Statement

I started my creative journey with movement. I was a dancer as a child, but a life-changing car accident shifted my path toward visual art. That experience opened me to transformation, resilience, and the subtle beauty in fragility.

Art became a way for me to explore self-discovery and spiritual growth. Running has also become a moving meditation—a way to find rhythm, clarity, and presence that carries into my studio practice.

I’m inspired by both the physical and the unseen: the vastness of the universe, the quiet visual intelligence created as a bi-product for scientific research and patterns in nature. Constant curiosity, intuition and the visual languge of symbols guide the work I create.

Working in encaustic, I layer wax and pigment to capture time, process, and transformation. Each piece holds echoes of motion, patterns in the Earth, water, ice, and atmosphere—elements that connect us to the world around us.

Through my art, I hope to bridge science, spirit, and human experience. For me, making art is both meditation and message, grounded in my belief that Art Saves Lives.

-Elise Wagner, 2025