We can paint our dreams; the wind in our hair; the sun in our eyes . . .
We can lift ourselves up and find freedom and release through art.
In this workshop for Parallel Lines, directed by Amanta Scott, participants create works inspired by photos or images that speak to them in some way, and then effectively improvise their responses in paint.
After the workshop, participants came to see Parallel Lines, an interactive art installation featuring encaustic paintings, prison beds, a pathway of eggshells and a collection of keys to whatever we seek in life.
The painting pictured below is one of the early encaustic paintings in the project.
Amanta Scott, encaustic mixed media on birch panel, 24 x 36 x 1.75 inches, Perceptions series, 2009
This work, and several others in the Water group of this series, is dedicated to the memory of my friend Joe, a brilliant man who disappeared at the time I was painting these works, and whose body was later found floating in the water just beyond where the figure is located in the painting. We searched for him for weeks. Police found he had tied his hands, filled a knapsack with tins and drowned himself in despair, suffering from a psychotic episode of paranoia and probable, undiagnosed, schizophrenia.