I Like To See My Work Rise From The Ashes!

The Lauer Group opening was a blast.  I was able to meet and speak with a lot of different people.  A few hundred saw my work.  Many asked questions.  Here are some of the things I was able to say about my work.

In a way, my work is about starting over.  It's about being able to take something to a certain level of destruction and bringing it back to life.

Some of the common themes in my figurative work are the flowers, human, and animals.  I like the characters that I create. They are visual.  They have emotion.

I like to test my work and my images and ideas.  I've burned up a lot of things.  

I was asked if I experiment a lot. I do. It's almost as if I have two lives.  One as the fire starter. And one as a fine artist.  Sometimes my paintings burn beyond me.  I have to catch up or the studio (The Blast Factory) might burn down.

I was also asked how much chance goes into my work.  An image for my work comes into my head. Then I will sketch this specific thought out with a pencil.  These small images grow into the bigger picture.  I pick a substrate and start to put it all together.  Sort of like building a bomb. But along the way, after the explosion and burns the idea may turn into a different image altogether. Perhaps completely removed from the starting point.  I love this element of chance.  A good example of this is Buzzman #6. It started as a one color flower and ended up with lots of layers.

Every time I light the fuse, there is anticipation.  Hope.  It seems like I'm always rushing to light the fuse. I need to slow myself down and enjoy the ride.  After all the scraping and cleanup, sometimes I will do more painting or add more burns and explosions.  I like to see where it ends up.

In my artwork, destruction, creativity and creation all become the same thing. I am really into creative destruction.  That, and big explosions.

I like to see my work rise from the ashes!

Boom!

Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist and author of LESS KILLING. Stick currently lives and creates explosive pop art at The Blast Factory in Madison, Wisconsin. Not limited to one medium, he works in gunpowder drawings and paintings, photography, digital art and writing. Follow Stick on Facebook and/or Twitter.