CONTENTS
Page One:
Adriano Colangelo: Fantasy Themes
Page Two:
José Pelegrina-Vissepo: Indigenous Peoples of
the Americas
Diógenes Giorlandino Turns His Talents to
Pyrography on Gourds
Page Three:
Vadim Grozavu: Photorealism
Book Review: Gourd Pyrography by Jim
Widess
Mystery Corner: Another Ball Hughes Pyrograph?
Mark Hale: From His Workshop
|
Portrait of Michael
Jordan |
From the capital city of Chisinau in the small country
of Moldova in eastern Europe has emerged a new talent
in the person of Vadim Grozavu, a young man who
has already mastered the highly prized pyrographic
technique of Photorealism.
Photorealism in paintings has always enjoyed
admiration from certain groups of people. However, it
seems a great many pyro art enthusiasts consider
photorealism the ideal in pyrography. Perhaps it is
because the very skill of using a pyro tool instead of
a paintbrush to achieve such great and precise detail
is extraordinary--only a handful of pyrographic
artists reach that level of skill. In part, it may
also be because the medium is exotic in the art
world--it is fascinating to realize that a person
could burn an accurate likeness of a subject and at
the same time produce what looks like a rich sepia
photograph in wood.
|
Portrait |
Taught by his dad when he was only a youngster, Vadim
Grozavu has been working in this medium since 1986.
Since that time, he has done a great number of pieces.
One particularly large and impressive pyro work of
his, on display in a kind of publicity center in
downtown Chisinau, has benefited from a lot of public
acclaim. Because his specialty is portraits, most of
Vadim's work is done on commission, including, to his
credit, the portrait of a young niece of a former
president of Moldova.
Vadim has recently achieved his latest goal towards
furthering his art career, which was to create an
internet presence for himself. Vadim Grozavu's work
is featured at the Art Trade
International website and now as well in the E-Museum
of Pyrographic Art
After completing art school, Vadim went on to major in
mathematics and computer science at Moldova's
university where he graduated in 1998. Although his
studies prepared him for a technical profession, his
first love is still his pyrographic art. Despite
Eastern Europe's depressed economy, Vadim has high
hopes that with his pyrographic portraits now on the
internet, his future will be brighter. Even so, he
has had to take an extra job part time in order to
maintain his site at Art Trade International.
|
Gourd Pyrography |
It is apparent that gourd art is big and getting bigger. Burning designs and rich textures onto a curved gourd surface is a very old tradition. For the pyro artist, the challenge of burning on the curves and with the irregularities is intriguing. Not only growing numbers of new enthusiasts are discovering this exotic sculptural art form, but pyro artists already expert in working on other materials are looking to gourd art to add dimension to their own artistic experience.
His past books have taught us to expect Jim Widess of The
Caning Shop (www.caning.com) to
offer substantial content, extensive research,
valuable instruction, and beautiful presentation.
High expectations for his latest offering--Gourd
Pyrography--will be more than rewarded. For
pyro art enthusiasts, this exclusively pyro book has
great appeal. It is a lovely, 144-page, hardcover
book that would be worth getting if only as a
coffee-table art book. It is lavishly illustrated
with 444 high quality color photographs of greatly
varied works by more than fifty gourd artists. The
introductory chapter alone is fascinating. It shows
traditional pieces from countries of Africa, Asia, and
the South Pacific and how artists in those countries
work in various unusual pyro techniques using basic,
even primitive tools (proving once again that
ultimately it is still the hand of the artist that
makes the difference. . .).
That Gourd Pyrography also includes
step-by-step photographic instructions from prominent
gourd artists and a special reference section with 74
color photographs of individual pyrographic tool tips
makes it a book that is hard to resist. And why
should you? Go ahead--enjoy, admire, ooh, ah . . .
and emulate!
|
The Witches from
"MacBeth" |
In this segment you are going to see three images:
the first is a drawing done in 1896.
Because in those days people illustrated articles with
drawings rather than photographic reproductions, the
drawing is not a picture or photograph of the Hughes
pyrograph but a pen and ink drawing of it. The third
image is the actual image (i.e., from a photo) of the
supposed Ball Hughes pyrograph from 1862. The middle
image is here as reference. It is the oldest of the
three since it dates back to the 1700s. It is the
painting by another artist named Fuseli that inspired
Ball Hughes to do his pyrograph, which in turn was
later illustrated in Fosdick's article by means of a
drawing.
The drawing above, according to the original
caption in Fosdick's
article, states that the Ball Hughes pyrograph is
after a painting by Fuseli. It also indicates that
Fosdick himself was the owner of the pyrograph.
Because it is only a drawing and not a photo, it can
only give us an idea of what the Hughes pyrograph
looked like.
A year ago when I was researching Fosdick's article, I
remember thinking about that drawing and wondering
what might have happened to the actual pyrograph that
Fosdick owned a hundred years ago. Needless to say,
when I recently received an e-mail, and a pyro image
of The Witches of MacBeth started
appearing on my screen, the only word that came to
mind was "BINGO!"
|
The Three
Witches |
The
original Fuseli painting immediately above, was
also, as the title for the Ball Hughes piece suggests,
inspired by another work--the play
Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
Fuseli's witches were Shakespeare's Three Weird
Sisters from Macbeth.
The pyrograph below is the third image and a
bit of a mystery. It certainly seems likely it is the
original Ball Hughes pyrograph that was illustrated by
that drawing in Fosdick's article. But there is not
as yet proof positive.
|
The Witches of
Macbeth |
Ball Hughes was a well known artist in his time,
primarily a sculptor and an engraver. As we have seen
with previous
Ball Hughes pyrographs, however, they are not his
original designs but rather his pyrographic renderings
of famous paintings by others. This is the first
difficulty in defining what a Ball Hughes pyrograph
should look like: There is no one style that is
identifiable in his pyrographs. In addition, as you
have seen in the image above, the pyrograph is not in
pristine condition, making it therefore much more
difficult to appreciate.
The present owners, David and Debbie Plunton, have had
this pyrograph for about ten years. They know the
previous two owners--a Games Master at Winchester
College in England by the name of Jim Crosby and
afterwards, his daughter Miss Dorothy Crosby who is
now almost 90 years old. Miss Crosby, a lifelong
family friend, gave it to David Plunton about ten
years ago.
Fosdick's article names himself as the owner of the
piece at the end of the nineteenth century. But as
yet, assuming this one is the same one, it is unknown
when Fosdick stopped owning it and who, if anyone,
owned it until it came into the hands of Jim Crosby of
Winchester (who wrote his name on the back).
Ball Hughes was an Englishman who settled in
Massachusetts where he made his other pyrographs. When
Fosdick owned the piece, presumably it was in the
United States. However, the Crosby family and the
Pluntons live in England. The Pluntons conjecture
that since Winchester College is a famous English
Public School where many famous people (British and
also American) attended, it is possible the pyrograph
made its way across the Atlantic along with an
American pupil.
David Plunton mentioned one more clue indicating their
pyrograph could be authentic:
"The pyrograph
has been examined by an acquaintance Christoff
Gotting, who renovates Stradivarius violins. Although
he is not an art specialist, he is an expert in
varnish. I thought he might perhaps be able to shed
some light on its age. I started by telling him that
we believed it to be around 18th century and he said
something very interesting, although I didn't take
much notice of it at the time. He said that even if
the panel was 18th century, the varnish certainly
wasn't, it was more modern around mid nineteenth
century. He explained that if you look at the piece
of varnish that has chipped off just to the right of
the bottom left hand corner, it is typical of a
varnish from this period. An 18th century or earlier
varnish doesn't chip in this way, it wears
gradually."
This piece will be placed with the other Ball Hughes
pieces in the E-Museum
of Pyrographic Art
Nevertheless, the last question remains: Why did Ball
Hughes not burn the title, his name, the date, and the
place on the back of this piece, as he had burned in
so carefully on his other works?
|
Two Boxes |
Like Vadim Grozavu, American woodworker and pyro artist Mark D. Hale of Solsberry, Indiana is another artist who is hoping his internet presence will make the difference. His works are on line in his own website called Mark's Workshop.
|
|
4" by 4"
unfinished box | 5" by 5"
unfinished box |
In Mark's case, he does principally woodworking. His
specialty and now his only offering is boxes. His
basswood boxes are beautifully crafted and known for
their fine finish (his trade secret). He sells many
like that, but--pyro artists take note!--now Mark
is also offering his basswood boxes unfinished for
others who like to decorate boxes with pyrography,
carving, or painting. So spread the word!
Since trying out wood burning a couple of years ago as
a hobby, Mark decided to add decorative designs on
some of his boxes. He tells about his start in
pyrography like this: "I thought it might be
nice on my boxes and I don't heat my workshop in the
winter months, so last winter I sat at my kitchen
table doing wood burning."
The results of these efforts can be appreciated in the
handsome examples you see here--examples you would
find worthy of any fine woodworker and pyrographic
artist of decorative art, and astounding once you
learn that Mark Hale is legally blind.
|
Mark Hale in His
Workshop |
Here is Mark's explanation in his own words:
"I have almost no vision at all in my left eye
and my right eye has a disease called toxoplasmosis.
This was diagnosed when I was about 14 and over time
it causes scars to form inside the eye.
So now I am 49, can no longer see to drive,
and do woodworking in my garage workshop. I use
magnifiers, flood lamps on adjustable stands and
prescription magnifing glasses for seeing detail. My
vision is like looking through an aquarium with dirty
water in it with a very dark mass of scars that float
through my field of vision."
I have not been able to support myself from my
woodworking though. At this time, my woodworking is a
supplement to a disability income, but I would very
much like to find a way to support myself from my
craft. It takes me longer to do the work now.
I had to give up driving in 1987. I really
miss being able to drive and that has made marketing
my work difficult. Right now my work is at an art
center in Pennsylvania on consignment. I bought a
computer 3 years ago, hoping that the Internet was a
way for me to accomplish that goal by getting more
exposure.
|
Ivy Box |
When I first heard from Mark in an email, my eyes
opened wide in disbelief and I thought to myself (out
loud), "Now, that's one I never expected to
get!" Well, in a matter of only days, I was
flabbergasted to hear from still another blind
person--Ken Thomas in Australia--looking to get
started in pyrography. The cause of Ken's vision
problems is totally distinct from Mark's. Therefore,
the adaptations and solutions he will require for his
new task will be distinct. Nevertheless, he finished
his own remarkable story and concluded by saying,
"I would like to meet other handicapped
pyrographers as we all understand each other better
than sighted people."
So, Mark, now that you're the expert and have shown
that it can be done, it looks as though you have a new
calling and one that is most likely unexpected
(although maybe not) --as a mentor.
At any rate, I think you've given us all a lesson in
courage.
Click here to go back to page one
Click here to go back to page two
 |
The AuthorKathleen M. Garvey Menéndez learned her pyrography techniques in Guatemala in 1975-1977. Her sister, Artist Sharon H. Garvey, later joined her there to collaborate on a pyrography project designed to promote this art form in the United States by means of a didactic book and a pyrography tool made by Navarro of Mexico.Thanks to the internet, this is the sixth year of articles on pyrography for the Woodcarver Online Magazine (WOM), started January 1997, and the fifth year of the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art, which opened its virtual doors January 1998. In March of that year, the International Association of Pyrographic Artists (IAPA) was formed and members began meeting on line. Linked from the E-Museum's Café Flambé, which hosts the IAPA meetings, is the Yahoo Groups uniting_pyrographers mailing list, member list, and chat forum set up by IAPA Co-founder Mixo Sydenham of Australia for IAPA members. |
2002, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
