Fine Art Wood-burning? Some Past Works

No matter the twists and turns I have made in my artistic career (from sculpture, to fibers etc) I have always considered drawing to be my main media. Because of that I have always thought about different ways to create a line from embroidery, to carving, and now woodburning.
Wood-burning is traditionally a craft (another word for it is Pyrography). I'm sure many of you have seen it at craft shows, in form of a horse or deer burned onto a plaque to hang in your den or lodge. Its aesthetic is antique, like an old rocking chair or tea set. Woodburning allows you to make a line on wood, while taking advantage of the woods natural surface. Its not like paint or graphite where it sits on top of the surface, but actually digs into the wood.
I was inspired to wood burn by my best friend and classmate, who makes woodburned boxes with celtic knots and patterns. I found the sepia toned boxes to be elegant and textural. Later I decided that they complimented my art style perfectly. My work is inspired by the decorative arts and I would call it romantic (with a little R).
I felt that the antique quality and history in the decorative arts related to the Romantic (with the big R) Ballets and Melodramas that Ive been so interested in. Which has lead me to use it as my drawing medium (I do considered my wood burning to be drawings) for my BFA work.
The past semester, before combining ballet and woodburning, I played with using the medium with some of the other concepts I was working with at the time.
Here are some images!



These peices are part of my hair series. Hair is an identification tool, and can tell use so much about a person's intentions, personality, and business of the day. This piece is called "Saturday Night Hair". One of the things I was experimenting with was combining color and other media to the woodburning. I used a variety of media, washes of acrylic paint, india ink, wood stains (both oil and water based), and tints of oil paint. To be honest I hated all of them (though I tried marker on one piece, and loved the translucent color it created. Unfortunately, Markers aren't archival and the wood grain tears up the felt on my prismacolors). In this piece I used wood stains, and I feel its the most successful with color. My 'frames' will contain almost no color taking advantage of the sepia of the wood. Any color that exists will be small details to add some punch. I am going to experiment with having a finishing like lacquer or polyurethane to really making the wood grain and indention of the burned line pop.



In this peice ( "Sunday Morning Hair')I used a base layer of india ink and used wood stains on top of it. I used india ink because I thought it would imitate the color of markers. It came out matte and I didnt understand why. After staring at an earlier peice over break, where I used marker on wood, I realized what made the wood grain and color so lush wasnt the marker it self, but the gloss acrylic coating on top of it. Coatings make surfaces look wet bringing out all the details and layers. If I decide to go back on these I will put a coating on them, so you can see all the layers of media I played with and its relationship to the wood grain




This lovely "Pitcher Plant" This is part of a series that compares women to carnivorous plants. Despite its issues with negative space, I am rather fond of it. I love characterizations, and I focus on that when I draw my figures. This involves emphasize on 'costuming' hair styles etc. Also, one of the things Im doing with my 'frames' is combining my characters with other elements to give a greater insight to their psychology. My pitcher plant is a good example of combining a human with another element to tell more about the individual.


I hope this gives everyone better insight to what I am trying to acomplish.
Tuesday, I will be talking about Giselle, so I am going to leave you with a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnflXfNH-mU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpXVzvFzEjg

-Ry.E