“Assembled Landscapes,” art work by Joy Hagen, will grace the walls of the Chapel Gallery in late June and July. All are invited to meet the artist in the Chapel immediately following the service on Sunday, June 28. No public art reception is planned. The exhibit will hang until August 7, 2026.

Every walk in the woods is a new adventure and revelation for artist, Joy Hagen. Deep dark forests and woodlands are her solace and sanctuary. With a forester for a father, the great outdoors was always a learning experience. She was taught to respect and love the power and presence of her natural surroundings. Living in the Philippines for the first five years of her life, plus a year in Panama, greatly impacted how she perceives patterns, colors and even smells when out of doors. Back home in Seattle, summers always meant camping and hiking and exploring old logging roads.

Hagen’s art is a song of praise and a call for stewardship. It invites exploring the beauty in the unexpected and in life's imperfections. It is what brings her peace. Her work speaks to remembered moments through selected bits and pieces from the natural world, usually with a reference to trees as she creates what she calls “assembled landscapes,” using reclaimed wood and melted beeswax mixed with resin and powdered pigment, known as encaustic medium. Papers, fabrics and wayside plant materials from her yard and travels, plus 20 years of accumulating the detritus of prior works, all become storytelling elements, as she contemplates loss, devastation and erosion versus perseverance, fertility and new growth. 

Hagen’s art wraps utility units in Kent and Covington and is in the permanent collections of the cities of Kenmore, Kent and Seattle, as well as with Swedish Medical Group in Edmonds, Everett and Issaquah. She is currently working on a project in West Seattle for Sound Transit.

For more information about the artist and her work, visit her website at www.joyhagenart.com.