The Fossilization of Memories

Anne Feller

My practice is akin to reverse archaeology.

My process for encaustic begins not with the wax but with drawing. My passion for drawing predates my fondness for encaustic by nearly a decade; however, following my accidental discovery of encaustic, I began combining the two media early on in my experimentations with wax. The two media together in my work form intricately layered pieces full of surprises and unexpected moments of creation that I am endlessly fascinated by.

In recent years, I have focused my attention on topics of memory and intimate relations. Primarily depicting figures, I find myself drawn to imagery attached to personal recollections of people I know intimately.

Due to an inability to picture images in my mind, I have a poor memory. When I remember, I see lights and darks, vague shapes, and broad areas of color, but details often allude me. Out of frustration of constantly battling forgetfulness, my pieces aim to capture and preserve memories, no matter how significant or mundane, that would otherwise be easily forgotten. Each piece is thus a moment of permanence in a world of impermanence. This is reflective of my own concerns of memory, time, and ultimately the mortality of the people, the moment, and the memory depicted.

Autumn Walk Encaustic, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, paper 24 x 18 in

Summer Visit Encaustic, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, paper 11 x 11 in

My practice is akin to reverse archaeology as each piece is engaged in a process of fossilization. Instead of being a person to unearth memories from long ago in the present, I am preserving moments of the near past in the present to be seen in the future.

The term preservation is used intentionally as my process centers around the idea of embedding memories in the hardened and durable material of the wax in a similar manner as skeletal fossils are preserved over thousands of years in the unchanging material of bedrock. Much like the fossils in museums, each piece ofers a limited glimpse into a moment in time long gone.

My first solo exhibition took place in 2022. The title, The Tip of the Tongue, in reference to the common phrase one might use, “Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue,” when attempting, but failing, to retrieve a thought or memory.

The exhibition explored the space in which a thought exists somewhere between being remembered and being forgotten. Each piece was an attempt, although always lacking in some quality, to retrieve and preserve a personal memory.

My process for this body of work began with a chosen memory and relevant photographic references. In the early stages of each piece, I methodically translated photos into a series of drawings on paper, focusing only on details that were important to the recollection. Often beginning in black and white, I attempted to capture the essence of the memory. Once I considered the drawings finished, I embedded each paper one-by-one into the wax.

In between each layer of wax and drawing, I added pastel coloring. This is where I felt my true memory came into play. Since my true recollection of a memory is seen mostly as vague shapes and areas of color in my mind, the pastels acted as an added layer reflecting this experience. The palette choices of each piece were not meant to reflect the photographic references, but rather they were colors that felt true to my experience of the memory. Intuition guided me from this point as I combined both what I knew from the photographs and what I could abstractly piece together from my mind.

Downtown Reunion Encaustic, pastel, pen on paper 18 x 14 in

Desert Snow Encaustic, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, paper 24 x 30 in

Conversation With a View Encaustic, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, paper 36 x 48 in

Desert Snow Encaustic, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, paper 24 x 30 in

Despite my efort to permanently preserve these moments, memory is fickle and can not be easily contained in an entirety. As a result, the act of remembering and the involuntary manifestation of forgetting appeared side by side in this body of work. No matter how intentional I was while layering the drawings, the layers inevitably obscured one another. The more layers there were in a piece, the less details of each layer came through clearly; thus, the more story I attempted to tell, the less the story was recognizable. As a result, the wax in each piece exists within a duality, both as a preservative and an obscuring element balancing both the desire to preserve a memory and the acceptance of the inevitability of forgetting.

Passing On, Encaustic, pastel, pen on paper, 30 x 24 in

About the Author

Anne Feller is a figurative encaustic artist who works with themes of memory and intimate relations. She is based out of Boulder, CO, where she attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2021. She is a 2021 recipient of the Emerging Artist Grant from International Encaustic Artists and has been awarded several gallery prizes since 2019. In July 2022, Feller opened her first solo exhibition titled, The Tip of the Tongue, at Artworks Center for Contemporary Art in Loveland, CO.

You can view Anne’s work at www.annefellerart.com www.instagram.com/anne.feller