Alexandria Mooney Jones

Using only lit, burning fireworks, I begin each piece as part artist, part mad scientist.  Fireworks as a medium are volatile and unpredictable.  All techniques and processes are self-discovered.  My first layer is the least controllable of my techniques.  Reacting to that layer, I make decisions about composition, selecting areas to mask or burn.  Color selection is vague; a “red” could present as burgundy, fire engine red or pink, depending on my distance to the canvas, as well as the dispersion rate.  As the fireworks burn, organic dye is vaporized into colored smoke; depending on the technique I am attempting to achieve, the smoke is trapped or manipulated around and through things set on the canvas for different effects.  Unexpected compositional effects, such as burn holes and singed areas, happen when the fireworks misfire or expel the contents onto the canvas in a ball of fire.  Although unintentional, these incidents become part of my composition-you cannot erase a burn.  I am attempting to control the uncontrollable. My work is at the mercy of explosives and fire. Fireworks, as a medium, create a tension that pits celebration against trauma.  And in the strongest pieces, neither gives way to the other.