Paintings by Peggy Epner

Peggy Epner   The Red Thread   2010
encaustic and wood veneer on birch panel    36 x 36 inches

 

In my work, trees, branches and wood inclusions symbolize the bodies, spirits and intentions of people. The red thread tangling this pile of branches represents the connectedness of the whole messy heap of us.

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Pyre   2010
encaustic on birch panel   24 x 24 inches

 

Flame engulfs the same heap. I have not yet reconciled whether this flame is a purifying or destructive force. Or perhaps the explosive energy of the collective.

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Keeping   2010
encaustic and wood veneer on birch panel   36 x 24 inches

 

In this painting, the wood forms a vessel that holds pale thin branch-like forms - distinct from the vessel itself. While painting this, I was considering my desire to hold inside myself the slivers of spirits of those I have loved and lost.

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Seeking   2010
encaustic and wood veneer on birch panel   36 x 24 inches

 

Another vessel. Have you ever floated down a river and noticed all of the fishing lines left tangled in the branches? I wonder is the hook still seeking its fish long after the fisherman has given up. In this painting, the branch itself appears to be fishing from a vessel made of itself. How long has that line been dangling there? Will it ever find what it seeks?

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Rootbound   2010
encaustic on birch panel   18 x 18 inches

 

Continuing the metaphor of trees as human spirits, roots take on the role of our unseen inner world. A rootbound plant has no choice in the vessel it is confined to. But what does it mean if one’s mind/imagination/soul is confined in a vessel of our own making?

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Up   2009
encaustic on birch panel   30 x 30 inches

 

It was winter when I painted this. Hence the naked branches, grasping skyward for some ray of sunlight, praying for Spring.

 

 

 

Peggy Epner   Sorting Ghosts   2009
encaustic on birch panel   24 x 24 inches

 

Sorting, categorizing, organizing. Trying to find order and sense of all those old loves, losses, successes, sins that fill a person’s past.

See more of Peggy's work on her site at www.peggyepner.com
Peggy Epner may be contacted at pegep@tx.rr.com.

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Digital Images provided by the artist.
Copyright 2010 and before by Peggy Epner

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