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

Kirkland artist, Joy Hagen, grew up in Seattle, Washington. With a forester for a father and an art teacher for a mother, Hagen's childhood was a rich and exciting environment that also offered the opportunity to live in the Philippines and Panama. Added to that were endless summers camping in the woods and exploring old logging roads. It was inevitable that her natural surroundings would ultimately become the path to her creativity.

A forest of significant trees in her own back yard and the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest provide the inspiration while encaustic medium provides the means for translating Hagen's environmental visions, usually with a reference to trees.. She creates landscapes of many paths from which to explore, much like a walk in the woods. Her works are often assembled and constructed landscapes utilizing specialty HDO wood scraps destined for the chipper.

Hagen is a resident artist and regularly exhibits at Studio 103 in the Tashiro Kaplan Building in Seattle’s Pioneer Square area. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the City of Seattle, the City of Kent, the City of Kenmore, Swediish Medical Group (Everett and Redmond), and Swedish Medical Center Cancer Institute in Edmonds.