cycle, either along the Hudson in Manhattan (there's a wonderful bike path that runs from Battery Park to the GW Bridge) or along the coast in Salem.

What’s your least favorite thing to do?

My least favorite activity, without a doubt, is the administrative work it takes to track inventory, photograph work and archive images, and maintain financial records.


Please tell us a bit about your work in general. What media do you work in? How would you describe your work to first time viewers?


Mattera studio with work in progess.
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

I describe my work as "lush minimalism." My aesthetic is reductive but my surface is rich and sensuous. I paint in encaustic, which is pigmented beeswax wax.

Please explain a bit about your creative process. How does it all start, what techniques and materials do you use?

Two concerns engage me: color and geometric order. The grid is the underpinning of these concerns. Within its rigor I organize repeated elements—usually a stripe or square—painting them with a succulent brush that is at odds with the reductivism of the composition.


Ciel Rouge, 48" x 67", encaustic on four panels, 2006
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

The saturated color I use is influenced by Sienese paintings and Indian miniatures, but a 21st-century palette embodies its own intensities, transparencies and chromatic relationships. The encaustic paint I use for much of my work brings a differently refractive quality to the color than other mediums.

I work in series, often on a small scale, because my chromatic concerns—subtle shifts in hue, texture and depth—require intimate viewing.


Mattera installation. Adler Gallery in San Francisco. 2009
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

I often install these small works in wall-size grids—color and geometry asserting themselves on a larger scale while maintaining the essential intimacy.


Stack, 48" x 67", encaustic on four panels, 2006-2008
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

While my primary medium is encaustic, I may use acrylic for larger work. The important thing is that I be able to achieve transparency, translucency and richness of color.

As for the actual creative process, I can’t explain it. I go into the studio and my neurons fire in a different way. There's a direct link from my brain to the brush to the paint to the painting.


Please talk about the Vicolo series. What does “vicolo” mean? Could you give us some insight into this body of work, how did you come up with the theme?


Vicolo 20, 12" x 12", carved encaustic on panel, 2005
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Vicolo is Italian for alley. I named the series after I'd been working on it for a while. As I mentioned, typically there is but one recurring element that informs each painting. In Vicolo that element is a carved channel—the alley or vicolo of the title.


Vicolo 42, 12" x 12", carved encaustic on panel, 2008
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Each painting, built up of dozens of layers of specifically chosen colors, consists of many parallel channels that have been exposed as I drag a metal tool across the wax. I work freehand so that while the result is a formal linear arrangement, it’s anything but rigid.


Vicolo 35, 18" x 18", carved encaustic on panel, 2008
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Slight differences in the pressure of the tool and its relationship to the material engage the surface differently, skimming across it or digging into deeper layers. The painting reveals itself as I work.


Vicolo 52, 36" x 36", carved encaustic on panel, 2008
Image courtesy of Joanne Mattera

Vicolo is about as close to sculpture as my painting can be. At the same time, it’s very much like drawing.


When did you start working on Uttar series? What is the message you want to convey to viewers?

The Uttar series is finished now, so I'd prefer to skip this question so that we can focus on Silk Road and Vicolo, which are still very much in progress.


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To be continued in Part II...