FOLIA 2019, oil pigment & beeswax on panel, 24” x 24”x 2”
Mary Oliver wrote of the creative self: "It likes the out-of-doors. It likes the concentrating mind. It likes solitude.... Its concern is the edge and the making of a form out of the formlessness that is beyond the edge."
Living in the hills of rural Northern California, I notice and ponder the effects of Nature’s predictable unpredictability. I am most aware of the these dynamics when I am in remote wild places, alone, with a concentrated mind. In my current artwork, I reference the ever-shifting states of air, water and earth around me. I apply multiple layers of beeswax and pigment to panels, adding and scraping away bits of shapes, colors, lines and textures, until a history is built up and eroded down enough to resolve into a subtle and complex matrix reflective of these life-sustaining shifts.
“Lasché's transition from encaustic work to cold wax and oils has brought a maturation of both form and content. While she has always had a wonderful way with color and visual texture, this new work shows Lasché walking into deeper waters of emotion. These pieces have a raw and human quality we've not seen before. One cannot help but feel them viscerally, and one cannot help but want to touch them physically. Intense colors and gouges juxtaposed against calmer, quieter areas in the surface make the paintings feel along some spectrum of wounded, healing, and scarred.”
Jerry McLaughlin, Visual Artist
“Phyllis Lasché's evocative new series is built around the theme of wounding/healing/scarring. Her background in nursing brings authenticity and emotional depth to these abstract paintings, which combine delicate, nuanced surfaces with more aggressive scratches and scrapes. Contrasting areas of dark and light also contribute to the impact of the work. Her paintings are built up in many layers of oil paint mixed with cold wax medium, creating a history that evokes personal suffering and healing. “
Rebecca Crowell
Visual Artist / Contemporary Abstractions
REPRESENTATION
2019 - present Sticks Framing and Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2015 - 21 GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2014 - 15 Gallery 621, Benicia, CA
2010 - 11 Blackhawk Gallery, Danville, CA
PUBLICATIONS, PRINT and Digital
2021 Featured Artist, Artists of the Bay Area, compiled by Jen ToughGallery Press, Santa Fe, NM; 2022
2020 Review of Ordinary Matter: Stone Soup Project, Vasari21 Blogpost, January 24, 2021
2020 And on to brighter news from all over… featuring Stone Soup Collaboration, Vasari21 Blogpost , June 1, 2020
2017 Contributing Artist, Nest: Women Artists of Helper,
K. Royster; Digital Printing Solutions, 2017
2016 Contributing Artist, Cold Wax Medium: Techniques, Concepts & Conversations,
R. Crowell & J. McLaughlin, Oakland, CA; Squeegee Press
2009 Contributing Artist, Metamorphosis: Contemporary Statements in Encaustic,
S. Schenk & M. Berry , Blurb, Inc., 2009
2009 A Conversation in Paint, featuring Robbin Milne & Phyllis Lasché;
a 3-part video produced by John Y. Fortes, Digital Boondocks, 2009:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GhGvxRjO0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZfVDR9u_4c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkaxEeHPRn8
2008 Contributing Artist, The Diptych Project: A Collaboration in Wax,
N. Natale; Blurb, Inc., 2008
AWARDS
2020 Invited Interviewee, The Messy Studio Podcast, Podcast #160: Making Stone Soup
2013 Selected Artist, Annual Benefit Art Auction, ArtsBenicia Gallery, Benicia, CA
2012 Selected Artist, Annual Benefit Art Auction, ArtsBenicia Gallery
2010 Panelist, Artists Supporting Artists, Annual IEA Retreat: 2010, San Francisco, CA
2005 Best in Exhibit, Collaborative Art Juried Exhibit, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
2003 City Purchase, Spring Art Exhibit, Livermore, CA
2000 Photography Award for Creative Excellence, Mills College Awards Convocation, Oakland, CA
1996 First Place, Pleasanton Art League Annual Exhibit, Pleasanton, CA
1994 First Place, Pleasanton Art League Scholarship
1994 Winner, Jack Ward Scholarship, Las Positas College, Livermore, CA
1994 First Place, Valley Artists Scholarship, San Ramon, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Fertile Ground and Beyond, Sticks Framing and Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2020 Behind The Mask, Sticks Framing and Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
COLLABORATIVE WORK EXHIBITIONS
2021 Altered Book Exhibition and Fundraiser, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA2021
2020 Ordinary Matter, Stone Soup Project (with Deborah Friedman & Gina Telcocci), Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2013 Claude Lorrain Project: Conversation Across the Centuries: 44 Collaborative Collages, Kunstanke Art Group,
Napa County Public Library, Napa, CA
2012 Claude Lorrain Project, Crowne Plaza Gallery, Concord, CA
2011 Claude Lorrain Project, Contra Costa Cultural Arts Center : Gallery 651, Martinez, CA
2008 Diptych Project: Collaboration in Wax, International Encaustic Artists, Steamboat Springs Arts Council Gallery, Steamboat Springs, CO
2008 Diptych Project: Collaboration in Wax: East Coast, Montserrat College Gallery, Beverley, MA
2008 Diptych Project: Collaboration in Wax: West Coast, Brian Marki Gallery, Portland, OR
2006 Conversation In Paint: A Three-Year Collaboration, Phyllis Lasche & Robbin Milne, Benicia Library Art Gallery, Benicia, CA
2005 A Conversation in Paint: Collaborative Art Exhibit, Phyllis Lasche & Robbin Milne, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
IINVITED SMALL GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Venus, Part 2, MRKT Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 New Works, 3 invited artists, Sticks Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2021 One and All, 4 invited artists, Sticks Fine Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2019 After Words/Afterwards, 2 invited artists, Sticks Fine Art Gallery, Oakland, CA
2019 Restive and Uprising, 2 artists, Gearbox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2018 Syncopainted Pauses, 2 artists, GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2017 What Remains, 2 artists, GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2016 Essential Elements and Other Mysteries of the Universe, 2 artists, GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
2015 Point of Convergence, 2 artists, GearBox Gallery, Oakland, CA
SELECTED JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 50/50 Show: Small Works in 50 Days, Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica, CA
2022 Expressions 2022, online exhibition, Marin Society of Artists, San Rafael, CA; juror Donna Seager,Seager/Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
2021 Collaboration, Stone Soup Project (w/ Deborah Friedman & Gina Telcocci), Amelia Center Gallery, Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL
2020 The de Young Open, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
2017 The Nest, amjworks Gallery, Helper, UT
2015 New Faces, Valley Art Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2014 Altered Landscapes, ArtsBenicia Gallery, Benicia, CA (Juror: Philip Linhares, Former Chief Curator, Oakland Museum of California)
2013 Gems II, ArtsBenicia Gallery
2013 All Figured Out, Village Theatre Art Gallery, Danville, CA
2013 2013 National Juried Exhibit, ACCI Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2012 Blinded by Enchantment, Kunstanke Art Group, Orinda Library Gallery, Orinda, CA
2012 57 Degrees, Thoreau Gallery, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA
2011 SHINE, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2011 Gems, ArtsBenicia Gallery
2010 Small Works, ArtsBenicia Gallery
2010 Summer Splendor, Blackhawk Gallery, Danville, CA
2010 Exploring the Triptych, International Encaustic Artists Juried Exhibit,
LUX Center for the Arts, Lincoln, NE
2010 5th Annual Juried Exhibit, Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes, CA (Juror: Kenneth Baker, Art Critic, San Francisco Chronicle)
2009 A Little Bit of Red Goes A Long Way, Berkeley Art Center
2009 Working in Wax, Bedford Gallery at Dean Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA
2009 Metamorphosis, Haydon Art Center, Lincoln, NE
2008 Soupcon: Small Works, ArtsBenicia Gallery
2008 Encaustic Works, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA
2008 Local Voice: Exhibit of Contra Costa Artists, Bedford Gallery
2007 Re-Newal, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato, CA
2006 West Coast Encaustic Artists Inaugural Exhibit, Mill Valley, CA
2005 Local Voice: Exhibit of Contra Costa Artists, Bedford Gallery
ACTIVITIES
2020 Donor of original artworks, Black Lives Matter Donation Challenge, GearBox Gallery
2016/17/18 Donor of original artworks, Mills College Artist Network Annual Online Auction, Mills College, Oakland, CA
2015-2019 Executive Committee, GearBox Gallery LLC, Oakland, CA
2010-2011 Co-President and Chief Empowerment Officer, International Encaustic Artists (IEA),
San Francisco, CA
2006-2011 Member, Board of Directors, IEA
2003-2013 Co-Founder and active member, Kunstanke Art Group, Bay Area, CA
EDUCATION
2000 Mills College, Oakland, California, BA with Honors in Studio Art
1984 University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, MSN: Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist
1975 Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, BS in Nursing
1970 Chipola Community College, Marianna, FL, AA in Art