I am inspired by open landscapes, it is very specific. I make small women and landscapes out of beeswax. These go up on risers or right on the floor in a gallery installation. One day, in the wee hours of the morning these beeswax landscapes turned into beeswax quilts. These quilts honor my cultural heritage in Northern Quebec.
I came to work with wax through lost-wax casting. I have been making sculpture with beeswax for a while, and I used to mix in different color pigments with the beeswax. But, the color of beeswax is quite illusive and indescribable and I fell in love with the saturated yellows, oranges, and browns. I also began to realize that each batch of wax was a different shade, sometimes subtle and other times dramatically different. I wanted to show this beauty to people, and so I thought “Beeswax quilts, of course!”
Jehanne Hale
2010