Walt Jones

Swing

Arch

Break

Artist Statement:

The series “Liquefy” strives to capture the energy and beauty of the human body as portrayed through molten wax in unique digital encaustic pigment prints.

A former designer of lighting for modern dance and ballet, I want to translate the intrinsic beauty I’ve so often seen within the body of a moving dancer into a more abstract medium. Through experimentation, I found that when controlled effectively, molten wax can have many of the same visual qualities as the movement of the dancers that I’ve spent so much time sculpting with light. The forms created with the liquefied materials take on the motion of the dancers themselves, creating the illusion of movement within still life.

Through the process of injecting dyes into liquefied paraffin with various instruments, I discovered that I can gain control over the medium and coerce it, much as a painter moves pigment on a canvas, into recognizable human forms while maintaining so much of the stochastic qualities that initially led me to experiment with it in the first place.

To find the moment when serendipity aligns strings of color in just the right way, hundreds of exposures are made in the few minutes before the wax cools to a semi-opaque solid. Every image in this series represents just one of many attempts to bring each form to life.

Original photographs are available for individual purchase and can also be displayed together as an exhibition. Each image is available as a unique pigmented ink and paraffin print on bamboo paper. A modern nod to the ancient art of the encaustic, the subject comes full circle – quite literally wax images of wax. Please inquire for pricing.

Low Tech will be showing at the Center for Fine Art Photography through the month of October.