fly on the wall with Denise Orzo

here i am securing the edges of my wheat paste installation "the immune system" for the O+ Festival. The six figures are various veiled female ancestors brandishing brooms & rifles ~ (*photo by John C. Marvar*)

greetings madelyn

thank you for including me in your 'fly on the wall' series. I apologize for my delay in getting all of this to you, I found it to be more difficult than i had anticipated.

Perhaps my aversion to 'framing' and my inclination toward ambiguity. I am more process than product i think.

Like, I love my dictionary & refer to it often while I'm working but I just could not make a compelling photo of it!

It's sort of like when you have an intense dream & when you share it with another and you recognize the significance & feeling is diminished in translating into words.

Not unusually, dreams play a large part in my creative process. Seeking connection between the world of the senses & the spirits, the sacred & the mundane. These things inspire & propel me to create.



Denise



the light in my studio is incredible. also, i love magnets.






books feed & satiate my curiosity




my heated palette & brushes & chunks of encaustic paint

occasionally i make objects but mostly I work in encaustic paint, a fragrant & tactile beeswax & pigment media suited to my sensibility of possibility. There is a certain unruliness inherent in melting these solid chunks of color & layering them to create an image.

I like hovering between the parameters of the medium & my will.



a blurry shot of my essential oil cabinet/palette. (my olfactory talents greatly outweigh my photography skills). if only computers could convey scent! combining fragrant plant materials into 'new' scents thrills me.



This little bird died in my hand after flying into the window of our rooftop 'cabana'. I memorialized it with several drawings & paintings. I have an odd knack for discovering freshly passed birds. Friends often gift me ones they come across.

It is a sad & beautiful honor to hold a bird.






Selected works



"the little riot" 12"x12" encaustic & oil on panel.



>"stockholm syndrome" 20"x30" encaustic on panel



"this american life" 117"x90" encaustic on canvas

~ About Denise ~

'I grew upon the south shore of long island, near the ocean, in the suburbs. I've lived in the hudson valley since the early 1990's. I work as a painter, a birth doula, a soapmaker & a caterer.'

for more of my work ...here
more about O+ Festival
more about encaustic paint

***All original photography, design, art and text, are copyrighted and property of Denise Orzo and are not to be cited, reproduced, or used elsewhere without written permission from the artist. Thank you!