Explosion Woodcuts

Explosion 1

Explosion 2

Why Explosions?

As I was preparing for my show at Artspace a couple months ago, I came across several small, uncut woodblocks in the studio. Since I had been working on larger, more involved pieces, I thought it would be cool to do something quick and different. I had been playing around with the idea of explosions in my sketchbook, so I decided to give it a go on a couple blocks. I normally draw pretty straight forward subject matter from various reference sources, but with these I wanted to just create something from nothing. So I put the charcoal and eraser to the wood and reacted to each step as it happened until the image seemed resolved. The results are Explosion 1 and Explosion 2.

Nobody really seemed too interested in these little explosions, but I was intrigued. I started doing some larger explosion drawings to see what I could come up with. In addition to being interested in the idea of an explosion, I used these drawings as an opportunity to move beyond my usual drawing materials and techniques. I was more interested in what kind of marks I could discover than coming up with great drawings. Several drawings later, it was time to go back to the wood, this time a little larger. I took bits and pieces of things that I came up with in the drawings and brought them together in one piece – a “greatest hits” compilation of sorts. I’m sure some people work this way all the time, but it’s quite a departure from my usual method. So far, it has been fun and rewarding.

So why make images of explosions? Since the declaration of the “global war on terror,” I have been interested in how we as a society seek a sustainable balance between our ideals of individual privacy/freedom and security of the greater populace. Things are especially interesting now that there is a new administration and these issues are being discussed more openly.

Explosions are a universal symbol of modern warfare. Though there are still gun battles, it seems more characteristic that sides engage each other remotely, using either road side explosives or high-tech guided bombs and missiles. Either way, it seems that there are an awful lot of civilian casualties. And even when bombs are not going off, the people living in the war zone are forced to go through day to day life with the knowledge that some sort of bomb could go off at any time. That level of uncertainty must take a toll on a people’s psyche after a while. So, in the broadest sense, explosions represent anxiety and uncertainty to me.

The explosions that I am creating are not intended to be realistic representations of how explosions or look or even how they work. Most real explosions that I have seen are not visually impressive. An exception would be fireworks, which are carefully designed for visual effect. But even with the most visual of fireworks, their power comes from a combination of what you see, what you hear and what you FEEL. My favorite fireworks are the ones where you see the light of the explosion, and based on the speed of the expansion, you say, “this is going to be a good one.” Then a second later you hear the low pitched BOOM! and feel the concussive force hit your chest. I’d like to distill that into an image.

Also informing my personal concept of explosions is what I see on t.v., the web and in movies. Hollywood explosions are like beautiful cumulus clouds of roiling orange fire. Then there are all the DIY movies from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan often shot in green and white night vision. Explosions show up as the screen being whited out suddenly, then the image fading back in. And since Desert Storm we have had cockpit-cam and bomb/missile-cam footage. We watch the target get closer and closer, then an eerily understated black screen. Of course I should mention the old footage of nuclear test detonations, with the iconic mushroom cloud, the atomic winds then the storm of fire that follows. As a kid, it was always in the back of my mind (and sometimes the front) that I could see one of those mushroom clouds rising on the horizon at any time.