Joan Potkay
505-988-8855
 
STUDIO ADDRESS
Ropeworks
123 Sawyer St.
New Bedford, MA 02746
 
MEDIUM: painter
 
In my paintings, I’m trying to capture the physicality of nature. Nature is a vortex for me. Its power and scale pulling me into a point of absorption and meditation, a complete immersion into a cycle of the sublime to the tumultuous. Rather than rendering, I use the plasticity of my various mixed media to evoke the texture, motion, chaos and beauty of landforms. My art process is to paint on the floor to allow myself action and movement. I use Japanese brushes for calligraphy, scrapers, poured pain and my hands. The mixed mediums are charcoal, pastel, wax, acrylic and oil. I use the chaos and randomness in the pouring of paint and mark making to capture the ephemerality of nature. The canvas edges show the archeology of the paintings as if lifted from the earth’s surface.