From the Editors

As artists, where do we find seeds of inspiration and what do we do with them? Which ones do we keep and nurture and which ones do we discard? Is dormancy also part of the creative process? For this issue we invite artists to share ideas about how they germinate their seeds of inspiration.

Lauren Lipinski Eisen finds inspiration in her garden. She embeds seeds she has harvested and incorporates metal objects into the painting to contrast the delicate organic forms of the seeds and the ethereal quality of the wax medium. Isabelle Gaborit favors the silent, dark days and nights of winter. She closes the doors to her studio and goes to the Burren along the west Clare coastline to wander “boreen” of the beaten tracks in search of inspiration.

Lorraine Glessner uses travel, hiking, and responding to her surroundings as inspiration for her work and provides information on how to organize a selfmade residency, find inspiration, and record your environment. Patricia Rossetti's work exemplifies how found and represented objects symbolize our engagement with nature as we navigate living, loss, aging, and grief and as we imagine what can yet become of them. Melissa Stephens understands how life provides unexpected inspiration. When her sister was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gherig’s Disease), many of her paintings translated into visions of hope, life’s unpredictability, and living in the moment. Alicia Tormey’s guidelines for navigating the seasons of creativity can help artists understand their creative flow and the seasons that dictate the rhythm of their studio practice so that they can capitalize on what each state inherently contributes.

We hope you enjoy reading this Germination issue of Wax Fusion. And, as always, we appreciate your feedback. Please contact us at WaxFusion@InternationalEncaustic-Artists.org with comments, questions, ideas, and suggestions. While this journal exists to serve the needs of IEA members, it is also free and available to the public. You are welcome to share this journal with anyone interested or working in the visual arts, looking for information on encaustics, or beginning to explore the world of encaustics.

S. Kay Burnett

Lyn Belisle

Paul Kline