DAWN NIELSON encaustic wax

dawnnielson.com

What was your artistic path?

Al Collins School of Graphic Design in Tempe, Ariz., is where my formal art education began in 1985. My design career started in 1989 at a commercial print shop in Phoenix. The shop owner handed me manuals for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, placed the new desktop Macintosh computer in front of me and said, “Figure this all out, I think this is where the printing industry is headed.” Through trial and error, I figured it out. In 1993 I bought my own Mac, quit that job and went freelance for 10 years. I sold my freelance business in 2003 when my husband and I relocated our family to Stevenson, Wash.

In 2006, at age 39, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As I moved through my cancer experience, artmaking was a healthy distraction to calm my mind. The process of making art impacted my life in such a positive way, I decided to go back to school to become an art therapist. I attended Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland for painting and sculpting, and also took psychology, counseling and art therapy courses at Marylhurst University. After graduating in 2014 with my BFA in general fine arts, I decided to take a pause to allow myself time to figure out who I was as an artist.

I began submitting my encaustic paintings to gallery exhibitions, engaging in collaborative projects with other artists and pitching my own shows. In 2016, my tenth year of being cancer free, I envisioned the main lobby of the Radiology Department at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland to be the perfect space to share my work. I made large-scale abstract encaustic paintings to fill the waiting room. For eight months, the work visually shared my story of what it was like to have breast cancer and survive.

I believe visual art is a powerful nonverbal form of communication and the process of artmaking can benefit a person’s physical and mental well-being. Sharing this with people is important to me. In 2019, my husband and I began building an art studio on our property. I named this creative space Kamanė Studio. Kamanė is Lithuanian for bumblebee. Aside from the studio serving my own art practice, it is built to host artmaking experiences to share the joy I find in working with encaustic wax.

I was intrigued how encaustic wax as an art medium allowed me to be both painter and sculptor. I read books on encaustic techniques and then began creating instantly. I submitted my work to the 2009 Portland Audubon Society’s Wild Arts Fest and sold more of my art than I could have ever imagined with my first experience. I was hooked on the medium from that point on.

There are many ways I have used encaustic wax as an art medium. My current process begins with gluing paper onto a wood panel, painting my base imagery, fusing layers of encaustic wax with a torch or heat gun, carving line work into the wax, then pressing oil paint into the carved lines and wax texture to bring another layer to the work. Metallic leaf and stitched rusted wire are added to some compositions.

I am most inspired by neuroscience, human thought and behavior, and the green mossy, misty forest and rivers of the Columbia Gorge.

What do you find most satisfying about your work?

To lose myself in the process of creating my art, that’s the ultimate sweet spot for me. When I lose track of time while painting and fusing layers of wax, the mental chatter and chaos of life vanishes. My existence transforms to just me and the work. After I move through that magnificent state of mind, I can then take a step back to view how the transparency and texture of the encaustic layers enhance the visual story of the piece.

What is it like to be an artist in the Gorge? Glorious. Living and creating in Stevenson’s lush green environment is like a comforting hug for me. I am most inspired to make art in the fall through spring. There is something about the rain and chill in the air that I connect with. I love where I live and create. Surviving cancer has left me with the perspective that no one is guaranteed a tomorrow and how I choose to spend my time is a key component in living a creative, fulfilling life. There is a robust community of artists in the Gorge. It’s been my experience when creative people collaborate, amazing and dazzling things happen.