Encaustic (which also goes by "hot wax painting") is an ancient technique, dating back to the ancient Egyptian mummy portraits and Greek murals. In modern practice, artists have appropriated the medium for painting, using a process which entails heat tools for melting and cooling waxen paint, and then manipulating it. Metal tools or special brushes can shape and/or texture the substance (layers of which can be anywhere from thin to relief-map thick). One may even affix objects (such as coat hangers, or light bulbs) into the wax, as Jasper Johns is known for doing. In recent years, encaustic has become one of the most exciting and versatile mediums available to the contemporary artist. Its luminosity, tactility, color and textural possibilities are unmatched by any other medium.

Seed II

Lorraine Glessner received an MFA in Fibers from Temple University, Tyler School of Art, where she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Fibers area. She holds a BS in Textile Design from Philadelphia University and an Associate's Degree in Computer Graphics from Moore College of Art and Design. Recent awards include a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Individual Creative Artist Fellowship Grant in Crafts, a Nancie Mattice Emerging Artist Award from Dangenart Gallery, Nashville, TN and Third Place in Painting at Art of the State, The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA. Recent exhibitions include Fiberart International, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Second Annual Encaustic Invitational, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, Arizona and Nexus, Red Star Studio Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri. Her work is also included in the recently released Mixed Media Collage by Hollie Harrison and the September, 2007 issue of Fiberarts Magazine. Glessner lectures, teaches, exhibits work nationally. She lives and maintains a studio in Philadelphia, PA. See www.lorraineglessner.net for further information and images.