Art in Autumn at Artisans on Main: Denby Dale

Denby Dale | Encaustic Art

Denby Dale from Weaverville, NC will be showcasing her work for the upcoming Art in Autumn festival at Artisans on Main. In what will be the 11th anniversary of the festival, visitors and locals alike will stroll down Main Street this September to experience all that the area’s artisans have in store!

11th Annual Art in Autumn Arts & Crafts Festival

Saturday, September 16, 2017, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Main Street in downtown Weaverville, NC, located 7 miles from downtown Asheville. Learn more about the event here.

Denby Dale is a mixed media artist working primarily in encaustic, cold wax and oils. She also creates small format mixed media assemblages, framed in pewter and sealed in resin.

White Noise, Cubed Encaustic, bb's, mesh, metal on panel 24" x 24"

Although her larger works are two dimensional, they often feature three dimensional sculptural elements that taunt the viewer with the suggestion of another layer,plane or surface of perspective – be it obscured or exposed – exploring the notion that not all is revealed or understood upon first blush or experience. Her small assemblage work relies on the careful calibration of seemingly disparate elements and objects to create a narrative of sorts. Her work in abstraction explores the juxtaposition of the organic and linear, the sparse and saturated, as well as the minimalistic aesthetic of subtle variation within repetition and pattern.

Denby moved to the WNC area in 2011, seeking a change from New England. She maintains a studio in Weaverville, NC and currently shows her work at Artisans on Main and Contemporaneo Asheville. Please see some questions we asked her below!

Your work has incredible detail! There seems to be a story with each piece as the viewer is invited to take a closer look, and then an even closer look at all the details. Can you describe your process and the materials you use?

Denby Dale D2 Fixed Objects

Each of my small assemblages has a pewter base and frame, be it a belt buckle or my new 4” x 6” plaques. The integrity of the pewter provides a solid foundation for building and housing the design. I use all manner of papers, ephemera, postage stamps, maps, small grommets, brads, miscellaneous bits of metal and hardware, wire, thread, seed beads, bb’s and more. Pretty much any structural or design element I think will work in a small format and inform a future design. I try to always have as many visual resources as possible at my disposal, in order to generate ideas and options for future designs.This means amassing a collection of stamps, maps, papers, graphics etc. to mull over as I start new projects. When I start a new batch of pieces, I have much to choose from and get whims based on the stock I have accumulated.

Denby Dale | Encoustic Art Pieces I might suddenly zero in on images I have had for many years, or ones I just found. I find doing a sequence of 3 or 4 like minded themes works best. Such as – now I will do a series based on cool Japanese postage stamps, or now a series based on the London Underground map. That way I can volley among several works with a cohesive theme, and produce a mini series of pieces. Having those options helps keep the work stimulating and hopefully well rounded in content.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Solving puzzles! This is what these pieces are really about for me creatively, and what drives the process.

Pewter. Objects. Resin In a wearable, traveling frame. The content varies, always. But the end goal is to find a way to reconcile how the piece starts – with one element – and how it can be solved to be something greater than it’s initial parts. In terms of content, I enjoy playing with master artist inspired postage stamps, unusual graphics (drawings of victorian era children’s clothing, for instance), maps, papers and prints.

Be sure to drop by to experience Denby Dale’s incredible work in person!

Artisans on Main | 14 N. Main St | Weaverville, NC | Facebook