Fused Chicago show

I almost didn’t make it to the opening reception on Friday night because I had been fighting a pretty bad cold all week. But I knew I would regret it if I didn’t go. So, puffy faced and runny-nosed, I made it and I’m so glad I did. The show looked great and it was so nice to catch up with people and meet some of the artists that I had not met yet. Despite the rain and the cold, the turn out was fantastic. I tried to take more pictures, but it was impossible with all the people in the way!

The show will be up until October 30th. The gallery (537 Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan) is open 12-4 on weekends. If you come during the week, you may find the door closed, but Brenda Thomas’ phone number is on there and she will come and open the gallery. She has a studio in the building.


at the entrance of the Fine Arts Building, a very cool old building down the street from the Art Institue of Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright had an office on the top floor. Now the building is filled with working artist studios and musicians.

The thing that was fascinating about the show was seeing how all of us approach working with encaustics in very different ways. Here are a few photos I was able to take. I apologize for the blurriness and flash. I wish I had been able to get a photo of all the artists and their work on display.



the work of Shelley Gilchrist, the woman who sparked this group’s formation



Alicia Forestall-Boehm next to her work. She works with many, many layers of wax and scrapes through with a variety of tools


Andrea Hill in front of her encasutic painting on unstretched canvas


Katsy Johnson’s photography based encaustic painting


Dawn Korman next to her three pieces


Jenny Learner -on the bottom right you can see her 3d painting of a flower made from the scrapings of the larger painting next to it


an admirer in front of Haley Nagy’s works on paper


Jane Michalski and the closest we could get to her painting!


Paul Rinaldi’s dimensional work


Emily Rutledge‘s works with a very urban edge


a blurry photo ofKathleen Waterloo‘s wonderful work. Sorry Kathleen!


and here you can see me trying to get a squirming 2 year old to pose with mama in front of one of her paintings

For more photos, be sure to visit the Fused Chicago blog

10 Comments

  1. Thank you for showing all the different styles and techniques in Encaustic– I am interested in expanding my collages– in one of recent posts I have two collages with beeswax.

  2. The show looks so beautiful – thanks for sharing the photos and again, congratulations. I have not begun encaustic works yet but I know they are in my future and your work is very inspirational! Thanks!

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