Artist Rob Tarbell has created his art pieces by guiding the smoke to desires patterns and shapes.
Titled ‘Smoke Rings’, Tarbell first mounts paper to the ceiling and then burns credit card and old 35mm film below it, turning the smoke traces into beautiful images.
The artist also used his wife and friends as models, and pictures of animals to follow the patterns.
Tarbell’s artwork will be displayed in a circus theme group exhibition at Roanoke, Virginia’s Marginal Arts Festival from 11 March 2013 – 12 April 2013.
“I was working off the premise of controlling the smoke, which turned into trying to get it to do what I want it to do while still doing what it naturally does. That sounded a lot like training an animal so I went towards that type imagery – bears dancing, zebras or elephants doing tricks.” Shared Tarbell.
“As my control got better, I tried more elaborate images and was pushing the technique to show more realistic values, which felt like the balancing acts or more elaborate tricks with an animal trainer and an animal performing – a direct parallel to how I was making them and how the smoke would act.”
[via Daily Mail]