Print maker, art historian and teacher Carol Wax was born in New York City on June 17, 1953. She earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1975 from the Manhattan School of Music and worked as a professional flautist until 1980. Summer printmaking courses in the mid-1970s led to intensive studies between 1976 and 1982 at the Pratt Graphics Center in New York City, where she was introduced to mezzotint engraving and extensively studied the history of the mezzotint, originally devised to reproduce paintings and retain their tonal subtleties, coming to embrace it personally as a technique with great expressive potential .

In the artist's own words “My imagery is inspired by commonplace objects that I perceive as sentient or mystical. I'm especially fascinated by vintage appliances or devices with organic forms that I exaggerate to evoke fantastic creatures or monuments. Or, in the same way seventeenth century Dutch still-lifes allegorically symbolized the impermanence of life and beauty, I may render outdated machinery as icons representing the transient nature of technology and consumer trends, contemplating how perceptions of objects evolve from state-of-the-art, to artifact, to art.” In 1990 Harry N. Abrams, Inc. of New York published her The Mezzotint: History and Technique. Wax's prints are held by numerous institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; The Philadelphia Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; and the Smithsonian Institution.