While I have been waiting for my figurative muse to show up, I literally started digging up older paintings. I seem to be in a place of artistic transformation and many of my paintings are looking ordinary to me. Fortunately, I can see when something doesn't work, so I took several encaustic paintings out in the intense Mexican sun and began scraping down to the board. Something happened. I seemed to be unearthing the history of the layers. This reminded me of my many visits to the Aztec pyramid ruins in the center of Mexico City, where hundreds of years after the conquest, more discoveries are being found. Layer after layer of soil is carefully removed; structures and artifacts are coming to the surface to reveal still more history. As Cortes destroyed the pyramids, trying to destroy the culture, he had slaves use the stones from the pyramids to build the cathedral over some of the ruins.
As I performed my excavations, much of the debris took on new life and form and was moved, reversed, and reapplied to a new surface, making a new statement.
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