Alexandria Mooney Jones

By far the most common question I receive related to my work is: “How on earth did you come up with the idea to use fireworks as an art medium?” I always respond with this story… I was attending the University of Missouri in Columbia working toward obtaining my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. During the Summer of 2007, I took a fibers course focused on book making. Our final project was to make a book using techniques learned in class. Even though the final was due July 5th, that wasn’t going to stop me from going home to Lake Waukomis in Kansas City to throw my yearly 4th of July party. I had put off finishing my final project, so I was stuck working on my book over the weekend and during the party. I decided to re-purpose an existing book, turning it into an ABC book of all “war” related words. Atomic, bio-hazard, casualties, etc. I attempted to make the book look as if it had been through a traumatic event, a “war zone”. I started by trying to burn the edges of the book, but it was not going very well. While I was doing this, I could hear my friends inside having a great time. One of my friends, David, came out to see how it was going. When I told him of my dilemma, he said, “why don’t you just light a firework off in the book?” To which I responded, “Geez, why didn’t I think of that!” I would say this was the proverbial “light-bulb”, but really it was more of an explosion! From then on, I always give David credit for being the “spark” of this body of artwork. We proceeded to shoot bottle rockets, firecrackers, smoke bombs, Roman candles, sparkles, etc. at the book. My friends thought I was crazy, blowing up my final project, but the results were stunning! Beautiful charred marks, singed pages, it was perfectly burnt to a crisp! A little later, I noticed that certain fireworks created really interesting colors and marks. This got me thinking, “What would this look like on canvas?” The next year, while camping with my future husband’s family, I got a chance to try it out. Since we were camping, I only had discarded items to use to get different effects. Most of items I pulled from the trash; bottles, cans, etc. The canvases turned out great and I was hooked. In Missouri, where I lived at the time, fireworks were only legal 2 days out of the year. This posed a challenge for my newly found obsession. It’s not like you can hide a big plume of smoke! Because of these regulations it took me close to 10 years working on and off in this medium to develop my technique. Now that I have relocated to Wisconsin, I am able to create this art more freely. I love working with a medium that is as challenging as it is surprising. It’s crazy to think this journey all started with a little “spark”!