Emily Gear
Excavation

In both my paintings and sculptures, I use natural or pigmented beeswax in combination with other materials; usually fabric, paper, drawings, photographs or other found images. The work is distinctly feminine, due partially to the fact that I am a woman, but mostly to the nature of the materials, which carry strong traditionally feminine affiliations (used in a non-traditional manner). My body of work is primarily based on the importance of the expression of emotion in the process of healing and finding transcendence, and the effects of emotion on the body, mind and spirit. Beeswax serves as a metaphor for the body and for memory, two malleable entities which, like wax, scar, bury experiences, can become contorted or can be grounds for excavation.

The frequent use of archetypes and myths to convey personal stories also serves to create a bridge between the individual and the human experiences, making the work accessible to the viewer primarily on an intuitive level. My work is a clear reaction against the often sterile “art about art” and much post-modern and post-historical work dominating the art world. My intent, rather, is to make emotion again an acceptable mode of marketable artistic expression by tempering life’s visceral responses with reason; in other words, attempting to honor both the bestial and cultured in each of us.

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