Waxtastic
Now – July 5, 2026
Waxtastic brings together a dynamic collection of contemporary works that challenge and redefine one of art history’s most versatile mediums.
This exhibition bridges the gap between the ancient, fiery discipline of encaustic painting and the modern, solvent-driven practice of cold wax medium, punctuated by the structural radiance of hand-forged glass.
Together, these forms create a captivating sensory experience that explores temperature, texture, and time.
Artist Reception
Friday, June 12th
5:00 – 8:00 PM
Enjoy light refreshments, meet the artists, and experience an inspiring evening of art and conversation.
This event is free and open to the public—we’d love to see you there!
Featured Artists
Eve Bayer
My work is inspired primarily by what I see in nature, which I reimagine expressionistically, incorporating paint, charcoal, pastel, wax, and organic materials, in a studied and deliberate process. I layer, add, subtract, contemplate and revisit, until only the finest, most deliberate marks remain to be made or the last piece of material remains to be added.
My formal art studies are through Washington University, Saint Louis, and the School of Visual Arts in New York. I live and work primarily in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Dee Levang
As a multidisciplinary visual artist, I explore the tactile and transformative possibilities of water, wax, and wool by working with water-soluble media, encaustic painting and printmaking, oil and cold wax, and textiles.
A fascination with biological sciences and technology leads me to examine the ways systems evolve, grow, and adapt, often in unexpected ways. This curiosity manifests in organic forms, structural layering, and a sense of constant transformation throughout my practice.
Dee Levang is an American multidisciplinary visual artist working in fiber, encaustic, oil and cold wax, and water-soluble media. Born and raised in the Los Angeles area, she currently resides and works in St. Louis, Missouri. She studied graphic design at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). As a teaching artist, she teaches classes and workshops both locally and regionally, including at Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, St. Louis Artists’ Guild, St. Louis Community College, and the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles.
An alumnus of the Saint Louis Art Fair’s Emerging Artists as Entrepreneurs program, Levang has participated in local juried art fairs and events including Schlafly’s Art Outside, Cherokee Street Print Bazaar, Maplewood’s Let Them Eat Art, Queeny Park Art Fair, and Wall Ball live painting fundraiser for Artscope. She has been awarded three Artist Support Grants from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and a scholarship from the International Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA.
Nicole Dutton
& Mark Salsbury
Exhibition is Liminal Matter
Collab Artists: Nicole Dutton and Mark Salsbury
Liminal Matter brings together glass and encaustic through a shared language of transformation, layering, and material intuition. The work explores organic forms, surface texture, and the interplay of translucency and opacity, revealing how both materials are shaped through heat, repetition, and touch.
As a marketing and branding strategist, Mark spent his professional career around writers, designers and artists who visually shaped his ideas. It wasn’t until a trip to Italy that he was moved to helm his own creative trek. Stirred by the frescos of Rome and Florence, where art was intended to be part of the
landscape, he picked up a brush when he returned home, diving headfirst into a variety of creative experiences to unleash his own artistic ambition.
His foundation began in representational oil painting, but the combination of oil and malleable cold wax together with more introspective subjects steered
him toward abstraction. Studying in the studios of various artists he began to hone his craft. He has studied in studios across the country, from Santa Fe and Albuquerque to Wisconsin and Montana. His work appeared in the 2017 book Cold Wax Medium – Techniques, Concepts, Conversations and in 2020 he was
included in Artfolio 2020, A Curated Collection of the World’s Most Exciting Artists. Mark was also selected into the prestigious 2-year St. Louis Art Fair
Emerging Artist program in 2017-18, and in 2018 he was selected as an artist-in-residence at Chateau Orquevaux in France. He continues to paint regularly in
the same studio where he started over 20 years ago. When not in his studio painting, Mark is Executive Director of Craft Alliance in St Louis, MO.
Mark WItzling
Diane Reising
An instructor of mine back in the day at Washington University School of fine art gave this advice: “Your paintings should always have an element of magic and mystery”. I always like to strive for that in my paintings.
I am a native of St. Louis and always enjoyed drawing and painting. In my high School class I was considered to be one of the two “artists”. Therefore my life has continued more or less in that direction.
I have worked in many different media, even some sculpture that was largely unsuccessful. My favorite medium has always been oil painting. For the last several years that has been oil mixed with cold wax medium. I like this medium because it can be very textural, it is translucent, it can be worked in many layers, it remains workable for a good period of time but dries relatively quickly into a velvety matte finish, and it requires no heat source for melting or fusing the wax.
My paintings are usually abstract or semi abstract. I am a passionate horseback trail rider and my images of the woodsy outdoors are often foremost in my painting. I consider most of them to be environmental abstracts. I rarely start out with any preconceived plan, but that’s usually the result in the end
I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. But, I spent my high school years in Peoria, Illinois attending Limestone High School. Limestone provided me with my first real taste of art intstruction. Thanks to what seemed to be opposing approaches of the tight and exacting Mr. Hagenbach and the loose and experimental, yet no less demanding, Robert A. Daugherty, I had a solid base to set my course as a fine artist.
Returning to St. Louis in 1979 I continued my art education at St. Louis Community College at Meramec while raising a family. I also began creating commissioned portraits, original paintings, murals, scene and set design and constructions, and taught art through the Jewish Community Center and afterschool programs at Spoede Elementary School. In 1986 I began taking on private students. Several have gone on to be respected artists and continue to be friends.
I then spent two years at Washington University intensely studying drawing, painting, and figure structure. Professor Barry Schactman taught me what it is to “see”. I am indebted to his dedication as a teacher and his genuine approach to life. I graduated with a BFA and use every ounce of that education to this day.
I consider myself a draftsman first and then a painter. It is always my goal to marry the two together whether working a portrait, landscape, or an abstract piece.
As a draftsman, painter, and sculptor I specialize in portraits of people, pets, homes, and cherished objects. I also create original works of art which I call “cerca trovas”. Pronounced chair-ka-tro-vuh. It means seek and you shall find. I have no one medium. My repertoire consists of pastels, charcoal, colored pencils, pen and ink, watercolor, scratchboard, clay, stone, drywall, black paper, acrylic paint.
Aside from my studio work I also entertain at events creating silhouettes, quick draw portraits, henna tattoos, interactive murals, face painting and sidewalk chalk paintings. I am also an Handwriting Analyst and Face Reader. I continue to take private students, and conduct demonstrations and workshops.
My memberships include The St. Louis Artists Guild and The Gateway Pastel Artists. I am also a Master Gardener through the Missouri Botanical Garden and a member of The Garden’s Speakers Bureau.
I’ve had work on display at The Artist Guild and The Creative Gallery and was awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2008 April edition of the Pastel Journal. (see page 76) Much of my work hangs in clients homes.
Deanna Nash
Leah Merriman
Leah Merriman a St. Louis native and is passionate about her hometown. Six years ago she began exploring techniques that would allow her to “paint deeper” into the canvas and her love for the encaustic medium took shape. She now works primarily in encaustics to create ethereal, layered abstract landscapes on cradled wood. She also creates detailed illustrations of urban scenery and architecture in ink and acrylics as well as charcoal portraiture that she blends with encaustics to create her own, unique style.
She has worked primarily in encaustics for over 13 years. Leah joined the Green Door Art Gallery as a resident artist in 2018. In 2024, she became the third iteration of Green Door Art Gallery owners.
