Penny Pollock is an encaustic artist who thrives in the light of spirit, hope, and new beginnings. Her chosen medium merges her history of working in fashion with textiles and shapes, and her love for the world and spirit of those around her.
Pollock was born and raised in the coastal town of Rye, New York. With a high-profile model for a mom and a stepmother working on the retail side of fashion, Pollock becoming a designer and working in fashion was in her blood. After studying a few semesters of art at the University of Denver, Pollock decided she needed to experience more culture, more life. She decided to expand her studies at a fashion design school in Europe.
“I have always loved kids and loved animals so, first of all, I said I’m just going to do freelance styling for kids because nobody does it,” Pollock said. “And so I worked a lot with Hershey; I worked with McDonald’s. Then I became head of licensing for Barbie and became a fashion director for a Barbie magazine that we started. It was great fun and I loved it.”
Her love for travel fueled her drive to learn more about indigenous cultures. She began collecting bits and pieces of tribal art created by the Maasai of East Africa, the Berber tribes of the Sahara, and the woven and embroidered fabrics of India and Bhutan. Her collection of exotic jewelry, artifacts, relics, and spiritual talismans are ever-present themes in her work.
Encaustic art materials are beeswax, paint pigments, and tree resin— a technique developed by the ancient Greeks. Some of these historical paintings are displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, surviving over 2,500 years. Pollock’s use of this age-old method of painting started as a fascination with the technique and quickly became a tool with which she could infuse antique book pages, dried botanicals, and fine pieces of cloth woven into her art. The layering of story, animal, symbols, spirit, and joy are what deepen Penny’s work and make it more than just the obvious canvas full of fun.
“Cherish all I see, feel, touch, taste, smell and experience…for it is all a gift …the mess and the goodness.”
**Artwork shown below may not reflect all that is available. Please email the gallery with inquiries at thegallery@shuptrines.com
