For the Love of Beauty

Photo Encaustic Works

Wax + Modern Photography

Marrying these two mediums together, wax and photography, is my most recent exploration into image making.  I’ve long loved the mediums separately, but together I’m doubly smitten.  Encaustic techniques have been used for decorations on ancient Egyptian sarcophagi, as well as  for writing Byzantine icons, and these works have stood the test of time beautifully. 

The encaustic medium naturally lends itself to mystery and has an almost dream-like quality.  Wax, mixed with pigment, creates a rich and deep platform for storytelling.  Photography naturally tends to be very literal, and brings a sense of the present moment to a story. 

By combining the two mediums, looking at a photo encaustic work is like looking through a very thin veil, that straddles both the earthly and heavenly, the physical and the metaphysical, and can therefore serve as a balm for contemplation.