Eck Follen
Biography
Eck Follen uses encaustic painting and mixed media to create works that use color, texture, repetition, symmetry and asymmetry to explore visual ideas. Follen experiments with materials constantly- painting encaustic with shellac and then igniting it, dragging pins through thick masses of joint compound, layering on and scraping off and sanding away. Follen’s works emerge from a purely intuitive process, employing her expert instincts for color and design. The works are tactile and inviting. Smooth luminosity of the wax is complimented with rich colors and contrasted with complex textures. Follen’s encaustics are sometimes directly influenced by textile techniques—such as in her quilt series—but always evoke the elements and essence of textile work.
Eck Follen is a multi-media artist working in furniture, encaustic painting, drawing and sculpture. She holds a BA from Belhaven college, and received her MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990. Follen is a collector, finding the beauty in everyday objects such as tea boxes, antique scissors, smashed buckets, and discarded industrial materials. Her studio in Smokestack Studios in Fall River Massachusetts is lined with shelves and boxes of carefully organized collections. Studying the colors, textures, and energy of the collected objects, Follen is inspired to create works that embody the pure beauty of the objects she is drawn to. Follen has worked as an interior designer and art professor and her immersion in these fields has honed her expert sense of color and design, while still maintaing a fluency with a fine arts language. Her work has been shown at Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Fuller Craft Museum, Meuberger Museum of Art, The RISD Museum, and The Society of Arts and Crafts. She is the recipient of an NEA/NFA Regional Fellowship Award.
Exhibits
Dedee Shattuck Gallery | June 28 - July 30, 2018 | Inaugural Exhibit
Dedee Shattuck Gallery | June 4 - June 29, 2014 | Paint, Pattern, Print, Texture
Dedee Shattuck Gallery | November 29 - December 23, 2012 | Small Works, 2012
