Although Lori DiPasquale has been creating beautiful things around Colorado Springs for more than 30 years, for a long time she didn’t really consider herself an artist. DiPasquale originally studied psychology but took an art history class near the end of college that sparked her curiosity. She developed an interest in decorative painting, eventually studying in New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Italy.
Since then, her work has made its way into private homes and some familiar Colorado Springs spaces, including The Broadmoor hotel and since-shuttered Kimball’s Peak Three Theater. DiPasquale especially loves her work at The Broadmoor, where her knowledge of Old World painting techniques allowed her to help restore and refresh parts of the historic resort. One memorable project was redoing its Penrose Room restaurant in a silver leaf decorative technique.
DiPasquale jokes that she keeps thinking each project will be her “swan song” before another one comes along that she can’t pass up. For years, though, she thought of decorative painting as her job—not necessarily her art. Over time, she began to realize just how much artistry was involved in the work she had been doing all along. It also made her want to keep exploring. That curiosity led her to encaustics, and she was hooked.
“I love encaustics,” she says. “It’s a practice in letting go.”
Encaustic art combines pigment and wax, using heat to melt and fuse the layers together. DiPasquale loves the depth, texture and color she can create, but she also loves that she can’t completely control it. She might love one part of a piece, hit it with the heat gun, and—poof—it changes. Instead of fighting it, she has learned to see where it goes. Often times what appears next is even better.
DiPasquale’s work can be abstract and full of color and texture, or a little more playful, incorporating things like thread or pieces of a broken vase. Inspiration comes from everyday people, animals and nature, but music and lyrics are especially important to her. Sometimes a single line from a song is enough to get an idea started.
One is bound to wonder, whom would she invite into her studio if she could choose any guest? After giving it some thought, DiPasquale lands on George Harrison, saying she would have loved to meet the “quiet Beatle” whose lyrics have always touched her heart.
DiPasquale believes that art isn’t about someone looking at one of her pieces and thinking it’s pretty. She wants them to pause. Remember something. Feel something. She wants people to “feel art and not just look at it.” One of her treasured pieces, “Dancing Light and Shadows,” was inspired by a poem. Once she stopped overthinking it, the painting simply came to her. It reminded her that sometimes, the best thing she can do is get out of her own way and create.
DiPasquale isn’t sure what her art will look like years from now, but she knows that she wants to keep painting, experimenting and pushing the mediums she already loves a little further. Because sometimes, just like with the wax, you have to let go and let the art take over.
For more on Lori DiPasquale, visit dipasqualedesigns.com
“I love encaustics,” DiPasquale says. “It’s a practice in letting go.”