Joy E. Hagen

Medium: Encaustic, Oils, Acrylics

Studio: OJOY Studio,
13612 62nd Ave. NE, Kirkland, WA

Phone: 425-821-0841

Joy E. Hagen grew up in Seattle, Washington, graduating from Queen Anne High School and Western Washington University. An early childhood in the Philippines and Panama and endless summers camping in the woods of the Pacific Northwest with a forester for a father and a teacher for a mother provided rich opportunities to experience and explore vistas that truly opened up the imagination of a child for whom art was an everyday part of her life.

She spent 15 years custom designing and painting canvas floor cloths, table runners, placemats and walls and six years as an art docent with the Lake Washington School District. A knee injury ended the down-on-your-hands-and-knees rug painting career and inspired her pursuit of a career in fine art, taking classes with various local and regional artists. Currently an active member of the Eastside Association of Fine Artists and the Kirkland Arts Center, Joy E. Hagen resides in Kirkland and enjoys painting commission pieces for local clientele, is a resident artist at Musings in Mill Creek Town Center, and has exhibited in local group and solo shows as well as numerous juried art shows. Her most recent honor was the 2007 City of Kenmore purchase award for one of her encaustic pieces.

Painting in both acrylics and oils, Joy often utilizes techniques learned from her years of decorative and faux painting. More recently, her movement into encaustic painting has placed her squarely in her element, with the beautiful Pacific Northwest as her inspiration in the creation of her organic “put-together” pieces. From deep, subdued colors to surprisingly vibrant patchworks of brilliant colors, Joy E. Hagen’s paintings reflect the variety of mood created and influenced by the ever changing weather of this area. Color and texture are favored elements in her artwork that is set in the context of the beauty that surrounds our everyday lives in this wondrous Pacific Northwest---art that says “this is where I live.”