The Sublime - Modernist Encaustic

Catherine Nash no doubt, is a Romantic; but don’t be wrong, being a Romantic is not a simple label…

Being a Romantic is much more than the choice of subject, is a way of feeling, a way of understanding curiosity, intuition and instinct, is a way of fighting for harmony in a hostile and changing world.

Being a Romantic is being visionary and imaginative, being individual and subjective, more concerned with feeling and emotions than with form. Being a Romantic is not but being in constant reinterpretation of the Sublime…

I am aware that to categorize an artist is always a challenge, but this time I can assure you that Catherine is a Romantic (and I can prove it):

Her paintings are Romantic

Her paintings offer a very personal introspective response to the outside world..

Her landscapes remind me very much those of the German Romantic hero, Caspar David Friedrich. Catherine, as Friedrich, expresses in her paintings what others leave to poetry or music.

Her assemblages are Romantic

Her assemblages are not but her own’s portable world, full of secret drawers and folds in memory.

Her luggage for the uniqueness

Her vessels are Romantic

In her beautiful vessels compositions I see the Romantic theme of shipwrecks, the fight between the inferiority of man and the raging elements, the eternal theme of defeat and hope .

Her “Sanctuary” reminds me very much of “Das Eismeer”, apotheosis of the shipwreck theme.

And… even her webpage is Romantic!

When you surf her web you feel like rummaging little secret drawers full of timeless precious objects and notes.

Conclusion?

Catherine Nash is a full-time Romantic

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PS: And you know what? Being a Romantic is contagious

After being her student and roommate in Holland I also somehow caught a little of her overwhelming spirit and enthusiasm for handmade paper. Her creative freedom and challenging breaking of rules gave me back the faith in beauty, now in the 21st Century…when we hardly have faith in anything. Thank you Catherine.