I began re-creating Polaroid pictures as encaustic paintings in 2007. “Snapshots – The Polaroid Series” is my visual epitaph of working with Polaroid film, a format from my childhood that taps into feelings of instant nostalgia and impermanence.
My mother gave me her SX-70 when I left home, heading out on a road trip in 1996. I have criss- crossed the United States many times since then. I took a Polaroid in Kansas that I was compelled to paint. It was green with a splash of red and a white washed blue sky. The angle conveyed the urgency of a hand hanging out of a moving car to capture the moment.
I landed in NYC and enrolled at the Art Students League focused on painting. I started working in oils which I love for its own merits but it did not work for the Polaroid feel I was searching for. I ended up taking an intensive course in encaustic in North Carolina and found my way. The translucent aspect of the waxy layers lend itself to the photographic nature I was looking for. The way it captures light is what interests me. I continue to add to the series from my collection of images from my travels.
