Chantel Greene,
Painter

I'm a scientist and an artist. Art allows me to understand things by exploring ideas and images. Sometimes painting feels like discovering what was always there, other times it feels like inventing whole new universes. My work is influenced by attending an alternative science high school, where my art was limited to lab illustrations. As an adult I always came back to these biological themes and enjoy using these academic images in a creative way. I work with encaustics, which is bees wax, dammar resin, and powdered pigment. I like encaustics because it's so organic and ancient. The medium itself is both flexible and unpredictable, which leads to a lot of experimentation. The process of painting with encaustics is technical and creative which allows me to walk the line of scientist and artist. I incorporate mixed media in the wax while incising, scraping back, and adding layers which I fuse with heat. My paintings are inspired by my old science books, insect collections, and nature.