And so it goes...

Birgit Huttemann-Holz

In the studio of  her uncle Werner Holz, an outstanding German artist, Birgit Hüttemann-Holz was exposed to magic realism from early age on.
Intrigued by the contradictions of the human psyche she first started to write poetry.
While working as a Physical Therapist, she went to study Literature, Philosophy and Education at the University Karlsruhe, as well as German Literature, Philosophy and Media Science at the Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany.
A sudden change of her life, the move to the USA, triggered a stop to her writings, and a universal language was needed, taking  visual form.
Birgit Hüttemann-Holz lives and works as an artist in the Detroit area.

For me the art of encaustic is the scent of memories and dreams, sweet and eternal.
I paint with beeswax mixed with pigments, fuse each layer with fire (blowtorch), even paint sometimes with the destroying hungry flame.
I love the physical impact of the blowtorch, the evolving mountains and valleys, possibilities, lost designs in the mixing and melting beeswax. The inner voice - fire is literally the tool.
The use of the razorblade is thoughtful, thorough, controlled. Scratching away the layers, to get to the truth of a feeling, veil, layer, to reveal, just to cover it up again with more beeswax and colors, fire, to start all over.
Some paintings have more than 50 layers of colors. Finding the history of a painting is my greatest joy.
Encaustic is known as one of the most difficult medium to work with. It is constant loss and rebuild. It opens routes of seeing you would have never guessed.
The beauty of an encaustic paintings lays in its luminosity, transparent layers let you see through the surface- and you bounce back with light and awe.

www.brightstroke.com