Artist Elise Wagner's work is filtered through the lens of a scientific explorer. Her macro/micro view of the world finds its way in her experimental techniques that traverses realtime imagery relating to the reality of the effects of climate change. With a painter's keen sense of composition Wagner thoughtfully integrates elements of abstract gestures with fragments derived from the natural world. The accelerating change of glacial and oceanic geologies befalling our planet have captured her fascination, and continue to drive her practice - spurring a sense of creative urgency. Beneath the multi-layers of applied color and textured media - these paintings - reveal to the viewer bits of recoded information and visual data that is often unnoticed by the lay person and unseen by the naked eye.
This latest body of work makes tangible the artist's intense planetary research and concepts spanning over a nine year period. It is evident how Wagner, through abstraction, creates thought provoking work, through a global pandemic, increasing climate disasters, social unrest, and rapid technological advancements all while using an ancient rather analog medium.
—Kimberly Marrero, Museum Lecturer, Curator
This series comprises blot prints on tissue paper dipped in layers of wax. Additional texture was added and they became dimentional objects. The blotted random lines and patterns left behind on the delicate paper mark the fleeting nature of time and moments of creating. The intention of the frames was to present them as specimens to incapsulate the physicality of moments experienced.
Fleeting Moment Series
Fleeting Moment 1 Size (h w d): 7 x 7 in Medium: encaustic on paper Type: Mixed Media Framed Size (h w d): 14 x 14 x 1.5 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Fleeting Moment 2 Size (h w d): 7 x 7 in Medium: encaustic on paper Type: Mixed Media Framed Size (h w d): 14 x 14 x 1.5 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Fleeting Moment 3 Size (h w d): 7 x 7 in Medium: encaustic on paper Type: Mixed Media Framed Size (h w d): 14 x 14 x 1.5 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Fleeting Moment 4 Size (h w d): 7 x 7 in Medium: encaustic on paper Type: Mixed Media Framed Size (h w d): 14 x 14 x 1.5 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time Series
This series uses a sub-atomic particle collision as a metaphor to mark time for transformation and change. February, 2022 marks the time that the United States experienced Pluto returning to the position it was in at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As humans, we will never experience a Pluto return, unless of course we live to be 248 years old. A Pluto return often results in a rise of power and the fall of empires as we are currently witnessing. The Pluto return began in 2020 and has unearth all the uncomfortable truths that America is currently facing through a global pandemic, civil unrest, a collapse of our justice system and democracy and cataclysmic climate events. It will shine a bright light on the breaking down of society so that we can amidst our differences, collectively see that it needs to change.
Marking Time 1 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 in Medium: monoprint etching Subject Matter: physics Type: Print Framed Size (h w d): 47 x 37 x 2 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time 2 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 in Medium: monoprint etching Subject Matter: physics Type: Print Framed Size (h w d): 47 x 37 x 2 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time 3 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 in Medium: monoprint etching Subject Matter: physics Type: Print Framed Size (h w d): 47 x 37 x 2 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time 4 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 in Medium: monoprint etching Subject Matter: physics Type: Print Framed Size (h w d): 47 x 37 x 2 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time 5 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 x 2.25 in Medium: mounted monoprint with encaustic and oil on panel Subject Matter: physics Type: Painting Framed Size (h w d): 41.25 x 31.25 x 2.75 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Marking Time 6 Size (h w d): 40 x 30 x 2.25 in Medium: mounted monoprint with encaustic and oil on panel Subject Matter: physics Type: Painting Framed Size (h w d): 41.25 x 31.25 x 2.75 in (inquire at elise@elisewagner.com)
Mercurial Tide & Surges
The titles derive from both the influence of the planet Mercury which is characterized by rapid and unpredictable changes in mood and temper. The tide in the title references the predictability of long-period wavesthat roll around the planet as the ocean is "pulled" back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon. It's title also points to the King Tides which are especially high tides that surge during a new or full moon. This piece reflects upon the many surges we have had to adapt to over the past two years.
Size (h w d): 24 x 60 x 2.5 in Medium: encaustic and oil on panel Type: Painting
Surges A wave surge created in wax. The piece is the first, inspired by Short Sands Beach at Oswald West State Park at the Oregon Coast. Size (h w d): 24 x 60 x 2.25 in Medium: Encaustic and oil on panel Type: Painting Inquire elise@elisewagner.com
Mercurial Tide A wave surge created in wax. The piece is the second inspired by Short Sands Beach at Oswald West State Park at the Oregon Coast. Size (h w d): 24 x 60 x 2.25 in Medium: Encaustic and oil on panel Type: Painting Inquire elise@elisewagner.com
This series began as Encaustic Collagraph prints on paper that are mounted onto panel. A collagraph is a printing plate comprised of collage materials. I print from the texture that you see in my paintings using white wax on plexiglas that I formulate in lieu of collage materials. For several years, I have been merging the techniques of encaustic painting with that of collagraph printmaking. Once the print is mounted for added depth, I merge the two by applying additional layers of clear wax and oil paint over it that mimics the texture in the print under layers. I teach Encaustic Collagraph Printmaking on Zoom as well as at institutions nationally and internationally. The title of the series of four refers to changing orbits. They are about a coming together and a coming apart globally. This series also reflects upon how, over the course of the pandemic, our own orbits of friends and family have grown smaller, closer and in some cases, estranged all together.—Elise Wagner
Orbital Sequence Series
Orbital Sequence 1, Size (h w d): 16 x 16 x 2.25 in Medium: collagraph monoprint, encaustic on panel Type: Painting
Orbital Sequence 2, Size (h w d): 16 x 16 x 2.25 in Medium: collagraph monoprint, encaustic on panel Type: Painting
Orbital Sequence 3, Size (h w d): 16 x 16 x 2.25 in Medium: collagraph monoprint, encaustic on panel Type: Painting
Orbital Sequence 4, Size (h w d): 16 x 16 x 2.25 in Medium: collagraph monoprint, encaustic on panel Type: Painting
