'My Imagination Is
20/20
'
The Art of Aaron Shafer by
CHRIS KILLIAN
T
he work is done in small increments, like each step a climber takes to reach a sky-piercing peak. To really appreciate Aaron Shafer’s most ambitious art project to date, you need to take a step back from it, and probably a few steps more, to fully appreciate how tens of thousands of miniscule nicks and notches and gently sanded burn marks come together to form the scene: a proud mountain reflected in a still lake nestled in a pine forest, the mixture of dark and light giving the impression it’s all bathed in the glow of a full moon. It’s both serene and haunting. When Encore visited Shafer’s studio inside the garage of his Texas Township home, the piece, which he calls Meet Me at the Mountaintop, was very close to finished, the tools of his work set out in front of an oak pallet turned on end and resting atop two cinder blocks. The pallet, rescued from a refuse pile, serves as Shafer’s canvas. He’s gone through four wood burners, three mini sanders and countless Dremel tips. Miniature magnifying glasses and sandpaper bits of several grits lie on a counter nearby, curled like dried fall leaves. He set a practice pallet on fire a few times just to determine how much heat it could stand before bursting into flames. Shafer sets a propane torch alight, takes the flame down to low and gently brushes a plank of the pallet with the blue flame, the wood changing color from brown to nearly charred, tiny puffs of smoke rising and disappearing, the scent of singed wood coming off this hardwood canvas. After a few delicate torch strokes and some careful sanding, an upside-down fir tree emerges, a mirror reflection of itself. The art world calls this art form “pyrography,” but watching Shafer work, wearing a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, his face so close to the pallet he could kiss it, doesn't feel like witnessing an artist perform his craft. It feels like seeing a magician pull something from the ether. Aaron Shafer, with his cat, Ushikawa, in his Texas Township studio, and his signature pyrography work, Meet Me at the Mountaintop. Ushikawa, like Shafer, has unusual eyes (the cat’s are different colors). Photo by Eric J. Shaeffer 20 | ENCORE MARCH 2020
