Those that Walk on Fire

As much as individual people and movements influence an artist, simpler things that surround us everyday influence us just as much. A phrase for instance or an idea mentioned offhand by someone nearby or on the news can bring to mind all kinds of images and artistic ideas that are begging to be brought out on paper or canvas, digital or otherwise.

The phrase I found in the recesses of my mind was "Those that walk on fire". I think this was brought abour by some fleeting dream of an ancient people whose rite of manhood was a walk on hot coals through a fire pit. And indeed, after I thought of the phrase it brought me immediately back to that smoky, shadowy image of a man striding with high measured steps across the red burning pit of coals and ash.

I remember seeing images of this activity on television and in photographs and being awestruck, and doubtful at the same time. After all, it's not every day that people walk through the burning embers of their fireplace on purpose. And even if someone happens to lay bare their sole to hot coal, or hot anything, calmness and peace of mind are perhaps the last of the expected responses.

But sitting down and beginning my project to transform my vision into an digital reality, I realized that I would have to rely upon digital trickery to achieve the results upon the 2D canvas at my mousetip. I also realized my vision had changed from the night I thunk it to the morning I rethunk it. From a broad expansive canvas my image had shrunk to a single tall and stoic image of a man passing the rite.

I find it amazing what shortcuts do to shape our art, especially in the digital realm. Were I doing this project on canvas, or paper, I might erase sections, start over, and darken lines until my idea and my image matched up. With digital however, we accept the limitations before us. Many people can't decompile their favorite paint program fix the paint brush effects they find incongruent with real life and restitch it back up. With the digital realm you HAVE to accommodate your limitations. The subtle shades and fine lines that a pencil can create without pixelation is an important counterpoint to how small you can make an image in a paintshop program.

So my shortcut, not as fine an issue as what I just stated, was a bypass for laziness. I simply did not wish to spend hours working on getting the figure of a man walking or dancing or stepping in any particular way, so I reduced myself to clipart. I looked through the black and white outlines available to me and as soon as I saw the armed forces soldier standing tall, my vision changed once more. I saw something more important than the simple rite of passage, I saw a hero. The fire was no longer the simple coals of compressed earth but rather a metaphor for troubled times and hardship.

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