when does encaustic stop being encaustic?

Or, better yet,
     when does it start?!
Is it when one first plugs the hot palette in

     and begins to fill the room with melting beeswax fumes?
Is it as she dips the brush deliberately into this molten pot
    and deftly applies it to the prescribed rigid, absorbent support?
Or maybe is it when he blends pigment with medium on the hot palette
    to reveal a new blend of color on the aforementioned support?
Perhaps at the juncture of paper to wax, as artist reliquishes control
    and applies a delicate paper to the hot blend of paints on her hot box.
Or at the moment when painting receives hot wax
    to give it the final finish that creates the depth, translucency and beauty that only encaustic can achieve?
Or maybe, it is as delicate colors are applied to the iron
   and transferred to slick surfaces as he creates ethereal landscapes and botanical.

Musing these thoughts as 'pushing the envelope' is happening regularly in my own work~
of development
and experimentation
and 'acceptable'
in this field.
Not only in my own work am I growing this determination to push and test and experiment;
to find the furthest edge of compatibility to encaustic and techniques and products from far and near is becoming an impassioned goal.
But also in  that of my business and teaching as I strive to expose this dynamic and transmutable medium to not only artists, but crafts person's worldwide.
Encaustic means that to me; dynamic beauty; transcendent opportunity; limitless potential.

Why resist?
Why hold back?
Why limit?
Why constrain?
Why grip and strain and desperately hold fast to something that can belong to everyone-and grow richer, more full and rewarding as a result of this expansive acceptance?
If the potential is there, is it not wrong to leave it unexplored if the bettering of not only the individual, but ultimately the whole, is rewarded?

Is it too much of a stretch to see the potential this way?
Am I alone in my goosebump-filled enthusiasm at the thought of creative spirits everywhere, in every genre, make and model, embracing encaustic as a mode of self expression and creative investment?
Do I see too far down the road of 'what if' to connect the dots for those traveling similar paths?
Truly, is my vision so far-sighted as to seem blinded?
Truly?
I have to ask:
Do you not wake frequently to immediate thoughts of inspiration?
Of watching a face light up at the realization that they can do something creative?
That they may find a personal voice, no matter how 'right' or 'proper' or even 'beautiful' the world may think it, in this medium?
Awake to visions of the next workshop you will teach and feel the joyous expectation of potential to enliven and inspire even just one new heart and soul to this medium?

Do you short change yourself the absolute joy of this for the limited vision of the exclusivity of 'art'?

Is a Monet 'bastardized by paint by number?
A Renoir by coloring books?
A Cassatt by 'student grade'?
Is there not equal value in all
as one leads to a better understanding of and acceptance in the whole?

My opinion runs deep and wide.
I believe in what I think is a bigger picture.

But I am just me.
And in my questions here, is also my answer.

I ask them of you to expand the bubble.
To explore the edges once again.
To push the envelope.
I do not require your response; but hope that you will require one of yourself.
Answer if you will, encaustic artist, and stand up.
Creativity has a voice in every living thing.
God's design is at work in every cell of creation.
Hardly limiting;
expansive and embracing and wide reaching.
Let us all be so humbly inclusive.
blessings beyond words.
in love. trish

More thoughts on the subject:
http://kimradatz.blogspot.com/2011/09/do-you-call-yourself-artist.html