Kendall Messick’s Burnt Offerings

Messick's "Impermanence" and “Conflagration” photographs are documents of charred beauty. After his house burned down, Messick chose to portray the beauty that is inherent in all things, even destruction. His photographs of his burned-down home and beloved and now charred objects represent what the title says - impermanence.

Some images courtesy of Rebekah Jacob Gallery

Messick's Website Link

(Originally posted in the Eclectix  "BURN" Issue, August 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.)

David Mach’s Match Head Art

Using tens of thousands of matchsticks, David Mach creates detailed models of animals, symbols or historical figures.

David, from Scotland, has a passion for art and matchsticks, so he decided to combine them and create unique masterpieces. Using a clay mold he creates a plastic or fiberglass model of whatever he wants to create, and then begins the process of sticking matchsticks on it, one at a time. Most of his creations are made with tens of thousands of colored-tip matchsticks, imported from Japan, and take months to complete and only a second to burn!

David's Website

(Originally posted on the Eclectix homepage "BURN" Issue, August 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.)

Scott Marr’s Pigmented Pyrography

Australian artist Scott Marr has a unique technique of drawing using pyrography (the art of using a heated tip to burn or scorch designs onto wood) and painting with natural pigments, predominantly from the bush. His works just blew us away- beautiful creatures and anthropomorphic mixtures - full of poetic tiny details, tribal decor and emotional imaginings.

“By the time Scott sits down at the easel, his works of art are already well underway. A large part of Scott’s artistic practice is comprised of the identification, collection and preparation of an astounding range of natural pigments. His bush pigments are unpredictable by nature, ensuring that each work of art is imbued with a genuine uniqueness. The variable palette reflects the dynamic and seasonal character of the natural world, where no two days or places are the same. Scott says, “Over the past few years, I’ve been experimenting with the extraction and application of natural pigments. I now feel my experimentation has become my applied practice. This confidence together with the discovery of new colors has opened up new dimensions for my art”.” - Via KatoomaFineArt

For Scott’s art blog, click here.

For a look/listen at Osunlade's new album "Pyrography", for which Scott did all the incredible art, click here. 

(Originally posted in the Eclectix "BURN" Issue, July 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.)

Paul Moschell’s Matchbox Personas

Most galleries always seem to want larger works but smaller, even tiny works like these matchbox paintings hold a special place in my heart. Imagine creating these miniature paintings, the brushstrokes must be the size of a pin! 

Paul has a fun little animated website with a Tim Burtonesque feel, chock full of his wonderful larger paintings as well. (HERE) 

Originally posted in the Eclectix "BURN" Issue, July 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.

BURN: Jason D’Aquino’s Matchbook Art

Remember when you got matches at every restaurant or venue? They are a lost art nowadays but Jason’s art makes them immortal. He creates tiny works on found surfaces, such as matchbooks, old vellums and antique ledgers. Small, tightly rendered little wonderments, graphites with highlights. His collection on matchbooks came as a desire to easily demonstrate the detail in his works, so that people would be able to compare it in scale, to a common object. Jason is a fantastic tattoo artist as well and is the owner of Leviathan in upstate New York.

From an interview in MetalInk- 

“MI: ...you were influenced by your mother, who was also an artist?

Jason: When I was really young, I used to hassle her to draw this, draw that. It amazed me the way she could pull something out of thin air. It was the closest thing I’d ever seen to magic. Pencil instead of a wand but just a few flicks of the wrist and you have something out of nowhere, and it affected me. I wanted to be able to do what she was able to do. I didn’t want to be a fireman, or a policeman like other kids.” 

Jason's Site

Current Exhibitions:

Castellani Museum

Niagara Falls, NY

Thru Sept. 18th, 2011

1988 Gallery

Los Angeles, CA

"Crazy 4 Cult" book release and exhibit

July 7th - 9th, 2011

Originally posted in the Eclectix BURN Issue, June 2011,

 along with the permanent online exhibit of fire-related art, LINK HERE.