about austine
Austine Wood Comarow invented the art of Polage and has been creating it since
1967.
 BACKGROUND
Austine Wood-Comarow was born in Kentucky and raised in Geneva, Switzerland,
the daughter of a high United Nations official. There she attended International School of Geneva, and then
Swarthmore College and Indiana University. She developed the medium of Polage in 1967 and had her first major show
in the Museo de Belles Artes in Santiago, Chile, in 1973.
"My father worked for the United Nations and I went to the International School where my classmates were of 20 different
nationalities. This gave me a sense of 'world view' at an early age. It was a momentous event in my life when the
astronauts showed us the view of the earth from space in 1969. I think that was the most important positive image of
the century."
"Rather than depict a static scene,
I want my art to evoke a response, to give people something that will remind them of what gives them balance in life."
 ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"I began developing Polage (polarized light collage) in 1967. It consists of layers of clear cellulose sandwiched
between two polarizing filters. Polarizing filter is used in Polaroid sunglasses, polarizing filters for camera lenses
and in liquid crystal displays. Very few people are aware of the phenomenon which occurs when certain 'birefringent'
materials such as cellulose, mica, stressed plastics and sugar solutions are viewed between two polarizing filters. White
light, as it passes through, becomes separated by wavelength (color). I am able to control the color in my Polage artworks
by the thickness and orientation of all the tiny little pieces of cellulose which make up the image. "I work with a razor knife at a light table, cutting out the hundreds of small shapes of clear cellulose which make up the painting. I wear polarizing sun glasses in order to see the image which is colorless until completed. Then it is
framed in a light box containing a rotating polarizing filter. The finished Polage is alive. It glows and the
colors appear to flow as it cycles through it's multiple views. It is moving, changing stained glass.
Polage is a medium for the 21st Century: stained glass meets the video screen. "My work is collected by individuals for homes and offices as well as commissioned for public spaces by Museums and Science Centers.
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