The many faces of Tracey Howard

Tracey Howard, instructor of photography, specializes in a unique brand of photography and painting. She combines both techniques to create her effects, and right now her art is showing at a museum in Philadelphia.

by Bridget Egan staff writer

Travel into Cabrini's darkroom and you may meet a spiritual pioneer who chooses to express her emotions by manipulating wax on photographs.

Tracey Howard teaches the art of photography to students each semester, but takes the art to another level in her own studio. Her work has been described as "haunting" and "unsettling" by those who stare at the gigantic faces that Howard creates.

Her art consists of combining photography and painting so that the image of the people she photographs becomes more elusive and layered.

TheTechnique

Howard attended the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in psychology. She never even took a photography class until after her graduation. After she began to take photographs on a regular basis, she attended the University of Delaware and received her Master of Fine Arts, concentrating in photography.

In graduate school, Howard would drive around various neighborhoods and take pictures of strangers on the street, in their homes and with some of their favorite "stuff." She became interested in how people posing with some of their possessions became symbols of how they identified themselves.

When her photos were displayed, those who saw them would create elaborate stories about who the people were and what they were doing. This did not feel

Howard's images are composed of many different rectangles, ranging from 15 to 30 rectangles In a single piece. She takes a photograph, then with the negative she enlarges the Image onto a large piece of photographic paper, usually 16" X 20~. Sometimes she has to enlarge the image onto the floor or the wall to get it as big as she wants it. After processing the print and drying It, Howard puts all the photos together to make a composite image. Then she paints wax onto the photo or paints over it to make her unique artwork. To apply the wax, she melts It and mixes it with powdered paint to make it different colors, then paints it on with a brush.

The Result

right for Howard, since she recognized the simplicity in the photographs.

"I resisted the idea that it [the photograph] had to be a big dramatic thing," Howard says.

This is when she began to paint the pictures to give them a completely different concept. She did not want to simply fill in the photos; she wanted to enhance it and to give it new life.

The paint she decided to work with was wax, which she had to heat on a griddle and add pigmentation for color. Howard chose wax because of its ability to endure, and the fact that it would not destroy the photographic paper like an oil-based paint would.

Recently, at a discussion concerning her work, continued on next page continued from 8 which is being displayed at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia until December, many commented on the emotions they pulJ from her work.

Each person Isexpressionless,but Howard adds wax and paint to the images, giving each emotion and personality. Through her use of colors, brush strokes and rectangles, Howard manages to make each painting different. No two ore alike. They are also extremely large. The smallest piece is 66" X 48". The largest, at 84" X 66", makes a dramatic statement just with its size alone. Below, (from left), All in One (Tina),.1996, is the largest, and the technique is encaustlc on photographs. ·wide Open (Anna)," 1998,is 66" X 48,H and the technique Is encaustlc on photographs on panels. "Common Ground (Michael)," 1993, is 78" X 60" and is also encaustic on photographs.

Most were quite moved by Howard's use of paint over photos. The facilitator of the discussion, Girard Brown of Philadelphia Weekly, said that Howard's paintings made him want to ask more questions. An-