Elise Wagner has been working with the encaustic medium since 1992 and teaching workshops in the medium since 1995. As a professional artist, she is represented by galleries throughout the United States including; Chase Young Gallery in Boston, Butters Gallery in Portland and Aberson Exhibits in Tulsa, OK. Wagner's work is among corporate and private collections throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

A seasoned expert in the encaustic medium, Wagner has taught several Portland based instructors. She has demonstrated and taught at institutions nationally and internationally including, Vermont Studio Center, Oregon College of Art & Craft, Lewis & Clark College, Pacific Northwest College of Art and Red Deer College among several others. Her wealth of experience is offered in various classes that she teaches off site and in her home studio from beginning to advanced levels.

Wagner custom makes all of her own encaustic paints, which are sold to workshop participants.  Wagner's work has been published in Art in America, NY, Studio Visit Magazine, Boston, MA, American Art Collector, Berkeley CA, and the book Encaustic: A Guide to Making Fine Art with Wax, Random House, NY .  This coming October, Wagner will have her fourth solo exhibition of 2011 at Wentworth Institute of Technolgy in Boston, MA.  Most recently, Wagner was work was selected to be on the IFC Network television show "Portlandia" premiering in January 2012.