My work is about process with an emphasis on the organic properties of the materials I use and how they mimic nature and landscape.  With my encaustic paintings I use a vocabulary of techniques to create a space.  Ink and acrylic stain and bleed on the canvas creating a sketch.  The splatters and glazes of oil fluidly represent the effects of water and reflection.  Lines and gouges in the wax form trees.  Beeswax blends and diffuses creating atmosphere.  I do not render a landscape as much as I allow the materials to naturally create one.

The aluminum series developed from the same approach.  I began to notice the buildup of residue on the inside of the buckets I use to wash my brushes.  The patinas of paint created a beautiful gradation of color and texture.  Concurrent with these observations were my walks along the inlets of San Francisco Bay.  My painting studio rests on the shores of India Basin.  The low tides create patterns of kelp, and earth that blend into the tranquil waters.
I use aluminum and steel sheets so that I can work on a smooth and consistent surface.  The sheets are sanded, sometimes primed and submerged in several gallons of mineral spirits.  I pour oil paint into the solution and mix it until it is cloudy.  Over the period of several days the particles of oil color precipitate and leave sediment on the aluminum.   After the oil has completely separated from the mineral spirits I repeat the process with another color.  I will sometimes sand or manipulate the surface after the bath.  The painting is sealed with a protective finish and mounted on a wood substrate.

       I say on canvas and paper what cannot be put into words. I paint what remains in the mind.  

After many years of working in mezzotint, an engraving technique that requires precision and forethought, I am now exploring the realms of wax painting and abstract imagery.  Each image starts as a simple shape, assuming different permutations until the final image is achieved.  The encaustic process introduces me to a spontaneity that does not exist in my mezzotints.  The new work represents a passage both toward a new way of working, and perhaps more importantly, toward a new way of seeing.

I moved from Ann Arbor to San Francisco in 1976 to continue work on my MFA. I have been working in my studio at Hunters Point Shipyard since 1999. My primary media are sculpture and painting.

In 2009 and 2011, in response to an invitation to The Florence Biennale I began a body of American Artwork. I call this series AMERICAN TOTEM. I wanted to create work that gave some refection of the American experience. I began by collecting cast off American artifacts with the goal of repurposing them into large scale Totem Poles. I create these totems by welding steel armatures and stacking the discarded artifacts into AMERICAN TOTEMS. This series has been unfolding for the last two years.          

I see each TOTEM as an archeological slice of American life; a snapshot of what has been occurring in our everyday lives. That which was once abandoned and deemed irrelevant and peripheral has a new found focus and second life. I am looking at color, form and conceptually interesting combinations of objects, while recreating a new story about these bits of detritus. I use my own lens to recreate each of these works as a unique historical log of our culture, society and country.

Exhibitions include MEXICO BIENNAL 2008, Hayes Valley Market Gallery, Glen Arbor Arts Commission Gallery, Haley Martin Gallery, Somarts Gallery, Ampersand International Arts Gallery, Southern Exposure Gallery, Dakota Arts Gallery, Velcrow Gallery and Artist in Residence Glen Arbor, MI. San Francisco Travel, ARC Gallery, San Francisco. Publications include ARTWEEK, BANG, SAN FRANCISCO MAGAZINE, the books ART of NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and AMERICAN ART COLLECTOR. My work is held in collections in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and China. Installations include a major sculptural work in the THEMIS CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS and two major sculpture commissions for the Moore Foundation in Palo Alto. My original art book Samantha Ray is in the permanent library of The Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Creating sculpture is like capturing the energy from released from collisions of form and space. It is the sense of emerging, converging, containment and transitioning of energy through three dimensions that creates feeling and reaction in the viewer; it is through control of balance, flow, tension, negative space and implied movement that a different energy within each sculpture is cultivated. My work incessantly explores the interaction of spaces and forms on one another and the changing energies and emotional impacts that result.

My current photographic work comprises several different strains. I have shot a series of works in the ruins of Hunters Point Shipyard that depict the slow decay of the abandoned industrial site, and have published a book of these photos, Shiyard, Dust and Memories: Photographs of Hunters Point Shipyard.  This work represents the start of my return to photography using digital processes, after many years of work as a metal sculptor, work which I continue to explore.

My other major strain of photographic work involves shooting urban imagery in New York City and San Francisco. I seek to capture the fleeting moments of life in the city, the blink-of-an-eye capture that freezes a unique moment in time in the life of the city. Much of this work is processed as black and white imagery.

My recent series of works on paper combines several different ingredients:  the leaves and flowers in my garden and nearby, abstract compositions which sometimes  incorporate objects lying around the house, and monotype prints.  I use a mixed-media and layered technique starting with a background wash of acrylics, followed by a stenciled layer, then a final layer of color pencils and/or Prismacolor art stix to render the leaves and other motifs.  

Aaron Vonk is a Canadian-American who lives and works in San Francisco. Aaron's art reflects his current outlook on life--sometimes it's dark and sometimes it's joyful and full of light. Aaron sees art as a way of life and has been drawing and sculpting since he was a child. He thinks in terms of images: Whenever he wants to describe or explain something, he grabs a pen and starts drawing to illustrate his meaning.