My interest and intention as an artist is to elevate the technique of pyrography; the art of decorating wood with heated tools or flames, to a fine art form. Working primarily with portraiture and figure studies, I incorporate elements of surrealism and expressionism into my pieces. My technique involves using heated tools to burn images directly onto wood and I often offset the resulting monochromatic creations with splashes of color with paint. The clean lines against a stark tableau aim to lend a sense of drama to the overall effect. I find that strong energy underlies the two-dimensional works, as I flesh out each figural composition in a burst of passionate expressionism.
Through pyrography, I aim to create an entirely new mythology, reflective of the human experience within the context of industrial, urban society. Working in boxlike montages, often mimicking graphic novels, I capture glimpses of the human struggle with mechanisms of the outer world, by pairing straight lines and geometric forms against human figures and portraits. I currently live and work in Italy, my native country, and have published a book on pyrography as a contemporary art form.
