Paintings of the Fire Dance

In late spring I burned color paper dolls in an outdoor pit where I usually smoke fire my pottery.


I photographed them in various stages of their transformation into ashes. Then I put the photographs aside as my ideas about how to use them slow cooked in my consciousness. And there they simmered until I brought them out again this autumn.

I had thought about tooling with them in photoshop but I’m not adept enough in that medium to be sufficiently creative. So this week I just painted from the photographs, transforming the figures the old fashioned way - through the manipulation of paint and medium. Using acrylic paints and mica mortars I tried to capture a fiery, smokey atmosphere for the figures. Instead of “Burning Paper Dolls,” I renamed the series “Fire Dance,” making the figures active participants in a strange ritual rather than passive victims of the fire. Nevertheless, there is still something macabre about them - good for October.In late spring I burned color paper dolls in an outdoor pit where I usually smoke fire my pottery.


I photographed them in various stages of their transformation into ashes. Then I put the photographs aside as my ideas about how to use them slow cooked in my consciousness. And there they simmered until I brought them out again this autumn.

I had thought about tooling with them in photoshop but I’m not adept enough in that medium to be sufficiently creative. So this week I just painted from the photographs, transforming the figures the old fashioned way - through the manipulation of paint and medium. Using acrylic paints and mica mortars I tried to capture a fiery, smokey atmosphere for the figures. Instead of “Burning Paper Dolls,” I renamed the series “Fire Dance,” making the figures active participants in a strange ritual rather than passive victims of the fire. Nevertheless, there is still something macabre about them - good for October.

Working in acrylic on paper is still a challenge for me because I prefer the slow pace of oil painting. In acrylics, in order for the painting to remain fluid and gestural, I have to paint very rapidly. I suppose this is where my Chinese brush painting training helps. I even sometimes used the Chinese ink brushes and finger painting techniques to keep the colors moving. A lot of medium and washes helps with this as well.
Working in acrylic on paper is still a challenge for me because I prefer the slow pace of oil painting. In acrylics, in order for the painting to remain fluid and gestural, I have to paint very rapidly. I suppose this is where my Chinese brush painting training helps. I even sometimes used the Chinese ink brushes and finger painting techniques to keep the colors moving. A lot of medium and washes helps with this as well.