Fifteen years
ago, Canadian visual artist Steven Spazuk had a dream. It was a vision of black
and white landscape painting, and he knew intuitively that it was done with
fire. He has since worked towards mastering an unusual technique called fumage
wherein he uses the flame of a candle, a Zippo windproof lighter, or a torch as
a pencil. He sculpts the carbon residue on the canvas with regular
paintbrushes, specially designed wire brushes, and feathers of birds to give
form to human figures and birds.
Spazuk's dalliance with the flame has earned him the moniker ‘The Fire
Artist' even as his work continues to blaze a trail on the internet. The
lighter manufacturer has now teamed up with the maverick artist by releasing a
YouTube video on February 22 that throws light on his unusual creative process.
Spazuk's technique hinges on timing
and dexterity. “One has to be quick. If the flame stays too long on a spot, the
canvas will catch fire. The trick is to keep the paper at certain angles and
maintain the right distance between the flame and the paper,” says the
Montreal-based artist from London who is holding an exhibition of his paintings
in York.
He holds the Zippo lighter in his
right hand while deftly manoeuvring the paper with his left. The angles are
crucial to get the desired marks and shapes. Spazuk sometimes does pencil
sketches on paper before “attacking it with a flame”. He is fascinated by the
human body. “Bodies in a perpetual metamorphosis became the language through
which I expressed my thoughts on the human condition.” However, in the last few
years, he has shifted focus to the environment. “I have been doing birds in
recent times. The winged creatures for me are a symbol of the fragility of
nature. Birds are dying all over the world. I am trying to raise awareness
about environmental degradation, the most visible symbol of which is their
declining population,” says the artist.
He makes a powerful artistic
statement by using feathers to scratch off the delicate residual black soot on
the paper. “That way, I am using actual feathers to create imprints of
feathers.” He feels that by using carbon residue and actual feathers, he is
drawing attention to the disastrous effects of carbon footprint.
Spazuk is continually innovating in
his pursuit of artistic excellence. Earlier, he had devised a special brush
with strands of his wife's hair while making her portrait. However, the world
took note of his genius only four years ago, thanks to social media. “It's only
recently that my creations have been internationally feted. Some of my work has
been filmed and those films went viral and it generated a lot of response,”
says the artist, who has been drawing since he was a child because he was
painfully shy. He dabbled in acrylic and mixed media for a long time before discovering
his true calling in the flame.
“I have been a professional artist
for the last 15 years, but it is only in the last five years that the sale of
my paintings has picked up,” says Spazuk, who was an art director with an
advertising agency. His art has travelled to Norway, Japan, the US, Mexico, and
Britain. Spazuk has no regrets for not being able to win any major awards till
date. He attributes it to the very nature of art, which is essentially
subjective.
He is now contemplating making
tutorial videos for the web so that people interested in the art form can learn
the craft.
Source:DNA-20th March,2017
