“Pair” (2016), all images via Laura Moriarty
Self-taught artist Laura Moriarty‘s sculptural paintings appear like long lost geodes, geological mysteries layered with multi-colored rings. The asymmetrical pieces reference the earth not only in their appearance but also their process, as Moriarty heats and cools pigmented beeswax in a way that references erosion, weathering, and subduction.
“Layers of color form the strata of a methodology in which the immediacy of the hand can translate a sense of deep time,” said Moriarty in her artist statement. “Working and reworking molten, richly pigmented beeswax, I build each painting/object through a slow, simple yet strenuous physical engagement, which often becomes a metaphor for the ephemerality of life and civilization.”
Moriarty’s work is included in the group exhibition A Stratigraphic Fiction at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art in Collegeville, PA through March 19, 2017. You can see more of her work on Artspace and Instagram.
“Points of No Return” (2017)
“Eclipse” (2017)
“Heart Agate” (2016)
“Meteorites” (2016)
“Normal Faults” (2015)
“Hangover” detail (2015)