I think everything in life is art. what you do. how you dress. the way you love someone, and how you talk. your smile and personality. what you believe in, and all your dreams. the way you drink and eat. how you decorate your home. party. your grocery list. the food you make. how you write. how you dance, sing, or paint. how you feel.

life is art.

I work in encaustic, an ancient technique of pigmented wax that is applied molten and then re-melted with a blowtorch to fuse every layer to the one beneath it. Encaustic is a medium that is very much concerned with surface — and my surface is highly textured, raised, dense, and heavy with all the levels hidden beneath it. But at the same time, encaustic has the capacity to take on extreme transparency, which enables the simultaneous revealing and concealing of layers. It encompasses paradoxical states: opacity and translucency, surface and depth, molten and solid, which allows it to occupy its own kind of shifting, unstable space.

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used.

The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used — some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.

Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Today, tools such as heat lamps, heat guns, and other methods of applying heat allow artists to extend the amount of time they have to work with the material. Because wax is used as the pigment binder, encaustics can be sculpted as well as painted. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.

Ethan Elkins graduated from Washington State University with a BFA degree in 2003. An artist his whole life he began in drawing and painting, and later expanded to include sculpture, airbrush, and oil pastels.

Eventually he discovered encaustic, an ancient painting medium involving molten wax that is pigmented and applied hot. The process is a combination of painting and sculpting, allowing for several layers of translucent color that can be pushed, scraped, burned, or painted to reveal a deep and textured work of art with rich colors and incredible light fastness.