Welcome to Issue 16 of ProWax Journal

Steven J. Cabral, The Constant Battle Between Me and I, 2016, oil and cold wax on canvas, 40 x 50 inches

Back when I was the Lifestyles Editor at Glamour magazine (it was my day job) we used to say, "Dress for the job you wish to have." The same is true with the art choices available to you. Select the organizations, groups, publications, and institutions for the career you wish to have. If you are happy being an amateur--and let me stress that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being an amateur, i.e. someone who paints for the sheer love of it with no aspiration to making it a career--then by all means align yourself with "encaustic art." But . . .

. . .  if you aspire to be a professional artist, or if you are a professional artist already, then you owe it to yourself to focus on entities with a demonstrated higher aim. No one's twisting your arm to stick with "encaustic art" or, conversely, to venture into the larger art world. The choice is yours. There are many options out there. I would say this: Look at the artists who have the career you wish to have. Where do they show? What groups do they belong to? What events do they attend? What issues are important to them? Let them be your role models.

With that idea in mind, we’ve launched a new feature, Editor’s Choice. I’ve asked our editors and feature writers to select an artist, artwork, exhibition, book, film, or event that interests them. Each issue we’ll feature a few. Not only do we have role models, we feel the responsibility to acknowledge the work of others who, while working in encaustic, are looking beyond the boundary of  "encaustic art." The painting that opens this post is by Steven J. Cabral, a young artist with a finely honed sense of geometric abstraction and damn good painting chops as well. You’ll see more of his work in the feature, as well as short takes on artists who are responding to our current political situation with resistance in art and action. 

Finally, with this issue we launch on a new platform, Blogger. We’re the same ProWax Journal you have come to depend on for information by and for professionals working in wax and encaustic, in more or less the same format. Please bookmark our new URL, www.ProWaxJournal2.blogspot.com, and follow us by email (signup is on the sidebar). But feel free to visit our old site, where Issues 1 through 15 will reside as an accessible archive. I’ve created links to the archived issues from this new site, too.

As always I hope you'll comment on this post or any of the others. We don’t operate in a vacuum. We’d like to hear from you!

And if you like what we're doing. please consider donating to support this publication. The Donate button is on the sidebar. We take no ads and no one gets paid, but sometimes there are bills incurred. Your donations will help us continue. Thank you.

  

--Joanne Mattera, editor-in-chief