The Ink Blot Test

The Ink Blots are encaustic (natural beeswax) paintings on birch board. Coprinus mushrooms (shaggy mane) are collected and left in jars until they produce “ink.” The ink is then boiled and strained and applied like paint.

Based on Freud’s Rorschach tests, these images open the mind to see beyond the literal image. The “ink blot” series invites the viewer to interpret the art through a psychological and subconscious lens.

The idea of interpreting "ambiguous designs" to assess an individual's personality goes back to Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Freud later developed the Rorschach test, as the first systematic approach to allowing unconscious material from a patient to arise when describing abstract images.