Lorraine Glessner
Rows Series: Bank
2010
Encaustic, collage, pyrography on wood
16" x 16"

About the work
The 'Rows' series focuses on the marks of walls of the urban environment. When a row home has been demolished, the outlines of staircases, rooms, layers of wallpaper, paint, and marks of life still left on the existing walls trace the lives once lived there. Death is just as clearly evidenced through other marked walls by way of sidewalk memorials and written messages to those who have died there. Decorative patterns, marks and messages traced from these walls are combined with found papers and materials through the use of layers of encaustic paint. Through a continuous process of accrual and removal, concealment and exposure, life, death, hope and the determination for renewal is revealed.

About the artist
Lorraine Glessner's love of surface, pattern, markmaking, image and landscape has led her to combine disparate materials and processes such as silk, wood, wax, pyrography, rust, paper and more in her work. Lorraine is a former Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, a workshop instructor and an award-winning artist. She holds an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, a BS from Philadelphia University, and an AAS in Computer Graphics from Moore College of Art & Design. She has a diverse art background with skills that include painting, sculpture, graphic design, interior design, textile design, photography, digital imaging and much more. Among her most recent professional achievements is a Second Place award in Sculpture from Art of the State at the State Museum in Harrisburg, PA, a recently completed artist residency at Jentel Foundation and an acquisition by Kelsey-Seybold Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Lorraine's work is included in the recently released Encaustic Art in the 21st Century by Ashley Rooney and Nuance, a curated book by artist, Michelle Stuart. Lorraine frequently lectures and participates on academic panels at various Conferences including The International Encaustic Conference, SECAC and The College Art Association Annual Conference. Her work is exhibited locally and nationally in galleries, museums, craft centers, schools, libraries, universities, and more. Like her work, Lorraine brings to her teaching a strong interdisciplinary approach, mixed with a balance of concept, process, history, experimentation, problem solving and discovery.