Firefly, 2007
Forged and hot-worked structural steel
57" x 31" x 6" (H x W x D)

Fire has an important place in human experience and symbolism. When I looked at all the ways fire and flames are portrayed in differing cultures and media, I realized that it's a challenging subject.

As an artist-blacksmith I have a close working relationship with fire and I wanted to represent flames in my own medium. I wanted to interpret fire in hot-worked steel and show that metal can be both solid and airy. I also wanted to show my own creative humor in a straightforward way.

Airy, dancing metal flames unzip from a strong and heavy piece of structural steel.

I used high-tech fires from an electronic torch and a gas jet furnace to cut and bend a common I-beam into an uplifting form that might suggest an opening zipper. Then I added hand forged steel flames, finishing them with an oxide patina because rust is the way steel slowly burns in air.