We are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to showcase art from two of Seattle’s best artists, Amber Anderson and Cait Willis in our clinic. Collaborating with local artists has been a fun and unique experience. The artwork has added a great aesthetic to the space and we are getting a lot of questions about the pieces and the artist behind them. All of the work is for sale. If you have not seen it you should stop in and check out the art, you have to see these in person!
This is the artist’s statement from Seattle artist Amber
Using fire as a tool and symbol of transformation, I sculpt and manipulate encaustic bee’s wax on recycled wood supports. From my process I create multiple textured layers that utilize the natural wood grain as a landscape, influencing composition from the wood surface to the wax layers. I continue the transformation process by translating one medium to another- paintings become prints, prints are underpaintings, drawings are printed on the paintings. My artwork is not multimedia, but is instead multiple processes transcribed from the evolution of mediums. Wax layers capture content like a moment in time captured in amber. Both the content and the process are rooted in evolution.
Conceptually, my art is based upon my being a humanitarian. I build images utilizing ideas about environmental, cultural, social and political issues, both in contemporary time and times past. My influences stem from language, history, humanities, and sciences, which are analogous to the evolutionary building process of my art. My background in chemistry has led me to combine universal truths from sciences of alchemy, chemistry, physics, and psychology to inform core ideologies in my artwork. Although I use concrete ideas to create visual imagery, I employ symbolism as a means for abstract representation of larger ideas. Physical qualities such as smooth or impasto texture, transparent or cloudy, and opaque depth of field, are used to represent subject matter. I draw further analogy between chemical reactions used in my creative process and concepts about human experience. Painting with bee’s wax is a figurative and literal metaphor, directly correlating to the transformative properties that humans undergo. Both humans and wax change mutably and result in distinct moments from a chemical reaction; phase state changes including initial state, entropy, and equilibrium. I firmly believe humankind -the body and the mind- are driven by chemical reactions. I strive to understand and convey these chemical reactions through my art
Amber R. Anderson; [email protected]
Posted by Andrew Eisen DPT, Seattle Physical Therapist