Michelle A. Hegyi
October 16 – November 24, 2012
about this exhibition-
Artist’s Statement:
“I am drawn every day to chance juxtapositions of light, line, color, brushstrokes. Inspired, I start painting with no preconceived idea. One line leads to another — one color to another — layer over layer — previous strokes or images combining into one. The pleasure comes in the journey: combining the layers in various ways until it feels just right, traveling through untold iterations of adding and taking away – through complexity to simplicity — it all depends on the particulars of the day I am working — the piece eventually taking shape until finally it feels resolved.
I’m hoping to find those mysteriously poetic spaces that I did not know existed before…and which hopefully affect the viewer each in their own personal way.
— Michelle A. Hegyi
Technique:
Much of my work is created on the computer but has the look and feel of real paint. I find the computer enables me to experiment and to learn from an infinite number of color, value, line and space permutations, still allowing for the history of a piece to show through the layers. Using brushstrokes and other elements and sometimes whole layers from previous work helps to connect each work to the other. The happy accidents of chance combinations are an added bonus. In the last few years I have used the encaustic medium to add to the luminous quality of my work.
In this body of work, How the Day Changes with the Light, digital paint strokes (created on the computer using a pressure sensitive pen and a tablet) are combined with real paint strokes (that are scanned in, eg acrylic, encaustic monotype), and then digitally collaged (again using the computer) in translucent layers. I then print the piece myself to be sure I’m getting the desired colors, using archival pigment ink on Japanese Unryu paper. Afterwards, I infuse the print with encaustic medium, and paint the back with white acrylic paint. The transparent encaustic medium is critical, enhancing the digital layering, as the light filters through the wax, through the pigment to the acrylic white paint on the back of the piece and then is reflected back through the wax to the viewer. These pieces can either float one inch off the wall using small magnets mounted onto clear plexiglas strips or alternatively they can be floated in frames.
— Michelle A. Hegyi
