Artists Magazine - USA (2020-04)

44 Artists Magazine April 2020

a conservancy, and Madooisonthe

National Register of HistoricPlaces.

Encaustic artist GeorgiaNassikas

(georgianassi kas.com) fearlessly

tends the bees in her northern

Virginia garden, in part toobtain

the wax from their hives(seeabove

images). Melted, the substance

becomes the basis for hermulti-

layered paintings. This technique

goes back thousands of years to the

ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

Nassikas combines damar, a natural

resin from fir trees, with dry pigment

and melted wax, fusing the mixture

to the panel to create atmospheric

landscapes that reflect the nature

Nassikas surrounds herself with in

her garden. To cultivate a welcoming

habitat for bees, the artist dug a water

lily pond where she can grow plants

for pollinators and where the insects

can drink. Her pollinator-friendly

plants include fennel, milkweed and

fuzzy Joe-Pye weed.

Nassikas is acutely aware of the

threat that colony collapse disorder

poses for all agricultural activity on

earth. She does her part to support

A late springtime view of

JoAnne Carson’s garden,

in Shoreham, Vt.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

a healthyenvironmentforherbees

andhasevenhonoredthembymak-

ingthemthesubjectinsomeofher

paintings.Besidesfindingbeauty

andinspirationinnature,Nassikas’

gardenisliterallyandfiguratively

embeddedinherwork.

NOVELTY STOKES

CREATIVITY

When New York City based artist

JoAnne Carson (joannecarson.com)

and her husband first moved to rural

Shoreham, Vt., in 2011, she had no

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE

A view of Nassikas’

meadow and beehives

Winter Vibration

by Georgia Nassikas

encaustic on panel, 21x10

Nassikas’ garden bounty

Close up of Nassikas’

garden fl owers and berries