Vanessa Calvert

"My work explores the relationship between time, memory, and perception. Unable to distinctly separate the three, I am drawn to a depiction of the world where all exist simultaneously. I am fascinated with the imperfections and flaws of memory. As time distorts and distills our perceptions of reality, our memories take on a life of their own. I create a glimpse of that world which teeters between real and unreal through an untraditional approach to still-life and landscape that combines encaustic and photo-collage. Stripped down to their essence, my subjects are concentrated studies of the solitary nature of our surroundings. Reflecting the worn nature of the subjects, the background is scraped and fused in order to suspend the object, like a memory, with some pieces missing and some repeated or replaced. The layers of saturated color defused through pigmented wax not only provide grounding for the subject but also a blurred vision of the rest of their story. The subjects become simultaneously personal and generic through an anonymity of time and place that allows the viewer to associate his or her own memories with each piece. These pieces serve as a response to the inundation of visual stimuli in our lives. By isolating an object, I condense our oversaturated society down to a moment in time."