Ancestral Quilts: I want to honor the images and whatever limited memories exist of people in my family. I digitally process their images in Photoshop and then preserve them in wax. I use encaustic paint, which is a combination of beeswax, resin and pigment. I embed objects such as flowers, lace, and butterfly wings to recreate mementos that were lost in Europe. I apply gold leaf to background surfaces in order to illuminate and embellish. I assemble multiple panels into “quilts” – which hopefully will become treasured family heirlooms.

I also applied this method to leaf and butterfly paintings.