Presenter Bios

You can't raise the bar without professionals who are well trained and art-world experienced. Our presenters are teaching at the university level; they are entrepreneurs who teach out of their studios; they travel widely to teach, lecture and show at various venues; they are museum exhibited and collected; they are grant recipients, authors, critics, curators, and gallerists. Many of our artists wear multiple hats. In all ways they are role models not only for how they execute technique, but for how they contribute to the contemporary discourse and how they carry themselves in their careers. You won't find them at any encaustic conference but The Encaustic Conference.
.
Presenters are listed alphabetically.

During the last 25 years, Tracey Adams, painter and printmaker, has participated in over 150 exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad. Solo museum exhibitions include Andy Warhol Museum in the Slovak Republic, Monterey Museum of Art, Fresno Art Museum and Santa Cruz Art Museum. Her work is included in many public and private collections including Fresno Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, Bakersfield Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Crocker Museum to name a few. Examples of her work can be seen in Wax and Paper Workshop by Michelle Belto, and the upcoming third edition of Embracing Encaustic by Linda Womack. Tracey has been the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including the Ministry of Culture (Slovak Republic), U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh), U.S. State Department, Community Foundation of the Monterey Peninsula, Vermont Studio Center, Bemis Art Center (Omaha), and Trillium Press (Brisbane, California). She lives on the central coast of California. 

Susanne K. Arnold exhibits her work regionally and nationally. She has explored and taught the encaustic medium since 1981. Honors include national grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein and the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundations. Her work was included in the 2012 Waxed@IMA invitational at Friday Harbor, Washington, in the book and exhibition Encaustic Works 2012, and will be in the third edition of Linda Womack’s Embracing Encaustic. Susanne teaches encaustic at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Virginia. She holds a BFA, an MA, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lynn Basa is a full-time artist who divides her practice between painting and large-scale public art commissions. To date, she has completed 55 public and private site-specific commissions. Her work is included in over 100 corporate, private, and museum collections such as the Rhode Island School of Design Museum and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. She is the author of The Artist’s Guide to Public Art, and teaches a class in the Sculpture department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on public art professional practices. She is the former chair of the public art committee of the Seattle Arts Commission and founding director and curator of the University of Washington Medical Center’s 1000-piece art collection.

Binnie Birstein has been working in encaustic for more than a dozen years. Her expertise with the medium is evident in her large, multilayered paintings with mysterious and dissonant imagery. Originally from New York City and now living in Connecticut, Binnie is an enthusiastic and knowledgeable teacher. She is on the faculty at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven and also teaches at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalkm where she specializes in painting and encaustic collograph printmaking. Binnie is a featured artist in Encaustic Works 2012, an exhibition in print, juried by Joanne Mattera, and was among 14 artists included in the Invitational Encaustic Works ’12, at the Gallery at R &F, curated by Laura Moriarty. Binnie has attended all of the Encaustic Conferences, presenting and teaching there for the past several years.

Pamela Blum has focused for 16 years on encaustic painting and sculpture. Her work, celebrating reassessment of meaning in art, can be assembled many different ways to prompt viewers, including herself, to change interpretations over time. Her professional experience includes drawing, painting, sculptural installation, performance art, architecture, physical planning and graphic design. She holds a BA degree in studio art and art history from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in installation from Massachusetts College of Art & Design. She has taught at all university levels but specializes in foundations programs. A tenured professor at State University of New York Dutchess in Poughkeepsie, she lives and makes art in Kingston. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States and in France.

David A. Clark’s encaustic print work has drawn critical acclaim for its graphic style and soulful content. He exhibits nationally, showing his work in numerous recent solo and group shows including the 2012 Harnett Biennial of American Prints, the Gallery at R & F and Aqua Art Miami via te Conrad Wilde Gallery. David’s print work has been published and featured in Authentic Visual Voices: Contemporary Paper and Encaustic by Catherine Nash, and Encaustic Works 2012 published by R&F Handmade Paints. David teaches encaustic printmaking around the country, has presented at the International Encaustic Conference numerous times and was a recent panelist at the Western Museum Associations annual conference. A solo show of David's which began at the Process Museum in Tucson, is currently touring.

Dorothy Cochran, an accomplished printmaker, awarded two New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowships in Printmaking and Mixed Media, has continued to push the boundaries of works on paper. As a long-time former Curator and Director of the Galleries at the Interchurch Center in New York City, she now teaches at The Montclair and Newark Art Museums and pilots printmaking programs in the New York area while maintaining her studio practice in New Jersey. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country in solo exhibitions, competitive international shows and locally at Franklin54+Projects in Chelsea. Her work is in several museums, corporate and private collections. She has an MFA from Columbia University and is currently a Board member of The National Association of Women Artists.

Miles Conrad is a visual artist and arts instructor who has exhibited his work and taught at various locations throughout the United States. He works from a studio granted by the Artist-In-Residence program at Process Museum in Tucson. He received the Award of Excellence from the Contemporary Art Society of the Tucson Museum of Art for his work in the Arizona Biennial 2011. Miles is founding director of Conrad Wilde Gallery, where he has hosted innovative exhibitions and fostered a community of support for established and emerging artists since 2005. He is full-time faculty at Southwest University of Visual Art in the BFA and MFA programs

Elena De La Ville is a mixed-media artist with a passion for paint, rust and wax. She was trained as a painter, photographer and textile designer and her work encompasses all of these mediums. She teaches photography, mixed media and encaustic painting at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida. Elena has attended and presented at the International Encaustic Conference numerous times. She has shown at the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts; A Gallery and Shaw Cramer Gallery on Martha's Vineyard; and  Selby Gallery and Paradigm Gallery in Sarasota. She is in the collection of the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Caracas, Venezuela.

Patricia Dusman, originally from New York City and now residing in Doylestown, Pennsylvania,  studied printmaking and photography at Bard College while getting her degree in Biology. After a successful 20 year career in pharmaceutical research she returned to pursue art making full time. Patricia continued her lifelong artistic education by participating in workshops led by some of today’s contemporary artists where she discovered and honed her skills working in various media. She is currently focusing her work on encaustic painting and exploring working with wax in mixed media. She has participated in group shows and been published in international artist publications and exhibition catalogs. Her work can be found in private collections in the U.S.

Jennie Frederick studied at the Kansas City Art Institute (BFA), where she began making paper in 1976, and Indiana State University (MFA). She apprenticed at Twinrocker, and founded Kansas City Paperworks in 1983. She has taught papermaking at the Kansas City Art Institute (1985-1990) and at Maple Woods College, where she was head of the art department for 22 years. Jennie has exhibited internationally and has received numerous travel grants, including from the National Endowment for Humanities. She is currently a full-time studio artist.

Richard Frumess’s initial interest in encaustic came from a passion for materials that he developed as a painter. The fascination with wax led to manufacturing commercial encaustic in 1982 and the founding of R&F Handmade Paints in 1988. But it has also led to a continuous exploration of wax in its physical and its aesthetic properties – wax as both a chemical compound and a source of metaphoric concepts.

Through subtle visual layering, Milisa Galazzi references the passage of time as well as celebrates the power of human connections over generations. Milisa employs the detritus of women’s domestic life such as lace, thread, paper, dress patterns and personal correspondence in her wax works on paper, large scale installations, and her oil and encaustic paintings. She exhibits nationally in solo and group shows, and her work is held in private and public collections such as Women and Infants Hospital and The Women's Medicine Collaborative in Providence. Honored recently as R&F Artist of the Month, her artwork has also been featured in FiberArts and ArtScope Magazines as well as in a new book, Wax and Paper Workshop: Techniques for Combining Encaustic Paint and Handmade Paper by Michelle Belto. Galazzi received an MA with Honors from Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in Studio Art with minors in Women’s Studies and Cultural Anthropology from Brown University.

Lorraine Glessner holds an MFA in Fibers from Tyler School of Art, where she is currently an Assistant Professor in the Fibers & Material Studies Department. Lorraine also holds a BS in Textile Design from Philadelphia University and an Associate’s Degree in Computer Graphics from Moore College of Art & Design. Recent awards include two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Artist Fellowship Grant in Crafts, and the Yvonne Kelly Memorial Award for Mixed Media from the Abington Art Center. Her work is included in the recently released Encaustic With a Textile Sensibility by Daniella Woolf. Lorraine lectures, teaches, exhibits her work nationally and maintains a studio in Philadelphia.

Jane Guthridge’s work is inspired by the natural world—the rich colors of the land, the play of light on water, the way light and shadows continually change.  Her fascination with light and its transcendent qualities has shaped her art.  Guthridge’s work is represented by galleries around the U.S., and is contained in numerous corporate collections here and abroad. She was selected as the 2008 artist of recognition for the State of Colorado and her work was recently added to the U.S. Department of State’s collection of American Artists, whose purpose is to promote cultural diplomacy. She lives and works in Denver.

Lynette Haggard is a Massachusetts-based artist, returning for her fifth year as an invited conference presenter. Her work has been included in over 75 exhibits at various venues including the Sixth Annual Encaustic Invitational at Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tuscon; the Danforth Museum, Framingham, Mass.; the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Mass.; and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. She holds a BFA in Painting from Philadelphia College of Art and maintains her studio practice at Fountain St. Studios in Framingham.

Howard Hersh is a third generation artist who has exhibited his work widely around the country. With 60 solo shows and 200 group exhibits, Howard is one of the preimer practioners of painting in the medium of encaustivc. His work is in prominent public spaces in the United States, Japan, China, Indonesia, and Africa. Howard has followed a lifelong passion for freedom, creativity, nature and beauty, which is clearly reflected in his art.  ”Over the years, in my paintings, I have strived to assemble and depict relationships – art, nature, architecture, and spirituality. A world we create, and a world by which we are created. I hope that my life and my art are part of this beautiful yet mysterious process.”

Deborah Kapoor earned her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Delaware, and her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of North Texas. She also studied with Paula Roland at Ghost Ranch in Abiqui, New Mexico.   Her work is featured in the forthcoming e-book, Contemporary Paper and Encaustic by Catherine Nash, and the Gallery of Artists section of the new book, Wax and Paper Workshop: Techniques for Combining Encaustic Paint and Handmade Paper by Michelle Belto.  Deborah teaches encaustic workshops at The Encaustic Center in Richardson, Texas, and ArtEast Art Center in Issaquah, Washington.  Working with encaustic since 2002, Deborah exhibits her work throughout the United States.  She is represented by Conrad Wilde Gallery in Tucson and ArtXchange Gallery in the Pioneer Square Arts District of Seattle.

Raised in England and of East Indian heritage, Supria Karmakar is inspired by diverse life experiences born of Eastern and Western cultures coming together. Supria uses encaustic mixed media, as well as the altered book medium as avenues to work out her musings about life’s journey. These mediums are the perfect ‘vessels’ for her work, as they unfold stories, contain depth, intrigue, vibrancy and the unknown, with layers of narrative which serve to delight, provide meaningful insight and/or provide the viewer a place of comfort and connection whether it be joyous or melancholy.

Susan Lasch Krevitt received her BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. She has been building tactile, meditative, relief-based abstractions using textiles and mixed media since 1980. The incorporation of encaustic has added strength and optical depth to her sensual, material driven pieces.  Her work is currently informed by the cycle of destruction and regeneration caused by wildfires that are ever present in Southern California where she’s lived for the last 25 years. Susan’s work has been exhibited internationally and she is currently represented in Los Angeles by Gallery 825.

Working in a chromatically resonant and compositionally reductive style, Joanne Mattera exhibits widely.Her work is in the collections of the New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; the Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey; and in university and corporate collections internationally. It has been reviewed in Art in America and The New York Times. Joanne recently juried Encaustic Works 2012, an exhibition in book form, published by R&F Handmade Paints. She is the author of a widely read art blog, the author of The Art of Encaustic Painting—the book which helped fuel the resurgence of encaustic—and founder/director of this Conference. She holds a BFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and an MA in Visual Art from Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont.

Cherie Mittenthal has her MFA from the State University of New York at Purchase and her BFA from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. She is the Executive Director of Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill since 2002. Cherie  serves on the board of Campus Provincetown, Provincetown Cultural Council, and partners with Highlands Center Inc. for the only Wood-Fired Kiln on Cape Cod. Her work is redolent of the meeting of sky, sand and sea.  In her studio practice, she works in pigment sticks, mixed media and encaustic. Her work is represented by Kobalt Gallery in Provincetown. She is the co-prodcuer of this Conference.

Wayne Montecalvo uses a variety of disciplines to make artwork that tells stories. He holds a Sculpture degree from the School of Visual Arts in Nwew York City, and currently teaches at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He maintains his studio in Rosendale, New York. Wayne has taken part in several residencies in the US and abroad, and has worked with performance groups that explore a range of artistic practice.

Laura Moriarty’s artwork is comprised of sculptural paintings, installations/interventions and prints, and she is the author of Table of Contents, an artist’s book published in 2011. Her work is exhibited widely and has been recognized by numerous grants and awards including a 2011 Projects Grant from United States Artists, two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants, a MARK ’09 Award from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a Radius Award from the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. She has participated in artist residencies at The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, The NOCCA Institute (New Orleans, LA), Women’s Studio Workshop (Rosendale, NY), The Frans Masereel Center (Kasterlee, Belgium), Oberfalzer Kunstlerhaus (Schwandorf, Germany), and the Ucross Foundation (Ucross, Wyoming), among others. Laura is Director of Exhibitions and Education at R&F Handmade Paints.

Nancy Natale is interested in memory and personal history and how one affects the other over time. She expresses this interest by using found and invented objects in her work in a technique called “bricolage” that straddles the line between painting and sculpture. A native of Boston who has lived in western Massachusetts for the past dozen years, she has exhibited her work throughout the U.S. and is currently represented by Arden Gallery, Boston, and Meyer Gallery, Park City, Utah. In 2012, Nancy was invited to be a visiting artist at R&F Paints in Kingston, New York, where she mounted a solo show of her work, entitled “Of Cabbages and Queens.” She also taught a three-day workshop at R&F on making fine art using bricolage. Her work is featured in Encaustic Works 2012, and she won the Juror’s Prize at Kobalt Gallery in the 2012 Encaustic Conference show. Nancy has attended all of the encaustic conferences to date and has lectured and taught at the last four of them.

Specializing in Japanese and Western hand papermaking, encaustic painting and mixed media drawing, Catherine Nash is a teaching artist who balances her studio work with artist-in-resident teaching, lectures and workshops across the United States, as well as in professional studios and universities in eight European countries, Australia and Japan. She has published four educational DVDs on the art of papermaking and is currently writing a book that surveys international artists entitled Authentic Visual Voices. Her work has been included by invitation into numerous national and international exhibitions, most recently in Japan, Bulgaria, and Australia. The landscape, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, experiences with Native American friends and her explorations into the wilderness of the southwestern deserts have deeply influenced and informed her work. She is a longtime resident of Tucson.

Jane Pagliarulo received a BFA in Printmaking from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and began as a fine art printer at Hand Graphics in Santa Fe from 1989 to 1996. As a monotype printer she has worked one-on-one in creative collaboration with artists with varied conceptual and technical approaches; as a result Jane strays beyond the traditional boundaries of printmaking. In 1996 she moved to Oregon, founding a printmaking workshop in Hood River. In 2007 she co-founded Atelier Meridian, a collaborative membership printmaking studio in Portland. In her own prints, Jane approaches the landscape with an abstract realist’s eye for the edges and shapes found in the expanses of the American West. She exhibits nationally and is represented in Portland by the Portland Art Museum Rental Sales Gallery and Print Arts Northwest.

Sherrie Posternak takes advantage of all her life’s passions—making and teaching art, travel, learning about other cultures, learning new languages. Everything involves communication and the integration of the variety of life’s disciplines. Within the context of the arts, Sherrie chooses whatever medium or technique is most appropriate to express her ideas—encaustic, photography, printmaking, video, collage, assemblage, mosaic, paper, fiber, metals, wood, ceramic, glass.  She began her encaustic practice eight years ago, and has had solo and group shows in the U.S. and Mexico.  She self-published a catalogue on the topic of her art installation A Memorial for El Tomate.  Images of Sherrie’s work are included in the gallery section of two E-books: Contemporary Paper and Encaustic by Catherine Nash, and the third edition of  Embracing Encaustic by Linda Womack.

Lynda Ray takes an intuitive approach to her art making, which is strongly influenced by patterns and texture found in nature. Lynda received her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, after which she attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where she studied with Agnes Martin and Joseph Campbell. Her work is exhibited throughout the United States, and she conducts workshops regionally. She currently lives in Virginia.

Sarah Rehmer was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, where she still resides. In 2003 she earned her BA in Graphic Design and Photography from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. While auditing a course on collage post-graduation, Sarah found her love of working with deconstructed books and paper, at first with acrylic mediums and now with wax mediums. Rehmer still calls upon her background in photography and graphic design to bring in photographic elements to some her paintings as well as creating custom imagery for use in image transfers.

Paula Roland’s works are widely exhibited and are held in public and private collections throughout the US and in Africa. She is recipient of many fellowships, residencies, and awards, including one from the National Endowment for the Arts. Several books on encaustic feature her paintings and monotypes, including Joanne Mattera’s The Art of Encaustic Painting, and the upcoming Authentic Visual Voices by Catherine Nash. Through her art and her teaching, Paula Roland, MFA, is recognized for extending the little-known process of encaustic printmaking, and bringing it to wider awareness.

After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design, Marybeth Rothman worked for many years as an illustrator of figurative work for editorial and advertising on Madison Avenue. She left to further investigate the figure and its relationship to her message and materials. Known for her mixed-media Portraits of Strangers, she exhibits nationally and is in private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and abroad. Marybeth exhibited at the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington, New York, in Ripped: The Allure of Collage, with Roy Lichtentstein, Kurt Schwitters, George Grosz and others, curated by Kenneth Wayne. She is one of the featured artists in both Encaustic Works 2012, juried by Joanne Mattera, published by R&F Handmade Paints, Kingston, New York and Authentic Visual Voices by Catherine Nash. Marybeth is represented by Tria Gallery in New York City, Lanoue Fine Art in Boston, and Mark Gallery in Englewood, New Jersey. Her home and studio are in New Jersey.

Toby Sisson earned her MFA from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art and Director of the Schiltkamp Gallery at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sisson’s areas of specialization include drawing, painting and public art, as well as community-based service learning. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants for her studio practice and her current research project on the development of dialogic critique methods for visual artists. Her artwork has been shown in solo and select group exhibitions, and acquired for numerous private collections.

Pat Spainhour is a painter-printmaker with thirty years of teaching experience, currently teaching art history at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Pat has a B.F.A. with concentrations in design and art education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She developed an interest in encaustic painting at the Penland School, studying under Tremain Smith. Pat was awarded the 2009 North Carolina Arts Council Regional Artist Grant, which she used to attend Paula Roland’s advanced workshop in Santa Fe. Pat has exhibited widely, her work can be seen in numerous corporate collections, and she is represented by Hampton House Gallery in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Best known for her exploration of scientific themes common to her work, Elise Wagner began integrating her printmaking background with encaustic 10 years ago.  Since then, her encaustic collagraph monotypes have become a large part of her creative inquiry. Her work is among private and corporate collections throughout the United States. She has been the recipient of several grants and awards, including a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, an Oregon Arts Commission Career Grant and two NEA funded Regional Arts and Culture Council Grants. A featured panelist at Conference 6, Elise regularly exhibits her work at Butters Gallery in Portland. Oregon, the city where she lives and works.  Her work will be soon be seen in 100 Artists of the Pacific Northwest, Schiffer Publishing; and The Painted Surface, Northlight Books. Her third solo show at Chase Young Gallery in Boston will open on June 7, immediately following the post-conference workshops.

As an accomplished and exhibited printmaker, Pamela Wallace began exploring the use of wax medium in 2005. Wax has remained foremost in her studio practice ever since.  Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows locally and nationally, including the Gallery at R&F, Kingston, New York; Lanoue Fine Art, Boston; Mid-Atlantic New Painting, and Encaustic Works ‘09. Process and experimentation figure prominently into Pamela's innovative imagery, which references the natural world.

Although Graceann Warn’s  academic background is in urban design and classical archaeology, she decided to take a leap of faith in 1985 to become a full-time artist.  She started out as an oil painter but throughout the 1990’s became best known for her assemblages.  In 2001 a year long commission to design sets for a major opera production, Orfeo ed Euridice led to a shift in medium (as well as scale) in her studio work.  Since that time she has primarily been painting on wood panels using oils and encaustic.  The present work reflects the structural logic of her architectural beginnings as well as her abiding interest in archaeology. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in the collections of Yale University; Museum of Art and Design, New York City; US Embassies in Nairobi and Sarajevo; Pew Charitable Trusts and many others.

Catherine Weber works with encaustic medium and paint, photography, silk, Japanese papers, and objects from nature to make harmony of the many colors and textures. What began as chaos finds order in the end. Catherine is a member of New England Wax and the Women’s Caucus for Art, as well as the president and founder of a social media marketing firm, Weber Media Partners in Southborough, Massachusetts. She holds a BA in Communications from Emerson College and an MA in Critical and Creative Thinking from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her studio is located in Southborough, Massachusetts.

Gregory Wright creates aquatic, cosmic, and microscopic fantasy worlds in his paintings that incorporate mixed media embellishments with encaustic. He is an exuberant presenter and instructor who brings enthusiasm and innovative techniques to his Conference presentations and workshops. Gregory exhibits nationally, as well as in the Boston area. In May 2013, he will have a solo exhibition at Galatea Fine Art in Boston.  Gregory is part of R & F Handmade Paints Visiting Artist Series, where he will teach and have a solo exhibition in the Gallery in August of 2013. Last year, Gregory’s focus had been on his curatorial project, Pollination: Beyond The Garden, a thematic group exhibition of works in encaustic, at Artcurrent in Provincetown and the Brush Gallery in Lowell, Mass. Gregory is a featured artist in Encaustic Works 2012 juried by Joanne Mattera and published by R&F Handmade Paints.