Instructor: Eliaichi Kimaro
Thursday
June 8
10am - 4pm
1 session

This one-day workshop covers the fundamentals of encaustic painting. After an overview of safety considerations and best studio practices, participants will dive in to preparing substrates, fusing, working with layers (transparent/opaque, concealing/revealing), incising, scribing, embedding, masking, and creating smooth vs. textured surfaces. The workshop consists of demonstrations and hands-on experience. There is no pressure or expectation that participants will leave with a finished piece. The goal of this workshop is to explore, experiment and play. This is a chance to get familiar with the process and equipment, and to practice new skills in a safe environment. No previous experience with encaustic necessary.

Eliaichi Kimaro is a creative storyteller who will learn whatever medium it takes to tell the story that is emerging. Over the past 40 years, she has used writing, music, photography, film, storytelling, and now visual art to explore her personal/family narrative. Her feature film A Lot Like You (2011) won six Best Documentary Awards on the film festival circuit before being broadcast nationally on PBS. A Lot Like You shows how our experiences of culture, race, class, gender and trauma shape our understanding of who we are and where we come from. After eight years on the international campus/conference lecture circuit, Eliaichi distilled her keynotes in her 2016 TEDxSeattle talk, “Why the World Needs Your Story.” In 2014, painting became her primary focus. Eliaichi was selected for the Center on Contemporary Art (COCA) Artist Residency in 2017. The following year, she was the recipient of the Artist Trust Fellowship and a scholarship from the International Encaustic Association. She has received multiple grants from CityArtist, 4Culture and Artist Trust for her work in art and film. Recently, she was awarded the 2020 McMillen Foundation Arts Fellowship, and the 2021 Denis Diderot Grant and the Chateau Orquevaux International Artist Residency in France. Eliaichi is a member artist at Columbia City Gallery and COCA Gallery, and a juried member of the City of Seattle’s Ethnic Artist Roster. In addition, she has served on numerous nonprofit Boards, art grant panels, film festival juries, museum exhibition planning committees, and advisory committees.