Bio of a Woodburning--Marilyn, Day 1

I believe Milton Greene's photographs of Marilyn to have become pure American iconography. I doubt anyone has photographed her better. Perhaps a decade ago, I saw a photo in a woodworker's journal of a burning done from one of Greene's Marilyn pictures. For me, it was as if the bar had been suddenly, painfully set. I'd been making a modest income through my burnings and woodwork for years at that point and I wasn't even in this artist's zip code.

To this day, when I see the work of others whose work I consider better than my own (and after getting over the kick to my ego's shins...), it makes me want to be that good. I ain't even halfway there yet.

This week, remembering the first time I'd ever seen anyone burn a Milton Greene Marilyn, I find myself burning, well, a Milton Greene portrait of Marilyn Monroe.

Greene's 1954 Ballerina...




A burner can be an unforgiving medium. Though I tend to keep it to a minimum, I find pencil sketching invaluable. The heavier lines on Marilyn's shoulder and forearm have already been lightly cut in with a burner.


I've opted to begin this piece with the dark background tapestry. Often, when I'm working a section that will have areas of heavy scorch (such as the bark of a tree), I start by cutting the darkest lines. I find this helps texturing the burn.


I then 'fill' the now well-margined area I'm working. Take care to work from light to dark. You can always darken a light spot. Lightening a dark spot tends to be more problematic. Charred wood likes to disagree with the process.


As the area is darkened, this is when you get to "play painter" and burn the highlights and contours.




At the end of the first day, the work is sketched in and the burn begun. Unlike paint on a canvas, wood will only burn at a certain rate. Large, very dark areas will take hours. This piece measures 30" x 24". The tip of the pencil indicates the studied area.

Tomorrow will likely be hours more of the same.

Pyrography and the Art of Painting with Fire

Since the Stone Age, men have been using flame and heated tools to ornament the corners of their lives. Thousands of years later, fully evolved into a crafter's hobby, it remains a somewhat obscure art form. I stumbled into pyrography accidentally some years back, whilst doing the grunt work for a fellow woodworker. He opened his locker, waved at the dizzying array of tools and equipment and asked if I recognized any of it. "That," I said, pointing to a standard Hot Tool. My father had kept such a burner in a kitchen cabinet for branding certain items for personal identification. At the time, it was all I knew of woodworking tools.

I found myself immediately fascinated by the possibilities of creating art with wood and hot metal. More than two decades on, I find myself still a student. The wood will always be our teacher. It tells us what it wants to be and guides us to that end.

It is now the end of August and if for no other reason, I'm launching this blog to chronicle the process me and my longtime road-dawg, Farmer Dave, will be experiencing as we prepare for our first formal craft shows this fall. Dave and I have been selling our crafts for years through such places as Wood To Goods in York, ME (!!!), though this fall marks a new phase for us.

We invite you to share our journey.


Among the pieces coming out of the studio right now...

Franco-American Woodcarver

The Smith




Dark Harbor Fishermen (from N.C. Wyeth, 1943)