I have always loved wax. I don’t really know how I became obsessed with it. Maybe it’s because it was different than what others were using? Maybe it’s the softness, that substantial presence, the versatility that it allows. The infinite possibilities and layers that can be sandwiched together and mixed with all the other materials allowing for my never ending obsession with materials more possibilities, more areas of discovery, more growth. I have been exploring and mixing this material with ever other material I can get my hands on for over 20 years.
I paint with water soluble wax, using the latest emulsification technology to create a water-soluble wax paint that may offer similar handling characteristics as the wax paint of the ancients, commonly referred to today as “Punic wax.” The earliest description of wax and encaustic painting technique is by the Roman scholar Pliny, the Elder. This technique was used in the Fayum mummy portraits from Egypt around 100–300 CE and the sixth-century icon of Christ from Saint Catherine’s Monastery and other early icons.
In the twentieth century, painter Fritz Faiss (1905–1981), a student of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky at the Bauhaus, and Dr. Hans Schmid rediscovered the so-called “Punic wax” technique. The resulting wax is believed to be the same as the Punic wax described by Pliny. Encaustic painting is used in many works of twentieth-century artists, including Jasper Johns, Arthur Dove, Tony Scherman, and Mark Perlman.
I don’t think there is an end to what I can discover in wax.