Rising from the Desert

Rising From the Desert is a series of encaustic pieces that meditates on the relationship between the natural and manmade forms that emerge from the Las Vegas valley. Encaustic painting uses colored wax, heated and layered, to create painting-like pieces. Using this medium connects directly to the heat of the desert and layering of its rock formations, and expresses this unique climate on a fundamental level.

Pieces in Rising From the Desert include fresco, made with local elements, evoking the red sand and rock formations that emerge from Red Rock Canyon, and reinforcing the piece's intrinsic ties to Las Vegas and the land both beneath and around it. Las Vegas' complex and multifaceted history much of which centers around the availability of water are included in the project's visual elements embedded in the encaustic wax and sourced from UNLV Special Collections & Archives.

These historical images show the complicated path that the land and city we now call Las Vegas have undergone to rise into the form it now takes. Accompanying these images, other urban elements such as rust and metal disconnect the city from the natural world it has displaced, and create new relationships, through the colors and forms shared by the city and the earth. Each piece within Rising From the Desert paints a picture of a specific aspect of this eccentric place. As a series, these disparate snapshots create the impression of a larger form, the essence of what it means to rise from the desert.

This project is supported in part by the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

(Check back as more pieces will be added soon)