Elise Wagner

Elise Wagner is a painter, printmaker, educator and innovator. An east coast transplant, she has based herself in Portland, Oregon since 1986.

The uniquely defining aesthetic in Elise’s work melds her creative and spiritual practices with her fascination with and education in various disciplines of science – physics, astronomy, cosmology, cartography and meteorology and how they relate to changing technologies and the environment. Science and abstract art are defined as mystery, and Elise is continually curious about and negotiating this in her work. The encaustic medium lends itself well to Elise’s studio practice and creative aspirations resulting in artwork rich with depth that is visually and emotionally captivating as well as intellectually compelling.

Elise Wagner is a painter, printmaker, educator and innovator. An east coast transplant, she has based herself in Portland, Oregon since 1986.

Working with the encaustic medium since the early 1990’s led Elise to innovate a way to print from the texture of her paintings and merge the techniques of encaustic painting with that of collagraph printmaking. Elise also shows her work at galleries in Washington D.C., Houston and Seattle. Her work is included in coporate and private collections throughout the U.S. As an educator, Elise has been invited to teach and present encaustic painting and printmaking Internationally and she has taught in her studio and currently teaches virtual workshops and does private one on one mentoring.

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 unearthed 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.

– Elise Wagner