I make nature-based, abstract paintings that convey the musical frequencies animating the quantum entanglements of natural phenomena.  They are meditations on undisrupted skies, habitats and oceans, calling attention to the natural rhythms of our environment and the elements and our interconnectedness within them. They represent the energetic frisson shared between sentience, a collective nervous system. With trowels, knives and heat, I pour, spread, articulate and fuse wax-based paints made from organic wax from bees and resin from trees, layering gestures of mark making.

My lifelong classical piano practice, the interpretation of notations and musical phrasing, and Pacific Northwest modernism and its ties to elemental sparseness, Japanese Zen restraint and calligraphy are foundational to the work. My dueling origin story is one of prospering from the land and one of spiritual cohabitation with the land recognizing the relationship between reverence and cultivation. On the Indian reservation of Neah Bay, Washington, my ancestors owned the trading post and my father worked in timber. I was born on the Pacific coast in Seaside, Oregon; this location is historically noted as the Lewis and Clark expedition terminus. Interconnectedness through indigenous myth and nature-based mysticism holds equal presence with the inventiveness of pioneers

and prospectors.

My use of materials is inspired by a 1693 shipwreck site that is located miles from where I was born. A galleon carrying Asian luxury goods bound for Mexico was blown off course and crashed, spilling all its content upon the Nehalem Spit. For years, beeswax blocks destined to be Catholic liturgical candles for altars of Spanish colonists peppered the dunes. Later I would discover my medium, encaustic, as used in the Egyptian Fayum portraits.

Through tapping memories of my birthplace origin,  each painting is an invitation to reconnect with the music within the natural world and contemplate one’s part in its survival.

- Betsy Eby