Lola Baltzell
Uncurtaining the Night
Lola Baltzell
Like the female painter in Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse”, I am terrified of the blank canvas. “Where to begin?— that was the question at what point to make the first mark? One line placed on the canvas committed her to innumerable risks, to frequent and irrevocable decisions.”I work with mixed media, to give myself a starting point. You will often find collage elements in my pieces and I also love working on and with found objects. Bits of thread. Ephemera of all sots. If it will adhere with encaustic wax, I will use it.
My Russian grandfather was an immigrant and ran a junk yard on the wrong side of the tracks in Albert Lea, Minnesota. As a kid I loved to roam around the lot and explore whatever showed up. I still do that. I love dumps, yard sales, random things found in the street or in the woods.
I have two sides – part of me needs structure, and a bigger part of me wants to be free. Making art brings it together. I am bound by the size of the panel or paper or structure I’m working with, yet totally free.