Fire

Fire is used in the form of the intense heat and molten sparks given off by a wire-feed electric welder. After a nearly a year of experimental attempts, the first and primary series using this technique (Birch Tree) came forward starting in 2008 using the wild, scattered trails of weld “splatter” unleashed from the welder.  As with his earlier Smoke series, the artist brought the physicality of a sculptor to the balancing act of purposely capturing random chance. Specifically, the Birch Tree series came after returning to the studio after a demanding morning hike when sunlight found a grove of birch trees on a snow-covered Colorado mountain peak. The artist was drawn to the similarity of burn marks left on the hardwood floor beneath his welding table and the highly textured black marks on high elevation birch trees.

Above: From “Birch Tree” series. 96”X96”, Weld splatter and pigments, 2008