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Process

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY FIRE.  Fire’s ability to simultaneously destroy, permanently alter a landscape or create new life has captivated me since I was a boy.  After a recent violent, destructive fire at my home I gained a new level of appreciation for fire’s transformative abilities.  Staring at the aftermath I began to appreciate the charred remains of my home and vehicle.  Of great interest to me were my severely scorched garage doors.  I removed these doors from the debris and hung them on my wall.  This simple act transformed them from garbage into an object of art and appreciation, opening a doorway to healing and inspiration.

Soon after, I made a trip to New York where I came across the work of an artist named Cai-Guo Qiang (pronounced “psycho chang”) at the Guggenheim.  He was working with many mediums – one of which was gunpowder.  I was immediately captivated and flooded with ideas, energy and inspiration.  Upon my return home, I began to procure anything that I could use to begin to experiment with this new process.

With this new body of work I am exploring fire’s destructive capacity in a “controlled” and creative environment.  After the process of laying out the drawing or painting with various fuses, stencils and gunpowder, the work is carefully covered and weighted before being lit.  It is at this point that I have the least amount of control and the work is transformed from a static, visually cohesive piece to a violent, fiery “event”.  This aftermath is what intrigues me – the chaos of perfect order and harmony, the confluence of creation and loss.  This lack of control and unpredictability is a welcome departure from the carefully choreographed and tightly controlled process of bronze sculpture.