How To Make Explosive Gunpowder Art!

Here are seven of my key points. Seven rules of thumb. Seven stepping stones. Seven things I did not learn in MBA school. Follow these religiously and you will see explosive results, or at least an explosion!

1. Make sure your audience will care about what you are making. Then blow it up!

2. Make sure your gunpowder is dry. Nothing is worse than doing a lot of planning, prep work, laying the gunpowder, then lighting the fuse and nothing happens. A dud. A disappointment. This sucks!

3. Bring a gang of your friends and customers over when you explode your art. If three or more of them hate your work, you might have a problem. Or, perhaps you are a genius. Talk to them, figure it out. Blow it up again!

4. A bigger explosion does not mean a happy ending. Your fans will love bigger, but the art sometimes gets blown to bits. So it goes like this. Light the fuse. Boom. Everyone cheers! Then you pull out the art. A charred mess. Fans look at you like "WTF".

5. Love your work. But have some conflict. Gunpowder naturally conflicts with things. Blow it up.

6. Pick the design and look of your art. Think about it over and over again. Visualize it in the shower, when you are out for a walk, even when you are at Genna's Lounge. See what happens in your mind. How all the substrates, paints, explosion and fire interact. Hear the explosion. Feel the heat of it (don't stand too close). This is your art.

7. Draw it. Paint it. Know your situation. Will the neighbors narc? Will the surrounding foliage start on fire? If not, light the fuse. Explode it. Brush it off. Frame it. Hang it. Admire it. Be proud. This is your work. Few people get this far.

So creating some incredibly beautiful gunpowder art isn't rocket science, if you know what you are doing. Follow these steps and you will see results. Or, at least you will have a blast trying. And who knows, if you know how to handle fire, you'll know how to light up a room.

Please hit me up and follow along. There are a lot more tips, images and artwork on facebook and my blog!

Here is a follow up post for a more details!

How To Make Explosive Gunpowder Art! (An Open Letter)

Boom!

Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist. He creates and blogs from Stick Vega Studios in Madison, WI and Bucktown, Chicago, IL. Follow Stick at Facebook and/or Twitter.