Arleigh Wood

Arleigh Wood combines a love of rich textures and surfaces with a minimalist aesthetic. Encaustic, acrylics, oils, collage, etching on metal and found objects are unified in multi-layered compositions. She uses simplified images of such symbols as crows, circles, bamboo and feathers -- literal extensions of her environment -- to communicate her interest in the spiritual underpinnings of urban life. The pictures are manipulated in ways that emphasize contemplation and meditation.

In her Balancing Series Wood uses bamboo, a staple material in Japan, to explore the emotional and literal qualities of strength, flexibility, purity and beauty. “In the careful and considered placement of each element in my compositions, my images reflect both my Japanese roots and my British ancestry. I seek to create metaphors for the Zen qualities of tranquility, simplicity and living in the moment, and to be guileless in my presentation of self. I strive for a sense of relaxed precision.”

From the dozens of objects Wood collects, she has distilled a few special symbols that are recycled and re-framed throughout different series. The circles can be seen as Wood’s search for a continuum of perfection, and the shadows as reflections of our presence, unwittingly left behind. The crow represents the artist and “everyman” who labors to survive in the contemporary environment. Leaves, twigs and stones embody the persistence of the natural world even in this urban core. Wood’s artwork in this sense is literally an extension of its environment.

Arleigh Wood studied at Concordia University in Montreal and the University of Hertfordshire in St Albans UK, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors. Wood has participated extensively in national and international exhibitions. Her work is in private and corporate collections. When she is not working in her studio, Wood enjoys spending time with family and friends, fast-paced urban explorations and peaceful natural escapes.

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