Concentration

"luci"

ARTIST STATEMENT

At the beginning of the quarter were were asked to pick a concentration. I chose mine to be people, but over time that concentration changed to lights. Even more specifically light created by the burning and spinning of steel wool. This idea first came to me for our unique lighting project and I've been in love with it ever since.

This is such an interesting concept to me. First how someone thought to do this and second how it works. By stuffing steel wool into a whisk, lighting it on fire, and spinning it in front of you or above your head or even in a figure 8, I can capture these amazing photographs that look like I'm setting the world on fire.

I walk out into the night and can barely see my hand held in front of my face. Every night I'm given a blank canvas to work with and I can paint with fire and make my own work of art. The intense focal point that is created by the ring draws the viewers' eye straight to the person in the middle of it and ultimately lights up the once unknown that is the night. All of the sparks that fly off of the steel wool create lines that lead your eye right bak to the center and even when blurry, are just fascinating. One of my favorite parts of doing this is how the long exposure grasps the world at night all around me. For example in the figure 8 image. While still the focal point, the main part of the image does not take up much of the frame and the viewer can see more of the ocean and the land in the back of the image along with the land in the distance along with some light pollution from Portland. Another favorite of mine has got to be blocking sparks with the umbrella. It adds a whole other way of manipulating the image and playing with the light so it's no longer just "spinning." The walking backwards on the bridge is the last one I'll mention, it's another great one. I love the way the spiral looks and that combined with the sparks lighting up the bridge by hitting the sides and spilling over just come together to make an amazing image.

I could go on and on about this type of photography, it makes for such a cool picture and I highly recommend it.