Building, disassembling and reconstructing drives my work as I reference ideas concerning excavation, synthesis of materials and the depiction of fragments that will ultimately reflect a whole.

I work in the encaustic medium. Encaustic is a combination of beeswax, pigment and resin applied (while in a molten state) to the painting surface. The wax surface is fused with heat between each application of pigmented wax and my approach emphasizes the physicality of the medium through a printmaking perspective. Etched lines, removing wax in the same way ink is removed from a plate, screen-printed fragments, and using wax washes are ways I manipulate the medium while working in an additive/reductive manner. I am in awe when using a blowtorch as a deletion tool; often as much pigmented wax is removed as is applied.

Important influences include natural patterns, fractals, manmade urban residue and decay, cultivated land formations and recently, aerial views. Often these ideas and influences rummage through my mind while an intuitive process acts as a guide. My interests include how land formations (sometimes unrelated) coexist and how it's possible to read vast landscapes in one glimpse. The correlation between urban decay and natural beauty (both at the micro and macro level) influences my work. Near my Minneapolis studio is a large metal salvage yard that rests on the banks of the Mississippi River. The metal yard grinds metal in a jarring, noisy procedure; I find the contrast between the natural beauty of the river and the metal plant of interest and I am exploring the buzz or energy that develops when opposing forces parallel one another. I search for ways to convey such imagery in a visually poetic sense, transforming ordinary materials (paper, wax, pigment) into something that exists as its own life force. I employ heat and fire; the encaustic process allows heat to change or alter my materials and imagery, leading to a degree of unpredictability.

Jeffrey Hirst