Encaustic photographer Dana Patterson Roth speaks with the trees

Photographer Dana Patterson Roth invoked a paraphrased passage from author Fyodor Dostoevsky in explaining why trees are the subject of her latest show: “I don’t know how one can walk by a tree and not be happy at the sight of it.”

For Roth, that includes barren trees.

“I’m attracted especially to the winter trees where their deciduous trees have dropped all their leaves, or even trees that are dead and they’re still standing,” Roth said. “Because it’s kind of like older people when they’re aging, you get stripped down to the basics. And you can really see the character or the flaws.”

To give the subjects in her photos even more character, Roth bathes them in beeswax and pigments — a process called encaustic photography.

Her 13-piece encaustic photography collection, “Dana Patterson Roth: The Language of Trees,” will be on display at the Wild Hearts Gallery through Sept. 28.

Roth, a photographer since she picked up a camera at age 5, dove into the world of encaustic photography during the pandemic.

“I just loved the texture of it, the feeling, the fact that I could start with one of my photographs and add to it, and whatever I wanted,” she said.

To create her encaustic pieces, Roth first glues her photograph to a canvas, then adds layers of beeswax and pigments.

“In the case of this show, I’m softening the backgrounds with some gray or white pigment. And typically for that, I might use a dry pigment,” Roth said. “And each time I add something like a pigment, I’d have to fuse it in because I want it to sink into the previous layer.”

Each piece is textured.

“One thing that I love about this process is that it creates a texture, and so it’s good to get close and to look at it, and it’s even tactile,” Roth said. “And people are afraid to touch it, but I’m like, oh, no, you can.”

In the show are a mix of color and black-and-white pieces. The photos include older and newer images from around New Mexico, as well as photos she took on a trip to Chicago.

Roth said the encaustic process allows her to come back to older photos and emphasize certain areas.

For example, she said a photo of trees in the Bosque didn’t work, “until I was able to do it as encaustic and sort of make the background trees fade out a little and kind of concentrate on the front tree.”

Roth said while some people focus on clouds in outdoor photography, she finds trees and grass speaking to her.

“It just feels like trees communicate with each other and with us, in some ways,” Roth said. “And I just, I kind of wanted to honor that communication that trees had. That they do have a language.”