ABOUT

I am AJ Grossman. I am a painter, collage artist and quilter.

I am also a sister, a daughter and a wife.

My art is a reflection of what is around me and the many layers of life and history. Many times, my quilt work is reflected in my painting or collage, or my collage and painting work is reflective in my quilts.  I am influenced by the colors of my South Florida landscape, and you can still see the grit of my New York City upbringing. 

I like history, so the layers in my work, represent layers of history. I also find that living in a digital world now, the use of analog tools (my hands) puts a part of me into each piece. The labor of scraping the wax, or the tearing of the paper, or the sewing of the stitches, are all a meditative process allowing me to stay calm in a not so calm world. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Working in the abstract, I discovered the ancient method of painting with encaustic wax and it is my exclusive medium of choice, but I still dabble in watercolor when the Florida heat just makes encaustic a bit to hot to work with. The melting of the beeswax, the adding of pigment, the aroma that scents the studio while I work, the heating, re-heating of the media, the capacity to etch, scrape, collage, print and build up layers are only part of the appeal of this media. While encaustic media has a basic set of rules, it is during the process that I find myself breaking the rules and creating a piece that I may not be able to reproduce. I work in a series and tend to be influenced by social issues, the environment, childhood memories and my love of quilting.

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