Joyce Watts Coolidge Exhibit, May 2017
Artist Talk: Coming soon.
“If you really want to be heard, whisper” (John Boswell)
My work is intimate.
I don’t make paintings that are supposed to be viewed from 50 ft. away. I like little details and interactions that you’d miss if you were too far away. I don’t like to think of myself as sentimental, but I know that those feelings have inspired much of my art.
I took my first encaustic workshop on a whim. It was not love at first stroke. I had painted in oil, and encaustic did not move like oil- it was difficult to control. I had planned on giving it up, but I needed to finish one more piece. Then another. It took me 2 years to realize that I was going to continue working in encaustic. By then I had learned how to better control it and realized that sometimes to make my best work, I had to adapt my intended plan.
I frequently use tacks, paper, and fibers in my non-representational art. To me, they are symbolic of connections from the past to the future. Of communication. And the duality between strength and frailty. The repetitive use of materials and marks are a conscious reminder to be persistent in the things that matter the most in life—to be both strong yet tender.





















