bio

JOY E. HAGEN...BIOGRAPHY

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Joy E. Hagen grew up in Seattle, graduating from Queen Anne High School then Western Washington University. "Art was ever present in my childhood from the floor to ceiling chalkboard that was our playroom wall, to dressing paper dolls with my own creations, to writing and illustrating my own comic books and other masterpieces in literature, usually involving horses. I have been making art ever since I can remember."

"With a forester for a father and an art teacher for a mother my childhood was a rich and exciting environment that even offered the opportunity to live in the Philippines and Panama for a number of years. Added to that were the endless summers camping in the woods and exploring old logging roads (some of which I did not think I would survive). It seems inevitable that the natural world of my surroundings would ultimately become the path to my 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 Joy’s environmental visions. She creates landscapes of many paths from which to explore, much like a walk in the woods and in the end - the forester's daughter is revealed. Her works are often assembled and constructed landscapes utilizing specialty HDL wood scraps destined for the chipper. "It just so happened I married a lumber salesman."

Hagen lives and works out of her cozy home in the woods in Kirkland. An active member of the Eastside Association of Fine Arts and the Kirkland Arts Center, she enjoys painting commission pieces, participating in group and solo shows, teaching classes in her studio and exhibiting in juried art shows. Permanent collections include Swedish Medical Group – Redmond, Swedish Medical Group - Everett, and City of Kenmore City Hall. Hagen exhibits regularly at the EAFA Gallery at Seattle Design Center and Studio 103 at the Tashiro Kaplan (TK) Building in Seattle’s Pioneer Square area. Her home studio is open to the public over Mother's Day Weekend during the annual Kirkland Artist Studio Tour (KAST).

Contact Me: for classes in encaustics or if you want to commission a special piece of art

ARTIST STATEMENT

"Color, texture and shape are set in the context of the beauty that surrounds my everyday life in this wondrous Pacific Northwest, sometimes as a vivid, whimsical expression, some-times as a more subdued reflection of mood, but always in an attempt to give the viewer a place to go and a place that says to them, "This is where I live."

ENCAUSTICS

Encaustic is a hot wax painting technique with its roots in ancient Greece. In fact, encaustic comes from the Greek word "enkaustikos," which means to burn or to heat. Each layer of wax is fused using a heat source and is finished and preserved with a final fusing. Ancient Greeks used an encaustic technique to waterproof their warships as far back as 800 B.C., and in Greco-Roman Egypt from 100 B.C. to 200 A.D. Mummy casings incorporated encaustic portraiture on wood panels to honor the dead, many of which managed to survive thousands of years and are now on display in prominent museums around the world.

"My encaustic painting method is a process of using a combination of bees wax and resin as the medium for laying down pigment. For the most part, I use pigment powders to create my colors. My preferred method of fusing is a propane torch. My HDL wood scraps are a perfect ground for my encaustic paintings, allowing me to cut custom sizes and perform some rather aggressive scraping techniques. I incorporate collage or transfer techniques into the wax and I often transfer drawings or draw directly onto the wax. Next comes the process of applying various other mixed media effects on the remaining wood pieces. Finally, the component pieces are assembled to create a multilayered, multi-textured landscape of many paths from which to explore."
--Joy Hagen