West Seattle artist Nichole DeMent left her job as gallery curator for ArtsWest to pursue a full time career focusing on her artwork. Behind her are examples of her encaustic work, which began with her photographs and treated with layered beeswax, a process called encaustics. The work hangs at the NW Encaustic studio south of the Morgan Junction.
After four years and one month, ArtsWest's gallery director Nichole DeMent called it quits to focus on her own artistic creations. Her encaustic images currently hang at the NW Encaustic studio through the month at the artistic loft building simply known as "The Building", 7150 44th Ave SW & SW Othello St., just west of California Ave. SW. "Encaustic" images involve creating a one of a kind translucent print layered with beeswax, powdered pigments, and, in the case of DeMent's work, photographs.
"I live near ArtsWest and walked to work every day," said DeMent, who was born in Austin, TX, where, she said, "There wasn't a lot of art, but a bunch of hippies, and you could do whatever you wanted and having a fee spirit.
"I know almost all of the artists who showed work at ArtsWest," she said. "The Artwalk in the four years I was there became a big event with hundreds of people coming in. At first the sales were really good. I was able to double the amount of sold art in the first year I was there. Then the economy went south and so did the sales, unfortunately.
"Some wonder if I was fired," she continued. "Absolutely not. I give a lot of credit those who trusted me as a curator, and to the jurors who helped me decide what was shown.
"The titles of my pieces include 'Metamorphosis' and 'Fruition' and those are some of the concepts," she explained. "There are a lot of roots digging into the piece, things etched into the surface with the photographic prints that I fill in with paint and color. All of my work starts with a photograph. I was a photography and art history student at Evergreen State College. Go Geoducks!
"When I was in school I had access to color and B&W darkrooms and could process my own film. I could touch my work. Now everything is digital and all you do is get this cold, frozen shoulder from working on a mouse all the time in digital photography. I really missed the tactile experience of working with my prints so I started to paint on them.
"Encaustic was the next step for me. With encaustic, the layers and the looking through the surface of things with wax, oil paints, and different papers appealed to me. You burnish, fuse, the wax and paper together. I've always wanted to provide an environment with my photographs. And I always wanted to get dirty. There is an honor to getting your clothes dirty. You can't buy those. Those are hard earned."
She shares Rock DeMent Visual Art Space in Pioneer Square, 306 S Washington St, Studio 104, with Stephen Rock, a watercolor, pen, pencil, ivory etching and digital imaging artist.
