It’s always interesting to look back at our younger selves. In this issue’s lead article, Life Before Wax, we visit 23 artists from our community before they found encaustic. We may have, ahem, matured but we are still energized by the same creative energy. Certainly the work we did then—in clay, metal, fiber, oil, acrylic, photography, even on the stage—has informed what we are doing now.

Yes, this is me in 1978 when I was drawing with thread on paper. I’d made my first encaustic painting 10 years earlier in art school but didn’t return to wax until the mid-Eighties

The rest of this issue is focused on the present. In Q&A Nancy Natale talks to Lorrie Fredette, whose installations are equal parts ethereal and uncomfortable–which is exactly the way she likes it. Deborah Winiarski has curated a feature on artists who integrate photography and wax (no, we don’t call it “photo encaustic”). In Essential Questions Jane Guthridge focuses on the importance of community. Paula Fava takes us into Maritza Ruiz-Kim’s Martinez, California, studio. Debra Claffey features the work of two artists, Kim Bruce and Paul Rinaldi, in her In Five Words feature. In Open Call Pamela Blum marks the end of R&F’s fabled gallery with a look back as well as a panorama of the current and last show. As always we’ve got listings for Exhibitions and Workshops by our ProWax members. The Sidebar spotlights more of what’s in the issue. I hope you’ll spend some time with all of it.– J.M.