Spilt Milk

Enamel and Encaustic on Canvas

In the 1986 I moved to a larger studio, and began experimenting with different materials.  I produced two bodies of work; enamel wall art and an encaustic/collage art. I refer to both series as “Spilt Milk,” because they overlapped in time and impacted each other. Both series were made while raising three daughters, one disabled. Initially I had difficulty nursing and milk was often leaking, spilling, spraying, soaking and the term stuck.

The enamel wall art involved metal mounted on (reinforced) canvas in various shapes, along with spoons, tools, and found or discarded metal parts. Taken to the local auto spray-paint station, they were spray-painted. After drying, I painted small surreal vignettes incorporating such subjects as a Madonna, a nurse, angels, and metal parts echoing the collage. The works were subtle, complex, and unsellable.

Following the enamel paintings, I turned toward a softer aesthetic with collage/painting/encaustic on canvas. The reference to the maternal was more clear – with images of sunflowers dripping white wax (spilling) from their centers.  Beeswax was like working with milk.

In 1996 I was invited by the J. Claramunt Gallery in NY to have a solo exhibition of the enamel and encaustic paintings titled, “Spilt Milk.” I shipped fifteen works of art to New York and it was a personal breakthrough.