Art with Fire | t-radya & Paul Chojnowski.

Oh man. Some people are really clever, aren’t they? You may recall me blogging about Art with Tools not that long ago. In a similar vain, I wanted to share with you Art created with Fire. Yes, you heard me. Fire.

Above are a few images of impressive portraits of fallen Russian WWII soldiers created by t-radya. These faces were created using bandages and wooden boards, which were then burned to reveal amazing works of art. The portraits were afterwards displayed on the walls of an abandoned WWII hospital in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Incredible, no?

But wait, there’s more! American artist Paul Chojnowski crates drawings with fire and water on paper and wood. Paul burns, chars and scorches paper creating almost photo realistic images.

His unconventional technique developed in the early 90s, and today it involves using a water dropper to soak every corner of heavy (watercolour style) paper, followed by torching the entire surface. Varying levels of moisture content control the burn levels, with the wettest parts burning the slowest and remaining the latest in tone.

Can you even begin to imagine the amount of patience and control required to produce each one of these pieces? Overheating even just the slightest part of paper would cause the entire sheet to burst into flames.

[Images courtesy of t-radyaand Paul Chojnowski. Discovered via Designboom and Today and Tomorrow.]