Nancy Daubenspeck

In these paintings, I work with numerous layers of color fields, soft floating geometric shapes, a calligraphic/ percussive X and a dominant pattern of points in a grid formation. The paint is hand mixed from dry pigment and casein and brushed on muslin stretched over wooden panels. The work is meditative, intimate, resonant and is very much an outgrowth of the medium and craft. It is spare, not minimal and there is an object like quality to the paintings. I live in a very solitary valley by a river in the Berkshires so the natural world is ever present for me and I study the light, the earth, the water and the sky - day and night. I am inspired by Byzantine Greek iconography - the written painting, Egyptian hieroglyphics, fresco and all types of calligraphy and brushwork. For me, the beauty of the mysterious symbol is it's ability to become a vessel for the imagination. I grew up looking at my mother’s illusive shorthand and still have these symbols and patterns in my mind’s eye. Handmade stitching and lace, like writing, represents to me one of the best examples of the unconscious randomness and rhythm of the human hand within a patterned framework. It's this juxtaposition that interests me.

Nancy Daubenspeck apprenticed and worked for many years as a mold maker and artist's assistant in fine art and architectural foundry casting. Her formal education is in chemistry and computer science. She has done research in inorganic chemistry, physics and seismology. She has training in iconography and lacemaking and began painting in earnest in 2004 after an introduction to casein and panel painting at Parsons School of Design in NYC.

www.nancydaubenspeck.com

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