Artist Statement
The nature of my work is autobiographical, a veiled visual diary
of my experiences. Through the process of artmaking I search for
a better understanding of my feelings and thoughts. Time and memory
are my subjects and the work is full of familial, cultural, and
political influences. Born in Argentina, I traveled widely while
growing up; my father's profession as an architect took our family
to such places as Indonesia, Colombia and New York. Early memories
of experiencing new worlds and living among diverse cultures continues
to flood my work today. As metaphor, I explore issues of confinement
and borders, political injustice, alienation, loss and mortality.
Ultimately my aim is to reflect on the part of our human spirit
that preserves and heals. The tension between opposites and the
relationship that exists between the conceptual, the spiritual,
and the material are also at play in my work.
Color and surface are very important components of my work. After many
years of experimenting with oils, I have chosen to work with encaustics
because of the quality of the surfaces I can produce. Working with this
medium is very seductive and combines two of my loves: intensive manual
labor (layering, scrapping, fusing), and playing with concepts and ideas.
Each work is made of multiple translucent layers of melted pigmented
wax and a combination of painted, stenciled, scratched and/or collaged
images imbedded in each layer. As each layer gets added, it is fused
to the previous one by means of a heat source. Depending on the surface
I want to achieve, I use a heat gun, an electric taking iron or a torch
to produce the results. The repetitiveness and the technical aspects
of the process help to unlock the subconscious imagery that surfaces
in the work.
Printmaking equally engages me by offering new challenges and choices.
I am drawn to this medium for the extraordinary visual and tactile qualities
produced by the press, and the inductive creative rhythm of the process.
As a printmaker with a painting background, I primarily make one-of-a-kind
images, or monoprints. My approach to the media is constantly experimental,
combining printmaking processes and using multiple materials and techniques.
I enjoy drifting between these two mediums and benefit from the way one
informs the other.
Diana González Gandolfi |