Friction. (2018)  16" x 24"  Fusograph.

Elegant, fluid burnings bracket a textured bar surrounded by groovy pale blues and greens. 

The image is a close up, abstract photograph of paint on canvas  This is one of a series of three fusographs I created while starting to write a new horror screenplay. Hence the names, Intention, Tension and Friction.

These new artworks combine my photography, hand-held and fast burning fuse.  I call these new works fusographs - which is short for fuse burned photographs. Fusographs are logical progression for me as my work continues to evolve. I do a lot of photography and I love to burn and explode things.

The process is much tougher than you realize. The photographic papers burn very quickly.  I need to work minimally and fast. 

Brisk.

Photographs scratch and mar easily. So I need to work in a light and delicate way.

Gentle.

Primitive.  Modern.  Explosive.  

Unframed.

American gunpowder artist, Vega carefully places powder and fuses on the surface of the art, which he positions horizontally on the floor (or blast table). When ignited, first the fuses burns instantly along the cord lines, igniting the gunpowder and creating a blast, which then vanish in clouds of smoke. The result is a textured surface that looks and feels like an explosion—the art is blackened, charred, and erupted, arrested in a state of being created in a flash.

When the fuse is lit there is a moment of uncertainty. What will happen? It is at that moment that true art exists.