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1. Breach 3, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
2. Breach 5, 2007, encaustic on board, 16” x 32”
3. Breach 7, 2007, encaustic on board, 16” x 32”
4. Deluge Cyan, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
5. Deluge Red Gray, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
6. Hover 1, 2006, encaustic on board, 5” x 5”
7. Hover 4, 2006, encaustic on board, 5” x 5”
8. Hover 5, 2006, encaustic on board, 5” x 5”
9. Lacuna 3, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
10. Lacuna 7, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
11. Lacuna 67, 2007, encaustic on board, 16” x 32”
12. Lacuna 73, 2007, encaustic on board, 24” x 24”
13. Specter Absolute Reality 1, 2006, encaustic on board,
       5” x 5”
14. Specter Absolute Reality 2, 2006, encaustic on board,
       5” x 5”
15. Specter Absolute Reality 3, 2006, encaustic on board,
       5” x 5”

Contact Information
Morpeth Gallery
43 W. Broad Street
Hopewell, NJ  08525
tel: 609-333-9393
www.ruthmorpeth.com

62 Cherryville Hollow
Flemington NJ 08822
tel: 908-788-0021
e-mail: pfarrell@patmedia.net
www.pamelafarrell.com
Please contact artist for purchases, commissions, etc.

Artist Statement
About the Work: Embracing Uncertainty

My work is based on exploring the places that fall between the cracks of what I know, the areas of indeterminate boundaries. I am attracted to colors that are not easily nameable, form that is ambiguous.  I frequently use meteorological and geographical metaphors and references in my work.  Conversely, I also reference less tangible phenomena than geography and weather, perhaps making allusion to ideas that are beyond the physical and that speak of things metaphysical or spiritual. I use both the material and process of encaustic, with its molten, liquid, pigmented wax, and its transformative abilities, to produce dynamic layers of form, light, and ground. We are grounded in a physical environment, but also subject to the many elements of our existence that can be considered ethereal and which cannot be controlled. The struggle is in the conflict between an urge to control and the desire for flow and freedom, in life, in work, in art.  

Admittedly, the unresolved and ambiguous provokes anxiety in me. One route through the anxiety is trusting process. My nature compels me to test and push the limits of materiality, in this case, of pigmented wax worked in the fleeting moments when it is molten. I have had to learn to respect the physical and temporal limitations of the material while leaving room to allow the process to lead me through. In using the thin transparent layers of wax and pigment, sometimes poured, sometimes drizzled, sometimes brushed or scumbled, I am focused on creating an ethereal ground on which to play the ambiguous form. Heat plays a major role, not only in keeping the paints molten so they can be applied, but in allowing me to push the thinness of each layer. I build up and scrape back, often without knowing what will emerge. Light, heat, pigment produce form, color, texture in the process of discovery, the moment of alchemy, or perhaps synergy.

The evolution of my process is strongly connected with my own journey toward being able to tolerate and even embrace uncertainty—in life and in art. What emerges is work that is rife with ambiguity, with evidence of nothing more than an exquisite struggle with being and human emotion.

Education
2002
Marywood University School of Social Work, Scranton PA
MSW

1991
Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University NJ
BFA

Professional Experience
2005
Juror, Annual Small Works, Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton NJ

Selected Collections
Intec Systems, Princeton, NJ
De Haas Engineering, Princeton, NJ

Selected Exhibitions

Solo

1993
Wax, Wood & Clay, Raritan Valley Community College,
North Branch, NJ

Two-Person

2005
Distillations, Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton, NJ

Group

2007
Annual Members Show, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA

Surface & Beyond: Encaustic Invitational, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ

2006
Invitational Group Show, Dennick Court Gallery, Princeton, NJ

Spring Contemporary, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ

2005
Group Show, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ

2004
Group Show, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ

Juried Small Works Show, Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton, NJ

1995
Alumni Invitational, Raritan Valley Community College, North Branch, NJ

Juried Photo Show Altered Images, Printmaking Council of New Jersey, North Branch, NJ

1993
Juried Group Show, Beamsderfer Gallery, Highland Park, NJ

1992
Group Show, Main Street Gallery, Califon, NJ

1990
Ceramic Sculpture, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ

1989
Four Artists, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ

Exhibitions Curated

2007
Co-Curator, Encaustic Group Show, Morpeth Gallery, Hopewell, NJ

1991
Curator, Ceramic Sculpture, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University NJ