About



An artist since childhood, Stutts studied Art and Design at Appalachian State University before working professionally as an art director and designer. Although Stutts has had several love affairs with various mediums over her career, she was introduced to encaustic around 2014 and was hooked immediately.

"Working with encaustic I create graphic ecosystems by embedding unexpected materials inside many layers of wax. This construction of a suspended reality enables me to investigate complex themes around mental health, personal discipline, and sustainability. Layer by layer, I build up an environment of various mediums presented as simple shapes, to represent the beauty of chaos in our lives and our ability to find peace with it. My compositions aim to untangle these universal webs while encouraging reflection, conversations, and constant reevaluation of our realities.

I build these graphic ecosystems by layering non-traditional materials within an ancient medium. Finely ground metals, prints of plastic trash, and botanicals are preserved in a cloudy, almost dreamlike encaustic case. The inclusion of the objects in the melting of the wax represents the duality of building and destroying at the same time.  It is my way of honoring and trying to understand the complicated nature of being human in the modern day. Reminding myself and the viewer that we are infinite beings, despite being flesh and bone. We can burn brightly next to each other while we hide our deepest emotions and wrestle with connectedness."


Do you want to take the cliff notes with you? click here >> Interactive Portfolio

Want the whole CV?
click here >> STUTTS CV

LOOKING FOR DESIGN? click here >> Design Portfolio


Melissa Stutts Art Pop Street Gallery billboard
ArtPop Street Gallery Class of 2022


Studio portrait by Emily Chidester.