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Molten masterpieces: Dana Patterson Roth combines photography, pigment and wax to create textured works of art

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'Layers of Memory: Dana Patterson Roth'

鈥楲ayers of

Memory: Dana Patterson Roth鈥

WHEN: Through April 28

WHERE: Wild Hearts Gallery, 221-B, New Mexico State Road 165, Placitas

CONTACT: 505-361-2710, wildheartsgallery-nm.com

Placitas artist Dana Patterson Roth ventures where photographs meet hot beeswax, pigments, texture and playfulness.

Roth fell in love with photography at the age of 10.

Since that time, she has pivoted through black and white, color, digital and even painting.

Roth鈥檚 latest show at Placitas鈥 Wild Hearts Gallery, which she co-founded, exhibits her new obsession: encaustic photography. The process adds layers of beeswax and pigments to a print, leaving the work with an antique patina. The molten blend creates one-of-a-kind images. Encaustic is a Greek word meaning 鈥渢o heat or burn in.鈥 Artists use heat throughout the process, from melting the beeswax and varnish, to fusing the layers of wax.

Molten masterpieces: Dana Patterson Roth combines photography, pigment and wax to create textured works of art

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鈥淲inter in Northern New Mexico,鈥 Dana Patterson Roth.
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鈥淎utumn Encore,鈥 Dana Patterson Roth.
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鈥淭ree, Glorious Tree!,鈥 Dana Patterson Roth.
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鈥淭he Golden Season,鈥 Dana Patterson Roth.
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鈥淟one Tree,鈥 Dana Patterson Roth
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Dana Patterson Roth works on an encaustic photography piece.

鈥淭he wax feel has really appealed to me,鈥 she said in a telephone interview from Placitas. 鈥淚t can be smooth and it could have texture.

鈥淏eeswax is fun to work with,鈥 she continued. 鈥淵ou can add color to it; you can add texture to it.鈥

First, Roth takes the photograph. This time, she returned to an old obsession: trees.

It鈥檚 鈥渢heir connection to the earth,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd also their intrinsic beauty in winter and their lacey branches. They鈥檙e kind of a spirit animal for me.鈥

She covers the print with clear, heated beeswax using a brush.

The wax can be pigmented with color or remain white or creamy beige. It can give the image a textured surface and density.

Roth sometimes adds powdered or stick pigment onto the waxed surface, then she seals the image with clear wax.

Roth took the image for 鈥淭he Golden Season鈥 during a hike in the Jemez Mountains. After printing the rows of autumn trees, she painted them with clear beeswax. Next, she used colored wax to add more gold and a touch of pink.

鈥淭he texture is coming from the wax itself,鈥 she said. 鈥淓ach time you do a layer of wax, you use a torch to fuse it to the previous layer.鈥

She sometimes rubs the results with walnut oil on a paper towel, so the pigment remains within the texture.

鈥淲inter in Northern New Mexico,鈥 featuring a row of trees before a slope of foothills near Heron Lake, is close to its original print, Roth said.

鈥淚 love the shape under the trees where the snow melted,鈥 she said.

The artist used clear wax with white pigment, scratching the trees with a scraping tool so that they remained uncovered.

Roth found 鈥淎utumn Encore鈥 in Tierra Amarilla.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 an old, abandoned house,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just beautiful. I think there are still lace curtains. Abandoned buildings have an intrinsic beauty. It鈥檚 fall and those trees had this vibrant color.鈥

A close look reveals a swing set, some abandoned cars and a broken fence.

鈥淓ven though the people are gone, there鈥檚 still this beauty,鈥 Roth said.

She took the image for 鈥淭ree, Glorious Tree!鈥 north of Espa帽ola. The photograph captures the tree, the brush and the lavender wildflowers beneath it.

Encaustic is an ancient technique dating back to the Greeks, who used wax to caulk ship hulls. Pigmenting the wax gave rise to the decorating of warships. The use of encaustic on panels rivaled the use of tempera in what are the earliest known portable easel paintings. Perhaps the best known of all encaustic work are the Fayum funeral portraits painted in the first through third centuries A.D. by Greek painters in Egypt. A portrait of the deceased painted either in the prime of life or after death was placed over the person鈥檚 mummy as a memorial.

Roth says this is only the beginning for her.

鈥淚 feel like I鈥檝e barely scratched the surface.鈥

She chose the title 鈥淟ayers of Memory鈥 because 鈥渕uch as we live our lives 鈥 creating new memories, holding onto some and letting others fade away.鈥