Opening at the Goldleaf Gallery inside Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe

Reception for the artist on Friday, November 13, 2009 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm

Artist's statement:  I was introduced to wax as an artistic medium when I was fifteen.  A smoky room in Cairo, filled with artists hunched over hot-plates upon which pots of paraffin and beeswax were placed to melt to a liquid consistency.  The warmth and smell engulfed and entranced me.  I was witnessing the art form of batik; using wax and dyes to create images on fabric.  In producing intricate patterns with wax and then dipping cloths in dyes I find I can give material form to my fancy.  The fascination of batiking for me is related to my outlook on life:  though I control the basic images and colors that go into my designs, the fortuitous cracking of the wax determines the ways in which the dyes seep through the cloth in different directions, creating images that are both mine and fortune's.