Daphne Holland | Texas Wax

Artist's Spotlight: Daphne Holland

Profile:

Daphne Holland is a Texas artist who currently lives in Austin. She studied art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and textile design at California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland, CA. Graduating with a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas in Austin, she has painted with encaustic medium since 2007. Her paintings use this ancient technique in a modern way by layering beeswax/pigment and fusing together with a heat gun.

I also handcraft encaustic medium and sell to the public. If you are interested in puchasing please contact me: daphne@daphneholland.com

Member of Texas Wax Group:

Austin

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Daphne Holland

Statement

I love painting in encaustic because it has unique processes for mixing and applying color that engage my attention and focus my creative energies. For instance, the bee's wax -- an ancient medium that predates oil by many centuries must be heated, and a special resin called dammar is mixed with pigment. The tools used in adhering the paint are modern and industrial: brushes, propane or butane torches, heat guns and tacking irons. Yet, the result is both primitive and intimate.

The process of painting is demanding and thus it helps me to avoid artifice or facade, and to focus on bright color and graphic lines. While the medium and process have ancient roots, my image influences are from pop culture and Japanese Chiyogami paper (graphic, repetitive designs applied to paper in the Edo period).

My work is an exploration of the medium with very little narrative. The attraction for me is the translucency, fluidity, organic and sculptural quality of the medium. Besides the mystery of muted bright color residing beneath the milky surface, the ability to cut into the wax allows me to build and sculpt relief on the surface of the wax. It’s simultaneously a two-dimensional and sculptural exploration of the medium of making marks and applying color, and then going back into the yielding surface.

My desire is to bring you to the surface of my works; and once there to experience the rewards of color and textural nuance that closer inspection affords. While the paintings are inspired by the felt memories of personal experience, what I offer to you in them is not intended to be more than they are: rich surfaces that hold and reveal, suggest and reward in their sensuality. You can bring what you will to this and if this is successful it will evoke a memory of yours that is rich and worth revisiting.

I hope you enjoy my work for what it is.

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education
B.F.A. in Studio Art 1995, University of Texas at Austin
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

selected exhibitions
2009
Degrees M2 Gallery, Houston, Texas
Rewind Bay6 Gallery, Austin, Texas
2008
Holiday Show Gay Kelly Fine Art Gallery, Austin, Texas
Fused Expressions Bay6 Gallery, Austin, Texas
Fall Art Hop Georgetown Art Works, Georgetown, Texas
Layers Butridge Gallery, Austin, Texas
2003 - 2007
5x7 Arthouse @ Jones Center, Austin, Texas
2001
Red Hot, Red Dot, Women & Their Work, Austin, TX
2000
The Power of Feminist Art (juried) Gallery Lombardi, Austin, Texas
1999
PhotoAustin Flatbed Gallery, Austin, Texas
A Dress Speaks Gallery Lombardi, Austin, Texas
1996
Snapshots Diverse Works Gallery, Fotofest, Houston, Texas
1995
Student Exhibition Huntington Gallery, Austin, Texas
Recent Works New Gallery, Austin, Texas
1990
The Art of Science (juried) National Academy of Science, NY, NY & national tour
New Talent Search (juried) Pratt Gallery, Brooklyn, New York