Bursts of golden and pink lights lit up the night sky. Explosion sounds rocked the sky as the fireworks showered the sky with bright colors.
The person who organized this event is name Desmond Lewis. Lewis is typically a sculptor who crafts from materials like concrete, wood, steel, and rebar. Some of his works are “Bout that split tho” (2021), a work of steel anchored by concrete, and “America’s Forgotten” (2017), which is a block cylindric concrete with broken links of a chain that appears in the University of Memphis, where Lewis got his Master of Fine Arts degree.
Lewis makes his works look ruined or mangled to represent how history was for Black people in America. He finds smooth and perfect sculptures remindful of how complex stories of African American labor are downplayed or glossed over by others. However, his artwork also has traces of playfulness on them, like a bit of color, and a bouncy placement.
Lewis’s style continues into his pyrotechnic artworks. Lewis’s interest in creating art with fireworks started in the summer of 2018 when he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a highly prestigious school for artists.
During that time, he began nearing his breaking point, as he had been dealing with images of police brutality and attendant protests. “As a Black person,” he explains, “you can only hold so much in for so long.”
While testing out ways to make legal explosions look artistic, he realized that a car on fire and a firework did not really look different. The only difference was that one was socially acceptable and the other was deemed “bad.”
Lewis wanted to test the theory that fireworks can be made artistic, so Lewis lit some fireworks in a large grassy field.
These fireworks made Lewis realize his passion for pyrotechnics. He wanted access to an industry governed by safety regulations and dominated by a small number of important companies. However, fireworks were very restricted for under resourced and Black communities. This didn’t make Lewis any less determined though.
He started working part-time on an on-the-job type of training for a pyrotechnic company. Because of that, he was sent to small towns in the Southeast, where there were not a lot of Black people. It was quite “scary” and “uncomfortable” for him.
Lewis started seeking licensures in several Southeastern states and got his federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Type 54 license. These licenses, along with a commercial driver’s license bearing a hazardous materials endorsement, allowed him to use professional-grade pyrotechnics.
In his only firework display this year so far, Lewis went to Greenwood, Mississippi to display his fireworks at the Juneteenth festival there. The people loved the show. Mayor Carolyn McAdams said, “It is a wonderful event for Greenwood. It was a well-attended event, safe and catered toward people enjoying life with friends and family.”
In the future, Lewis hopes to follow the example of this show and create more stunning displays of explosions of sound and color that rock the sky.
Source: The New York Times A Sculptor Takes His Craft to the Skies
The person who organized this event is name Desmond Lewis. Lewis is typically a sculptor who crafts from materials like concrete, wood, steel, and rebar. Some of his works are “Bout that split tho” (2021), a work of steel anchored by concrete, and “America’s Forgotten” (2017), which is a block cylindric concrete with broken links of a chain that appears in the University of Memphis, where Lewis got his Master of Fine Arts degree.
Lewis makes his works look ruined or mangled to represent how history was for Black people in America. He finds smooth and perfect sculptures remindful of how complex stories of African American labor are downplayed or glossed over by others. However, his artwork also has traces of playfulness on them, like a bit of color, and a bouncy placement.
Lewis’s style continues into his pyrotechnic artworks. Lewis’s interest in creating art with fireworks started in the summer of 2018 when he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, a highly prestigious school for artists.
During that time, he began nearing his breaking point, as he had been dealing with images of police brutality and attendant protests. “As a Black person,” he explains, “you can only hold so much in for so long.”
While testing out ways to make legal explosions look artistic, he realized that a car on fire and a firework did not really look different. The only difference was that one was socially acceptable and the other was deemed “bad.”
Lewis wanted to test the theory that fireworks can be made artistic, so Lewis lit some fireworks in a large grassy field.
These fireworks made Lewis realize his passion for pyrotechnics. He wanted access to an industry governed by safety regulations and dominated by a small number of important companies. However, fireworks were very restricted for under resourced and Black communities. This didn’t make Lewis any less determined though.
He started working part-time on an on-the-job type of training for a pyrotechnic company. Because of that, he was sent to small towns in the Southeast, where there were not a lot of Black people. It was quite “scary” and “uncomfortable” for him.
Lewis started seeking licensures in several Southeastern states and got his federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Type 54 license. These licenses, along with a commercial driver’s license bearing a hazardous materials endorsement, allowed him to use professional-grade pyrotechnics.
In his only firework display this year so far, Lewis went to Greenwood, Mississippi to display his fireworks at the Juneteenth festival there. The people loved the show. Mayor Carolyn McAdams said, “It is a wonderful event for Greenwood. It was a well-attended event, safe and catered toward people enjoying life with friends and family.”
In the future, Lewis hopes to follow the example of this show and create more stunning displays of explosions of sound and color that rock the sky.
Source: The New York Times A Sculptor Takes His Craft to the Skies
