'Pyro-technique' or pyro-technical drawing is what I called this method
which seemed a suitably eloquent and qualified title for drawing with a
blow-torch on a timber panel.
In the early years that followed I would often scratch, score and cut into
the blank timber surface with a sharp pointed instrument in quick and
random arm gestures. Thoughtless, assertive scoring across the board
surface, often changing hands frequently or turning the panel direction
in order to boost the dynamic.
I did this to momentarily shock myself away from rational thinking; to
break through the surface and evoke perceptive senses. Then I would
light the hand held cylinder blow-torch and start drawing in a randomly
selected area of the panel. Before to long the scratch marks began to make
sense in the landscape of my mind. My actions completely absorbed and
guided by the will of this new work to see it's expression realised, as if it
had a mind of it's own. I would to try finish a work in one session.
At some point I began using kitchen utensils as templates to forge shapes
and effects. This developed into fashioning shapes from wire and cutting
stencils from thin metal sheet.
In 1986 I became a 'Supervisor' of students at the Wellington Arts Centre.
That's another story.
