Wayne Montecalvo

I work with image, process, and a variety of materials in order to push the confines of  art making to reinvent, rather than reproduce an image. Allowing an idea to emerge  organically through curiosity, I manipulate the materials to create unexpected results  that distort and redefine. I start with something expected, and end up with something  mysterious, aiming for singular or unique outcomes within a defined image. Taking a  painterly approach gives me the option for discovery by welcoming chance  occurrences to create a new way to see a familiar object.

Wayne’s awards and honors include the Awagami Artist-in-Residence Program at  Awagami Paper Factory in Tokushima, Japan; NYFA MARK ’09; Two Full Fellowship  Awards for residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Two Residencies at  the Frans Masereel Zentrum voor Grafiek, Kasterlee, Belgium; John Michael Kohler  Foundation Arts/Industry Artist-in-Residence, Sheboygan, WI; Women’s Studio  Workshop Artists’ Fellowship; and an Artists At Work: New York State Council on the  Arts.

Website: waynemontecalvo.com

Classes with Wayne Montecalvo

Variations on a Theme. Augmenting Digital Images with Encaustic.

My focus will incorporate various art making mediums with encaustic; pencil, charcoal, India ink, acrylic paint, oil paint, water color, to name a few. The main subject in my artwork always includes digitally printed imagery, I print images on thin Japanese papers that work well with encaustic medium. The wax is absorbed into the paper, and the paper disappears on the surface, leaving the image intact. I work in layers making use of transparency and opacity to create “reveal and obscure” in the artwork. The images float between layers and are suspended one on top of another, similar to a double exposed images but with much more control. The goal with all my work is to reinvent a digital image into something new, something unique and one-of-a-kind. In my videos I will explain ways to distort, remove, add, rework, and compile images with encaustic paint into something beyond a photographic image.