Collecting Delaware Valley Art - Artist as Collector Series

Delaware based artist Wes Memeger is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector series.

Crab Apples, 2002
Encaustic on wood
16" x 24"
©2013Sallie Ketcham

I purchased this work from Sallie Ketcham the year it was made. It became a part of our collection made up mostly of works by Delaware Valley artists. 

In first viewing the work, I was quite impressed by the visually deep image Sallie was able

to create in the work forged by much modeling and tooling of the wax.  This was apparently accomplished both by working of the pigmented medium and sculpting of the tree images, heavily on the foreground and in a hyper-subtle fashion as one moves more deeply into the picture plane.

Crab Apples, (detail) 2002
Encaustic on wood
16" x 24"
©2013Sallie Ketcham

This is an especial accomplishment considering the work has a very minimal palette with an overall sense of somber grays, browns and almost flesh colored pinks. In addition to the fine

quality of the work itself, Sallie placed it into a floater frame with a perfectly matched painted wood matte. The latter is consistent with the care Sallie takes in presenting her work for public exhibition.

It holds the distinction of being the second of only two encaustic wax works in our collection, the first also by Sallie. 

Wes Memeger is a painter living and working in Delaware. His abstract geometric paintings investigate the square as a means for exploring the picture plane while uncovering dynamic possibilities along with innate tranquility. 

Aha! Moment

My "gathering nets" are evolving in the heat of these summer months. It seems they are morphing into hives, serving as both a sanctuary as well as, a holding and filtering vessel.  The original wire, pulp and encaustic structures function more as skeletal supports and inner collections. These organic forms have become encased in netting (ok pantyhose- thanks to a family connection to hosiery, and lots of it) that have been, cut, burned and sometimes embellished. Much like the skin that covers my body (though no piercings- yet.) 

(Note: writing this is one of those self realizations and aha! moments. ah the power of writing about your work)

This evolution is both natural and surprising. There it is again. The body, home, and sense of place all finding its way into my work.  With that in mind, I felt that these nets needed to be in nature, where I am most at peace.  

    

And here in the Delaware Valley Region of the country that place is in a preserve where I walk with my dogs in and around the creek.

Finding a place in the sun with cool water and lovely shadows.

A sense of peace, a sense of place.

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The journey is the destination.