I have just recently begun a new series of work with plastic forms and encaustic, but I am now using a temporary structural support material that is automatically generated in the rapid prototype machine as my primary material. Normally this plastic structure is deposited to support the warm ABS plastic until it cools within the machine. Although it took the engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Stout a great deal of time to override the logarithm that automatically creates this support material, we can now create form in this support material alone. The addition of polyurethane stiffens the form and repels moisture, important as this support material is water soluble. The open sparsing, as this box structure within the new vessel wall is called, has led me to focus this work on structures, including a use of a cooler-colored encaustic media cast in crystalline forms. With this is added thinly sliced styrofoam also embedded with encaustic. Light iridescent tinting through the use of encaustic paint, punctuated with bits of gold leaf, completes these new pieces.

Although I am still formulating ideas as to the emotional thrust behind this new work, I find these newest pieces causing me to revisit some of my early aesthetic investigations using the crucible, primarily the origins of life, metamorphosis, and ceremonial remains, but from a more scientific point of reference.