Member Spotlight July 2021: Marcia Streithorst

Marcia Streithorst is a professional artist and teacher based in Raleigh.  Originally from Ohio, Marcia graduated with a BFA and before graduation landed a job at a publishing house. She has worked in the field of arts ever since, doing everything from managing designers at a Fortune 500 company to volunteering for non-profit art groups.  Marcia has been a member of CMMAG for 7 yrs.  She is the current Vice President of the CMMAG Board and has previously served as Secretary and a Member at Large.

After her family moved to North Carolina, Marcia started to take her personal art seriously and fell in love with the network of supporting artists in the area, the vibrant galleries and the welcoming arts community in Raleigh.  Marcia says she owes her pursuit of becoming a professional artist to her husband who truly believes everyone should, on some level, be passionate about what they do. 

It was in NC where she was first exposed to encaustic medium, and she has been captivated by its possibilities ever since.  Marcia uses encaustic to capture all the colors, fibers, textures, and music of life into beautiful surreal paintings.  She feels that she will always be an encaustic painter because she loves using a blow torch 😊 and never gets bored with the medium. The wax provides endless, exciting possibilities.  Marcia shares her passion for encaustic through her foray into teaching, where she sparks excitement in students for the ancient medium by showing them how to make it their own.

Marcia feels that she is very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach and show her work across the Triangle.  Her inspiration for painting is the drive to inspire that feeling of wonder and magic in others, and she is able to capture this in many layers of wax with its depth and texture.  Encaustic is water-resistant and touchable; Marcia parlays these characteristics into an experience for the viewer.

As Covid restrictions are being lifted, Marcia is slowly returning to teaching in-person encaustic classes with the City of Cary and at NC State’s Craft Center beginning as early as July 21^st.  Her available classes are outlined on her website at mjsworks.com or on Facebook at MJS Works.  You can meet her in person at the Cary Lazy Daze event in August or view her work at Cary Gallery of Artists.  Below are some examples of her encaustic pieces.