A Moment with Tracey Adams
How would you describe your work and style as an artist.
I would describe my work aesthetic as reductive abstraction, a process of paring down to a simpler expression. I often start with a lot of visual information and through subtracting certain elements find myself with a balanced piece. This has been an ongoing and evolving process for the past thirty years, one which parallels many aspects of my life including a yoga and meditation practice.
What would you define as one of your pivotal moments?
In 1998 I was introduced to encaustic and it was an instant love affair that continues to sustain my studio practice. Encaustic is heated beeswax to which pigments are added to create a translucent and luminous surface. It is applied to a rigid substrate like a wood panel. I also use encaustic painted on a hotbox to make monotypes on paper. This allows me to work quickly and not overthink the process. Learning to trust myself to be in the moment, reacting without controlling the outcome has been challenging, but yields my strongest work. I just finished a project this month where I created thirty drawings using encaustic and ink, selling them on Instagram to raise money for the Food Bank of Monterey County. I made one a day and set parameters on time spent, palette and size which meant I couldn't overwork. I'm really pleased with most of the drawings because of their freshness and spontaneity.
Where do you feel most connected in your practice?
Everything I do is connected to my studio practice: hiking, walking at the beach, morning meditation, yoga, even growing my own food and tending a garden. I live in a rural area and it is simple yet very full-filling.
Which is your preferred medium, and why?
I enjoy lots of different media, but love encaustic most of all for its luminosity and depth. The process is serene and meditative, applying pigmented wax in layers, fusing it to the panel, then scraping it back to reveal. I repeat this over and over until I get that visceral feeling that the painting is finished.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Refining the process of visceral connection rather than intellectual. I really am trying to stay in the moment, especially as we face a changed world with an opportunity to reset how we've always done things.
