Collapsed

The fragmentation of society and the taking of what has been beautiful and destruction of that is reflected in this piece. It is executed by me taking actual paintings of mine, that I love and experience as being beautiful and in effect destroying them by cutting them to pieces. I take pieces from several paintings and reassemble them, affix them to a wooden panel or canvas, and finish them in hot wax to seal them (encaustic). I use a heat gun to smooth the layers of paintings and wax to produce a lustrous surface that can be touched with careful fingertips. Like taking something beautiful, destroying and then creating something new and hopefully beautiful from the destruction is my prayer that from what is happening in my country and in other parts of the world because of my country: layers of chaos and turmoil, pain and destruction, senseless loss of life, will emerge something stronger and more resilient and beautiful. Please pray with me.

ENERGETIC INTERVENTIONS

Artist Statement

"Energetic Interventions" emerged from a place of profound civic anxiety—a visceral response to perceived threats against the foundational principles of our nation. Confronting fears about the erosion of constitutional protections, civil liberties, and voting rights, I turned to my own archive of beloved paintings as both subject and metaphor.
In an act of controlled destruction mirroring the dismantling I witnessed in our political landscape, I began cutting apart works I had cherished, transforming personal loss into creative inquiry. What initially felt like devastation revealed unexpected possibility: fragments from disparate paintings, when reunited, spoke to one another in new visual languages. These recombined pieces—affixed to canvas and cradled wooden panels, then sealed beneath layers of encaustic wax applied with heat—became testaments to resilience and regeneration.
The series ultimately asks: Can we forge beauty from chaos? Can fragmentation lead to stronger, more complex wholes? Through the alchemical process of destruction and reconstruction, "Energetic Interventions" proposes that even in our most fractured moments, there exists the potential for transformation and renewed meaning.

Jaye Alison