Earth's Energy and the beginning of a New Series

Swarm

a :  a large number of animate or inanimate things massed together and usually in motion :  throng <swarms of sightseers> swarm

of locusts> swarm of meteors>

b :  a number of similar geological features or phenomena close together in space or time swarm

of dikes> swarm>

“We think the natural world has a lot to teach us about efficiency,” said Kerbel. “And bees and other swarming animals are among nature’s best examples of teamwork and efficiency. Our technology injects swarm theory into a grid that has historically been simple and manual, and makes it intelligent and automatic.”

* From the Environmental Defense fund website - www.edf.org/energy/innovation/demand-management-innovation

Classes have kept me away from blogging regularly, and now that the fall sessions are coming to an end I have time to share the new direction my work has taken; thinking about the landscape, earth, and the energy sources that nature provides. In a way, the Swarm Series reminds me of my Full Moon Series as both series interpret energy in the natural world. The moons were painted using watercolor, and spatters of color to create energy radiating from the full moon. I was interviewed by a local reporter when I was in the midst of the full moon series and he wrote an article that best described my artistic direction. A favorite quote from the article:

"Painting, Samiljan learned, was less about recreating what it is she saw, but is, in fact, more about transferring energy. Accessibility, then, becomes contingent on each specific viewer's impression. There's something in her paintings she hopes appeals to a wide audience, she says." The entire article is available here - Full Moon Fever

Swarms of color using encaustic medium and pigments, pouring layers of wax to create a greater visual depth of energetic brush strokes, are a similar interpretation with these new encaustic paintings but this time energy is not celestial, it's earthly. I look forward to sharing more new work as the series develops.