Ready for a red-hot show?

Fire, both literally and metaphorically, plays a huge part in art, craft, and design. Metalworkers, blacksmiths, and sculptors weld and forge with fire – and some even create firepits! Jewelers use torches in most aspects of their work, rate the brilliance of gemstones by their “fire”, often work with fire opals, and subject cloisonné enamels to the fire of a hot kiln. Ceramic artists also fire their work in a very high-temperature kiln. Some potters take it a step further in the art of raku, known for its distinctive, fiery finish. Woodworkers often use burning tools to create patterns, cut-outs, and surface designs.

Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a Ring of Fire.

– sung by Johnny Cash / co-written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore

 

Hot glass could be the most dramatic of all craft media. 2000° molten glass is gathered on the end of a hollow pipe, inflated to a bubble, and formed into a vessel by blowing, swinging, or rolling on a smooth stone or iron surface. This hot viscous glass can be shaped and hand-formed into vessels, globes, or glasses, sculpted into fine art, or cast into molds. Lampworking and fused glass may not be quite as theatrical as glassblowing, but both depend on fire and heat. 

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

– William Shakespeare

 

On the metaphorical side, fire can suggest wild ambition, eternal love, inherent danger, and divine inspiration. Photographers, fiber artists, printmakers and painters may portray fiery volcanos, flaming sunsets, autumn foliage, or even flame-spitting dragons. No matter the media, whether functional design, fine art, or fantasy, the artists in this season’s themed exhibit at Paradise City Marlborough are all fired up and promise to show you the passion and intensity that comes of “Playing with Fire!”

View the exhibit in the Sculpture Cafe, March 17, 18 & 19, at the Royal Plaza Trade Center