10/19/2026
Some incredible words by featured artist Connie Wood.
Geography has shaped my life. Born in the oil fields of Texas, moved to the corn fields of Iowa, relocated to the lakes and dunes of Nebraska, flown over the Atlantic to Great Britain and back across the pond to Las Vegas Nevada, then settled into Southern Idaho, all by age13, my young mind absorbed varied terrains and cultures. Being a feral child in an era when children were to be seen and not heard, I spent every waking hour outdoors roaming whatever countryside I happened to have been plopped down in. After breakfast and until suppertime, I was free to do whatever I wanted. That usually meant taking a new route to see unexplored terrain then trying to find my way back. By age five I learned to look for identifiable markers and notice the direction the sun was moving so I could find my way home after hours of wandering to see what was around the next corner or over the next hill. I learned to be alone and enjoy the minutiae of my thoughts. Perhaps that started my artist’s journey, being alone, looking closely at my surroundings, knowing that the landscape was always my solace.
After teaching a wide variety of media to students, I went searching for the perfect medium to combine what I loved about each to find my own voice. While out gallery hopping, I was mesmerized by an encaustic piece by Christopher Reilly in the Severn Gallery in Sun Valley. In his work he explored multiple cycles of creation, destruction, and regeneration. The warmth and translucency of the piece had me spellbound. Although I had heard of encaustic—I knew Jasper Johns’ work—I didn’t really know the how and what of it. I went home to investigate the details of this media.
I am process driven and conceptually motivated. For fifteen years I have explored what encaustic—a paint made from pigment mixed with melted beeswax and resin and fixed by heat after application—can convey for me. I have mixed my own mediums using ancient formulas, I have carved, oil painted over, and embedded objects within the encaustic. The medium seduced me; I am still in love with its malleability, the ways it allows me to combine and manipulate.
