Encaustic Issues

By Joanne Mattera 
Updated January 27, 2014
Updated June 20, 2014.

Everyone, it seems, is painting with encaustic. Logic would tell us that the number of artists working with wax is actually far less than those who work with oil or acrylic, yet in our encaustic community it certainly feels as if the world has gone waxy.  As with any medium, practitioners come in three basic flavors: artists, craftmakers, and hobbyists. While there is some overlap between and among the categories, I think this breakdown is a useful construct. Further, it is worth noting that the encaustic community has been relatively nonhierarchical in the way these three groups come together around their involvement with the medium of wax. Yet serious practitioners, myself included, are beginning to feel the ramifications of “encaustic art,” a catch-all term that can best be defined as long on technique but short on concept. This essay and others in this blog are intended as tools for discussion.

Art

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“I regard my use of encaustic

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not as giving me membership into

the cult of a special art medium, .

but rather giving me a new approach

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to my longtime painting concerns.”

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—Peter Flaccus in The Art of Encaustic Painting

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Like Peter Flaccus and others, I am a painter focused on the art of encaustic painting. My cohort went to art school. We have a history of working in other mediums—and some of us still do—but we have found that wax or encaustic provides the most cogent means for our expression. In the studio, the dialog is between the artist and the art; beyond the studio practice, there is the discourse within contemporary art. We may work in isolation, but our creative effort has a relationship to what has come before and what is happening now. By before I don’t mean the Fayum paintings necessarily—romantic as that notion is—but art history in general; our effort is part of a continuum. By now I mean conceptually how our efforts fit into the larger picture and professionally how we find or create a place for ourselves in that picture.

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That larger picture includes exhibiting in galleries and art museums, or art centers and academic galleries; having our work seriously collected (as opposed to “Sold!” in the parlance of Facebook); engaging in discourse via critique, critical writing, and community discussion; and if we teach, teaching in a way that integrates how with why, what and what if.

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It’s an unusual artist who arrives at this point self taught. It’s possible—indeed a few of our best-known artist/teachers do not hold degrees—but it is unusual and comes as a result of years of practice. Art school may not teach one to be a great artist, but it does—through instruction, example, and the experience of the studio—help students become artists by seeing observantly, spatially and compositionally; by thinking critically;  by understanding the connection between material and expression, and by articulating their intent. Artists who have learned in this way tend to teach others this way. Artists teach others to be artists. So while some artists have not gone to art school, if they have learned well otherwise, they are able to pass on that learning if they choose to teach.

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Professionals make art without qualification. They keep the encaustic in their work but drop it from their description; it is their medium, not their message. If you want your work to be taken seriously, engage in some good critical dialog about it with professionals who are equipped to help you move your work forward. You should not be involved with groups that cater to hobbyists. You should not be showing with crafters and hobbyists. Aim higher, even if the results are less than positive in your initial attempts. The safety of a show where everyone gets in is not where you should be. Competition is healthy. It makes you grow.
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David A. Clark, commenting on a Facebook thread, says this clearly: "The choices we make are what define us."

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Art is Sustained by the Efforts of Many.

. R&F Handmade Paints, founded by Richard Frumess and now run in concert with Jim Haskin and Darin Seim, has been the touchstone in our community for art, technique and, of course, materials.  In terms of art, Encaustic Works, the company’s series of gallery- and museum-situated biennials, culminated recently in a book, Encaustic Works 2012, a new direction for the biennial’s format. The Gallery at R&F, directed by Laura Moriarty, dialogues not only with the encaustic community but with the larger art community—both in Kingston, New York, where it is located, and in cyberspace, where there are no geographic boundaries. Through a Visiting Artist program, workshops are taught by acknowledged masters of the medium who are also respected for their creative vision; to underscore that connection, visiting artists are typically given a concurrent solo exhibition in the R&F Gallery.

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. Conrad Wilde Gallery, owned and directed by Miles Conrad, features an annual Encaustic Invitational accompanied by a handsome catalog.  The exhibition, which just celebrated its seventh iteration, has drawn artists to the gallery’s Tucson location to celebrate artistic achievement rather than technique. Through participation at art fairs in Los Angeles, Miami and New York City, the gallery presents work in a variety of media by its artists, thus moving encaustic out of a comfortable ghetto and into a broader, more competitive arena. Indeed, David Cohen, writing about the Miami art fairs in December 2011 in Artcritical.com, noted approvingly of “the funky abstractionist stable of Conrad Wilde Gallery.” Conrad recently received an MFA. He also teaches, and he maintains a specialty paint company, Miles Conrad Encaustics.

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. Evans Encaustics, owned and operated by Hylla Evans, annually invites one nationally known artist to present a Master Class at the company’s Sonoma studio. Evans has recently begun a series of blog posts based around chromatic issues. The idea, in both the classes and the blog posts, is to engender thinking about the art of the work, even while acknowledging the importance of material and technique.

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. The International Encaustic Conference, which I founded and now co-produce with Cherie Mittenthal and Truro Center for the Arts on Cape Cod, offers demonstrations and workshops by degreed artists, by those teaching at the university level, or by those who have significant teaching and exhibition experience, in a program that places strong emphasis on the cultural, historical and contemporary applications of encaustic, along with professional development. I like to say that you may arrive an “encaustic artist” but you will leave “an artist”—or at least with your options more fully articulated.

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. There are other organizations, such as the Encaustic Art Institute and International Encaustic Artists. Membership based, they cater to a range of constituents, from serious practitioners to hobbyists.
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Art is Sustained by Books, Videos, E-media

. The Art of Encaustic Painting (Watson-Guptill, 2001), the first commercially published volume on the topic in half a century, is now regarded as the community ”bible.”  While the publisher wanted a straight how-to, I delivered a volume that offered as much in historical information and contemporary inspiration as technical information. My idea was to show the who and what with just enough how to get artists engaged (and keep the publisher satisfied). It is still in print.

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. Paula Roland’s Encaustic Monotypes: Painterly Prints with Heat and Wax (Studio Galli Films, 2010) is the video source for printing with wax. The title, which strategically places “painterly” before the “wax,” tells you what you need to know about the artist’s priorities. Roland, who studied with Dorothy Furlong Gardner, has been the contemporary impetus behind the encaustic monotype movement. Through her work, she is a role model for what is possible creatively in the medium.

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. Encaustic with a Textile Sensibility (Waxy Buildup Press, 2010), Daniella Woolf’s self-published book, considers the crosscurrents between wax and fiber. This book can be found on the desks of dealers and curators, though Woolf seems to have taken a more craft-oriented direction with a recent commercial publication (see next section).

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. Table of Contents, is Laura Moriarty’s newly published volume. Moriarty takes a scholarly approach to her oeuvre, placing it into the context of science—and anyone familiar with her work can see the connection to geology and land-based art. Moriarty funded this book through USA Projects (indeed, helping her reach her monetary goal became something of a community project). In addition to being an inspiring piece of artwork in its own right, the book is a reminder to artists that self publishing is possible; that through funding it is attainable; and that through a strong online network, both visibility and sales are likely. I expect we will see more scholarly monographs and catalogs raisonnés by artists, inspired largely by this work.

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. Authentic Visual Voices, Catherine Nash’s just-published volume, extends into an e-format the lecturing she has done on her prodigious research, which is an examination of the art and artists working at the nexus of two tangible mediums.

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. Encaustic Arts Magazine, produced by the Encaustic Art Institute in New Mexico, is an online publication that invites artists to write about their work and provides a magazine format for the content. While I feel the editorial point of view has yet to be fully refined, the magazine is one of just a handful that offers online editorial.

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. Relatedly, Evans Encaustics and R&F produce blogs, and there are a number of artists’ blogs that address studio issues as well as painting and sculpture. You will find a list of live links on the Encaustic Conference blog. Several (out of many) I could mention:

. Jhina Alvarado’s Rising Artist

. Lynette Haggard’s Artist Interviews and News

. Alexandre Masino’s self-titled blog

. Nancy Natale’s Art in the Studio

. Lisa Pressman Art Blog

. My own Joanne Mattera Art Blog which addresses encaustic only occasionally, as I wish to look at the art world more broadly

. ProWax Journal is a new bimonthly whose first issue was published in September 2013 by the ProWax collective, a group of professional painters, printmakers and sculptors, who have come together, largely online (after meeting annually at the International Encaustic Conference) to discuss issues of encaustic in our own practice and in the larger encaustic community. Maritza Ruiz-Kim is the editor.

. The conventional art magazines, Art in America, Art News, Modern Painter, report on and review art in all mediums, including wax.

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. A host of monographs and catalogs, produced by artists themselves or under the aegis of an academic venue or commercial gallery, are available. Several to mention are by Linda Cordner, Howard Hersh, Supria Karmakar (with Milisa Galazzi and Sarah Rehmer), Catherine Nash, Nancy Natale, Sherrie Posternak, Elise Wagner, Gregory Wright and others, which continue the discussion in word or image.

Update, January 2014: ProWax Journal, edited by Maritza Ruiz-Kim and produced by members of ProWax, an online collective of 130 painters, printmakers, sculptors, gallerists, curators, and journalists with a professional involvement with wax, publishes its first issue in September 2013

The Weight: Dealing with the Issue of "Encaustic Art" in Issue 2 continues some of the themes discusses in this essay

Update, June 2014: In an effort to acknowledge the longtime efforts of artists working in encaustic--artists of recognized achievement who are gallery represented, museum exhibited and journalistically reviewed--and to begin to establish a contemporay history in the medium, I organized a Conference 8 panel, The Roots of Contemporary Encaustic. Participants were Dan Addington, Heather Hutchison, Tremain Smith, Joan Stuart Ross and myself.

Here's a link to the participants and their work, as well as links to those artists whose work they discussed--a good primer on the topic of art in the medium of encaustic.

Screengrab from the Conference blog

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Craft

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“Where many "craft mediums" toe

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the line of form vs function,

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encaustic may lean to "craft" in

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relation to one’s purpose, dedication

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and execution. Where encaustic does

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not touch on functionality as

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ceramics and metalsmithing do, it can

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be consumed by the novelty of technique.”

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—Krista Svalbonas, artist, on Facebook
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Some encaustic practitioners prefer to remain in the relatively more cozy sphere of craft. Here, the making of the work, as well as the materials of the making, assume primacy. The conceptual focus is not so much the idea as the process, not so much the expression as the object. I make no value judgment in distinguishing art from craft—that distinction is often difficult to make and indeed there are distinctions between fine craft and hobby craft—but I would underscore this discussion by saying that craft has as long and valued a tradition as art.  

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Hey, not everyone wants to endure the rigors of an MFA program, or even the often financially unrewarding career choice of the studio artist with or without degree. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands into stuff in a contemplative and creatively rewarding way. And it’s entirely possible that having learned the technical basics—the craft of the medium—some students will make the leap to a more professionally rigorous practice.  

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There are as many art crafters in this category as there are hobby crafters. Collage is crafty. Yet consider that Jasper Johns has employed the technique in much of his oeuvre. Transfer prints are crafty. Yet consider that for Robert Rauschenberg they were a staple, along with his use of fabric. Fiber is crafty. Yet Louise Bourgeois incorporated stitching and fabric into her work. On the other hand, “encaustic art” is long on technique but short on concept, and often derivative. So it’s not the technique or the medium that defines art or craft but the intent. When the emphasis in on the how rather than on the why, it aligns with craft. 

Let me bring in another voice here, that of Laura Moriarty, whom most in this community know as a widely exhibited artist, respected teacher, and  director of the Gallery at R&F: "Traditional craft is widely understood as material-based, and typically involves paper, wood, metal, clay, fiber and glass, and functionality is a primary concern. Often, it is the question of form vs function that elevates Craft to the status of Art. Wax, as a terrific integrating medium, plays well into this tradition (and it instantly makes functional objects non-functional!). Craft, like art, is not simply about making, but it does often privilege that process."

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While I would hate for an ensuing discussion to center on art vs craft, since the larger issue is art vis a vis encaustic art, the art-or-craft dilemma may solved in part by the declaration of the maker. In large measure you’re an artist by claiming the title and placing your work in an art context. Repeating Clark's comment is valuable here: "The choices we make are what define us."
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However, we are all subject to the outside opinion--that of the dealer, juror, critic and curator--for our career aspirations may be advanced or thwarted by their response to our efforts. In this context Justice Potter Stewart’s famous remark about pornography can be translated to the subject of art-or-craft: “I know it when I see it.”  

  

Craft or the More Hobby-based “Encaustic art” is Sustained by . . .

books and videos such as the following. All are project based or how-to focused, allowing an artist to concentrate on technique. Some artists will use those techniques to develop their craft while others will learn enough technique to go on to express larger ideas. In general the craft-based books do not address the issue of studio practice.

. Embracing Encaustic (Hive Press, 2007), a self-publishing effort by Linda and Bill Womack
. Encaustic Art (Watson Guptill, 2010), by Lisa Rankin 
. The Encaustic Studio (Interweave Press, 2012), by Daniella Woolf; includes a DVD

. Encaustic Workshop (FW Publications, 2009), by Patricia Seggebruch

. Periodicals such as Cloth, Paper, Scissors, deliver articles for a readership of makers, including those who work with encaustic
. More seriously, within the craft category are many publications that draw freely from the worlds of art and craft. American Craft, Surface Design Journal, and the late Fiberarts have all featured work by artists whose work is encaustic as well as by “encaustic artists” whose work is craft based or hobby focused.

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Hobby

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“What’s with all the ‘encaustic

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art’ I’m seeing lately? The work is

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derivative and has no edge, no

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je ne sais quoi. These people have

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no business submitting work. They are

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not ready for gallery representation.”

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—New York dealer who asked to remain anonymous 

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“The new wave of encaustic has definitely opened the door for the crafters and hobbyists,” notes Marie-Claude Allen, an artist participating in a Facebook discussion about the teaching of encaustic. 

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Hobbyists are amateurs. Again, no value judgment is intended. Amateur—from the French “lover of”— aptly describes the person who is enamored of the materials, who loves to make, loves to experiment. A hobby does not require critical thinking, just a love of medium and process.

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If you’re a hobbyist, go ahead and make “encaustic art.”  Show in venues where you feel comfortable—art centers, organizationally sponsored exhibitions, medium-specific shows—where you don’t have to discuss or defend your work. If you’re a hobbyist, making art should be fun.  However—and here’s a value judgment—you are not ready for the closeup of serious scrutiny. You should not expect to be showing with professionals.
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In my opinion, one of the reasons so many hobbyists are proceeding with an unrealistic sense of their talent is that they are showing in mixed-level organizations where all-member exhibitions let everyone in, or are being juried by artist members who either don't have the critical ability to select from a pile of submissions or who are eager to keep members happy by including their work.
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Hobbyists: Find your peers and exhibit with them in modest venues where the limited expression of  “encaustic art” will not impact the efforts of serious artists. Should you be teaching? I would say no.  

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Can you make the leap from hobby to art?  With study and ambition, with critical thinking, and—equally important— with those Gladwellian 10,000 hours of application to your endeavor, it’s possible. But your reliance on technique—important as technique is—will have to broaden to include a greater understanding of the context in which you are working, the relationship of your work to the dialog of contemporary art.  

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Here’s Dorothy Cochran, corporate gallery director, professional studio artist and popular teacher: I insist on the standards of best practices in my classes and workshops so there is no question that craft and technique are at the highest level. While I have no control over who signs up to study with me, I do have total control over what and how I present the material. I have known occasions where the hobbyist has jumped to the next level and further."

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Teaching Encaustic

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“There is a huge financial

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potential in teaching encaustic.

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It's what's currently hot, and

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the price of classes are an

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incentive to folks to jump into

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an arena they aren't qualified for.”

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—Colleen Patricia Williams, artist, on Facebook  

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Don’t I know it! A few years ago I got a call from a woman imploring me to tell her “everything I need to know about encaustic.” Why? I asked. “I'm teaching an intro class next week." 

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Williams’s point and mine jibe with a comment on the same Facebook thread by Allyson Sanburn Malek: “Although I do not consider myself a teacher, I agreed to teach an artist friend one-on-one. I was appalled to learn she later "taught" an encaustic class in her home based on our one day in the studio. There was no way she was qualified to do so, and god knows what she shared.” We have all heard—or experienced—some version of this story. 

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Who’s Teaching?

Crafters and hobbyists are fortunate to have access to top-quality paint and panels for their projects. Indeed one of the things the encaustic community has done for all its practitioners is to make those at all levels aware of the importance of best practices, which includes using the best-quality paint, panels and supplies each artist can afford. Outreach by the various manufacturers has been crucial in this regard. 

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The weak link in the chain is the teaching of encaustic. In my opinion, the bar for teaching needs to be raised. 

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While serious teachers do attract serious students—sometimes under the aegis of manufacturers like R&F, or an event like the Encaustic Conference, or sometimes out of their own studios—there are too many “encaustic artists” teaching “encaustic art,” which in turn creates an exponential growth in the number of dilettantes with a sense of entitlement. (That’s a value judgment) The point in my raising this issue here is not to scorn teachers, but to noodge the insufficiently trained ones to learn more and do better--and, equally important, to educate consumers, i.e. students, to choose wisely.
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At the Sixth International Encaustic Conference, Sara Mast and Cherie Mittenthal led a discussion, Toward Standards and Practices in the Teaching of Encaustic. The one-hour discussion engendered such interest that it will continue throughout the year among a handful of teaching professionals and then return for discussion at Conference 7 in 2013. The intent is to develop standards—with input from a range of teachers—and make them available throughout the encaustic community. In the meantime, we may consider the following issues.

Update, January 2014: At Conference 7, Sara Mast, Toby Sisson and Cherie Mittenthal--two tenured professors at the university level and the director of an art school, respectively--led a much- needed interactive discussion of safety, materials and content in the teaching of encaustic. Raising the Bar: Toward Standards and Practices in the Teaching of Encaustic, the title of the discussion, is available here as a download

Left: the first document, published 2014



Update, June 2014:  Mast, Mittenthal and Sisson, plus Milisa Galazzi, a degreed and exhibiting artist who teaches teachers, continued the discussion at Conference 8 in an effort to raise the bar for more professional practices not only at the university level but throughout the encaustic community.
They have started a Facebook page,. artistsTEACHartists that is open to anyone interested in raising the bar in teaching

From left: Milisa Galazzi, Cherie Mittenthal, Sara Mast, Toby Sisson

Finding a Teacher

While conventional practice has relatively inexperienced artists teaching encaustic to beginners, a more sensible approach—and certainly one that benefits students in general and the community at large—is for beginners to learn from experienced practitioners who are also teachers. This is the principle in university teaching, where even the 101 courses are taught by advanced-degree holders who maintain a current record of exhibitions and professional involvement. I believe this should also be standard practice in the teaching of encaustic. In this way beginners learn best practices at the same time that they are introduced to encaustic as a means for expression, not just a series of techniques.  

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Teachers Need to be Accountable for What They’re Teaching

Right now, there are no guidelines for the teaching of encaustic, either institutionally or anecdotally, except that a growing number of serious artists are increasingly dismayed at the disturbing trend of “encaustic artists” teaching “encaustic art.”  

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Teachers:

. Did you study art formally in an art school or art department?

. If not, where did you study?

. Where did you learn encaustic? From whom?

. How long have you been working in encaustic?

. How long have you been teaching encaustic?

. In what venues do you teach?
. What is the focus or mission of your class?

. In what ways are you engaged in critical discourse, whether about your own work or art in general? To what degree will your class address this?

. Do you show regularly?

. Are you gallery represented? Gallery representation does not make an artist, of course, but it does indicate a level of professional achievement

. For those teaching at the “advanced” level, a significant resume would be a prerequisite

. Your professional information should be on the bio that’s available to prospective students, along with a formal resumé  

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Students:

You need to exercise due diligence  without being demanding or disrespectful. If the teacher you wish to study does not provide information that answers the preceding questions, you may request a resume or do an online search. It’s not enough to know that your teacher is “award winning.” Inquire. You may be thinking “Guggenheim” while in fact the award is an “Honorable Mention at the Podunk Members’ Show.” Additionally, does your prospective teacher have:

. Teaching experience in the subject or at the level you wish to study?

. Good word of mouth?

. Can you visit a class being taught by this teacher (understanding that it may not always be possible). 

. Can the instructor provide testimonials from past students?
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Inquire About Safety*

. Does the class or workshop address health and safety?
. Is there adequate ventilation for encaustic?
. Will pigments be handled?
. Will solvents be used?
. How will students protect themselves?
. What equipment will be used?
. Will students be working with open flame?
. Is there a first aid kit and fire extinguisher?
. Does the studio carry insurance

. If the teaching will take place in an artist’s studio, ask those same questions

. And, again, ask if you can visit the studio where teaching will take place
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*Thank you to Laura Moriarty, who directs the workshops at R&F Handmade Paints, for her suggestions. If you have taken a workshop at R&F, you know what safety looks like and how it is practiced.

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Two Stellar Exmples of Teaching

At the recent Sixth International Encaustic Conference I visited Binnie Birstein's demonstration on Beginning Encaustic. Here was a teacher bringing to newbies a wealth of professional and teaching experience. Not only was her demo thorough, she anticipated the standard questions and also responded carefully to specific questions asked by the participants. And she was abundantly well prepared.  Anyone attending that demo left not only with an understanding of the how and why of encaustic, but with a clear image of an engaged and engaging teacher. Hopefully they won’t settle for less from another. 

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In Post-Conference at Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, I visited Lisa Pressman’s Introduction to Pigment Sticks and Encaustic and was impressed by the ease with which she demonstrated and then introduced a series of one-minute exercises designed to get students actively involved in the possibilities of the medium. There was none of the chitchat that often accompanies workshops; students were fully engrossed. Returning at the end of the day, I was bowled over by what the group had achieved. In many instances, their results were finished works of art. One memorable work by Deborah Dryden was a triptych of 12 x 12” paintings in palette of aqua and ultramarine with bold cursive markings. Emotion of the Ocean, inspired by the environment and, of course, by Pressman, was so polished it would be included in Dryden’s upcoming solo. (See image in the sidebar.) Given a choice, who wouldn’t want to study with a teacher so able to elicit this kind of work?

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Teaching Teachers

How do teachers learn to teach? It starts when they themselves were students. Just as artists teach others to be artists by example and instruction, so it is with teachers who serve as models for good teaching. This is one of the advantages of having gone to art school, but the example of a good teacher at a community center or in a studio setting can be equally instructive. 

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There are courses designed to teach teachers. R&F offers one. So does Hylla Evans. It may seem petty to ask a Beginning Encaustic teacher for bona fides, but unless s/he has had art training, the course will likely be all about technique. And unless s/he has had good technical training, there is no guarantee that students will not learn bad practices. Who had not heard the horror stories of damar varnish in the wax instead of damar resin, use of acrylic gesso, use of pigments with no physical protection?  Here I think of Cynthia Winika’s maxim: “Learn the best, most archival ways of working. When you know what you’re doing, then you can break the rules.”  A beginning teacher will not have enough experience to do that. 

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An artist who takes one workshop, or one class—or even a few— and then expects to teach encaustic is not a qualified teacher.  A turnaround teacher cannot convey to a class what s/he has learned after a brief period of instruction because each student requires different information, and that takes years to acquire. This is why institutions require advanced degrees and teaching experience.  

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(Relatedly, in addition to artists who may be improperly equipped to teach encaustic technically or conceptually to other artists or to art-interested adults, Milisa Galazzi, a professional artist and teacher, brings up the issue of art education in the schools. Her comments about speaking to a standing-room-only crowd at the National Art Education Association in New York City this past winter are well worth considering: 

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“When I asked a crowd of 350-400 art educators how many are teaching encaustic at the high-school level, about three-quarters of the room raised hands. I am fairly confident they were not all trained by R&F. Who did train them and what are they teaching, I wonder. 

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And, she wondered: What are they teaching with? “When I visited the vendor hall, one reputable art supply company was selling crayons and calling them ‘encaustic.’”).

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Summary

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“Encaustic is growing in popularity

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and there is a bit of a wave of

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stake-your-claim, like a gold rush.”

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--David A. Clark, artist, on Facebook
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“I don't think any fine artist wants
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to be included in the "encaustic craze."

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—Mary Wright, artist, on Facebook 

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"Where would instructors be without

students? Where would the suppliers

be if only serious artists were buying
their wares? There are people who enjoy "dabbling" or knowing how something
is done. Perhaps they don’t have the
time or passion to spend the long hours
it takes to create authentic work, but
they do enjoy the creative experience
and working with their hands.
However there is a place where one ends
and the other begins.
Art, craft and hobby are not the same." ..

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—Susan Lasch Krevitt, artist, on Facebook

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So we end where we started, acknowledging the variety of people in our midst and their varying levels of talent and engagement.

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The good news: The range of skill levels means that that artist/entrepreneurs have been identifying products to make and sell to the burgeoning encaustic market. Teachers have been creating schools and teaching opportunities. Individuals (like myself) have been creating conferences and retreats. This means jobs for numerous artists and opportunities for artists at all levels. How fortunate we are to have access to quality paint and panels, books and DVDs, specialized equipment (Roland Hot Boxes, Enkaustikios Hot Tools), and the opportunities to confabulate and network--hobbyists with professional role models, and the often over-subscribed professionals being reminded in hobbyists of the sense of play possible and the sheer joy of creating  This is a win/win for everyone in the encaustic community.

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Yet I see a problem in the stake-your-claim model, and it's this: Who's Representing Encaustic?
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At the same time that trained professional artists seek to integrate their work in encaustic into the mainstream of contemporary art, “encaustic art” is burgeoning. “Encaustic artists”—often insufficiently trained, with little in the way of critical thinking—are drafting in the wake of the professionals. Given the propensity of “encaustic artists” to take one class and then turn around and teach it themselves, this is an exponentially self-replicating problem, for “encaustic art” does not represent the medium well. Let me rephrase: “Encaustic art” does not begin to express the range of esthetic and conceptual possibilities that professional artists are able to wrest from the medium, nor does it represent their professionalism. 

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As long as serious artists like  David A. Clark, Elena De La Ville, Jane Guthridge, Alexandre Masino, Laura Moriarty, Nancy Natale, and others from their cohort remain models of the medium, we have nothing to worry about. Indeed, these are artists with exhibition histories and strong teaching experience. These artists represent the best of contemporary art made with the medium of wax; moreover, they offer conceptual engagement and professional involvement (many of them with a teaching history that that extends well beyond the how-to).  

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But . . .who remembers the macramé craze of the Seventies? Unlike the sought-after treasure of handmade lace, those crudely knotted hangings quickly became a visual one-liner.  

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If melty melts, drippy drips, crayon art, and decoupage-y collages become the paradigm of encaustic—and they could if the number of "encaustic artists" representing the medium with "encaustic art" continues to grow—encaustic will end up as the macramé owl of the 21^st Century. 

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