What was the deciding factor to become an artist?

"My father was an artist, albeit a traditional one. He made beautiful ship models, seascape paintings and drawings of animals, so we bonded over creating art. My grandfather put a pencil in my hand when I was two years old and showed me how to draw stick figures. I was hooked from then on"

How were you trained as an artist?

"I had one year of formal training at Purchase College in the fine arts department, but other than that, I'm self taught. I took a workshop in encaustic painting to learn about my present medium"

Lori Field, 'Blissful Ignorance'

What present medium/s do you use to create your artwork/ what is your technique?

"I guess you would call me a mixed medium and encaustic painter for the most part, although I do also do silverpoint drawings and colored pencil drawings on slate with or without gold leaf. For the encaustic work, which is predominantly drawing based, I first draw figures with prismacolor pencils on to rice paper. I draw separate elements, so that I have lots of heads, bodies, hats, flowers etc. on hand. Then, I cut out the drawings and set them aside. I paint an elaborate encaustic panel as a background, adding small collage elements, and pieces of feathers, lace, fabric, glitter, whatever feels like inspiration. Next, I take the drawings out and spread them on the floor of my studio and place various combinations of heads, bodies and other figures onto the background to see what works best. It is intuitive and so much fun, like a game of paper dolls. Once I've found a grouping of figures and all their accoutrements that goes with that background I go back to my heated palette and melt beeswax or encaustic medium to soak each of the drawings in. After the drawings are coated with the clear wax, I go back into them and add sewn elements if I like, often with a red lurex thread to indicate tattoo like markings or a heartbeat. I place the drawings in position on the background, turn on my heat gun and heat and press the drawings into place, carefully pressing them down to avoid air bubbles and to get a great bond, wax to wax with the background. Next step after that, heating up a big vat of encaustic medium (beeswax and resin) and when melted, pouring it over the whole background and drawings and then setting it aside to cool. If I'm lucky, I can get the effect I want with one pour, but much more likely, I wait until the whole piece cools, and then scrape back some of the wax top coat to reveal the drawings more underneath. I have to be very careful at this point not to scrape too much to tear the thin drawings underneath. Since most of my paintings have 2" sides, and are not framed, I often repeat all of the above process to embellish and finish the sides as well. So, all in all, a very satisfying and labor intensive process."

Is there any specific meaning or conceptual reasons you work in the medium you use?

"I love the layers that can be achieved with encaustic paintings. They can have as many as five to six layers of things going on, which are really very interesting when you see the work in person. I kind of think this quality in the medium lends itself to the already mysterious subject matter I'm incorporating."

Lori Field, 'Chick Magnet'

What contemporary event do you feel most inspires your work?

"? I'm a news junkie so I'm very tuned in to world events at all times. I think I'm particularly affected and responding to stories about the human dilemmas and challenges taking part all over the world. No single contemporary event inspires me, just the collective and individual human condition."

) Is your work in any way driven by political events?

"Yes, many times I will do a piece as a response to a particular event that has political and social ramifications. For instance, my little piece, The Red Queen was a direct response to my feelings of helplessness over what happened to the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."

What kind of emotions /feelings/ questions do you want a viewer to leave your work with?

"Runs the gamut, but if I had to distill down what my work is about, its the concept of vulerability, the fragility of the human species, the fragility of life, a sense of wonder in the face of it all."

How do you feel you break from other representational artwork?

"I really feel that I've established a very personal iconography and mythological cast of characters uniquely my own and have sort of reinvented the medium I use as well. I don't know of any other encaustic artist who uses the exact process I use. I kind of made it up as I went along. I draw realistically, but with a distinctly surreal or symbolist bent. Recently someone called my work 'Rococo Surreal'. I liked that"

Lori Field, 'Go Fly A Kite'

What figure and or artist do you feel you are most inspired by?

"Two artists who have had the most influence on me are Kiki Smith and Henry Darger."

How do you develop or come up with the ideas that drive your work?

"Ripped from the headlines or reflecting upon personal psychological narratives and events"

Do you have any specific directions that you either are planning to take or are going to take with your artwork?

"I am working large now for my show coming up at Claire Oliver Gallery in September 2010. The large format paintings are really freeing, in that I can get more obsessive, can include lots more detail, further develop on the abstract backgrounds and develop a great relationship between foreground figures and the background. I am loving the large sizes and all the possibilities. I'm contemplating working on some large scale stop motion animation projections of some of my figures in future too."

What important advice would you give to your students or a young aspiring artist?

"The corny saying 'Do what you love and the rest will follow' really does apply. Be willing to work very hard (for practically no money in the beginning). Be nice, helpful, and open with other artists, they can be your best inspirations, critics, and collaborators. Don't be an art snob."