About

In My Studio

"My encaustic painting method uses a combination of melted bees wax and resin as my medium for laying down pigment. I use pigment powders to create color. Each layer of activity is fused with a propane torch. My HDO wood scraps are the perfect ground for encaustic paintings, allowing me to perform aggressive scraping and fusing techniques. I incorporate various mixed media effects as well as collage and transfer techniques into the wax, often drawing directly onto the wax. My component pieces are then assembled to create a multilayered, multi-textured landscape."

BIO

The daughter of a forester, my early childhood was spent living in the jungle in the Philippines, and in Panama. Back in Seattle, summers meant hiking and camping around the Pacific Northwest. Forests and woodlands have been my sanctuary and solace for almost as long as I can remember. My art speaks to remembered moments through selected bits and pieces of the natural world, usually referencing trees. I create “assembled landscapes” using reclaimed materials and melted beeswax mixed with resin and pigment, known as encaustic medium. Papers, fabrics, stones and wayside plant materials from my yard and travels, plus what I call the detritus of prior works, all become storytelling elements as I contemplate loss, devastation and erosion versus perseverance, fertility and new growth. I find that I learn something new with every walk in nature. It is what brings me peace and gives me my voice in my art making.

Hagen is owner, manager and resident artist at Studio 103 in Seattle’s Pioneer Square area. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Cities of Covington, Kenmore, Kent and Seattle, and with Swedish Medical Group in Everett and Redmond, and Swedish Cancer Institute in Edmonds.