Unbowed.  (2015)  18" x 24"  Fuse. Acrylic. Paper.

This artwork is currently, exclusively offered at The Century House. 

Strong, luminescent vertical stripes, light and burned textures. Blues, purple, blacks and hint of orange split by burning 2mm fuse.

The color grooves create their own relationships through the blending and burned connections of the high-speed fuse and the working and reworking of the surface.

I named it "Unbowed" when my 93 year father was reciting by memory the poem Invictus by William Ernest Henry.

"In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludegeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed."

Unframed.

Primitive.  Modern.  Explosive.  

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.