More Heat Than Light examines the balance, or perhaps more accurately, the imbalance between light and heat. Society has shifted value of these qualities throughout time. For those dependent on fire for warmth or cooking, heat over light is treasured. However, as a torch, to show the way, light from fire far exceeds heat in value. A perfect light bulb, in fact, would generate pure light with no heat. Heat, in this sense, is the result of impurity, of waste. Rachel and John’s art forces into the light the inevitable heat of art and human nature in this world. While striving for perfect, efficient light may seem the goal, this show reveals the beauty and necessity of embracing imperfections and accepting more heat than light. Rachel’s pieces here have literally relied upon scorching heat in their creation.

John and Rachel, at first glance, may appear to be unlikely collaborators with their art methods in stark contrast. Rachel’s intricate, disciplined patterns using pyrography with paints or inks versus John’s acrylic creations with thick, bold, unpredictable strokes and humanized animals. However, as with their other two shows, Follow the Brush and Honest Collusions, once their art is together, obvious connections arise. Using found, scavenged materials as their foundation, they both bring forth unexpected, often whimsical, scenes which transform items that had been considered waste, discarded by-products of our society. They both allow the original material to provide color or shape to the art, offering redemption to this waste. Unexpected color combinations add joy to the works. Their collaborations display the struggling balance of heat and light, perfection and imperfection both in art, between humans, and the world around us. Sometimes that which we see as more heat than light, far from perfection, is the start of a beautiful creation.

About the Artists:
Rachel McFarlane David works on repurposed wood that she finds, thrifts, and scavenges. After cutting and resurfacing the wood, She hand-burns original images onto these pieces with a pyrography tool, often adding bright paints or inks to the surfaces and then adding hardware to the work.

She lives and works in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, where she is constantly on the hunt for used wood. Although she studied printmaking and glass at OSU, she began focusing on pyrography (wood-burning) in 2018. She loves cutting, hand-burning and painting images into wood that she’s found, and is delighted in the process of transforming unwanted or unused wood into intricate wall hangings and ornaments. She also enjoys drawing and painting with inks and watercolors. Her artwork can be seen at juried art festivals and shows in central Ohio and beyond.

John Lee does not consider himself self-taught despite not having a university arts education. Over the years, he has left over a thousand cardboard ClohnArt pieces “free for the taking” in various public spaces including the Bilbo Baggins Hobbit house in New Zealand, the house of the Dalai Lama in Nepal, and next to Rembrandts in various museums. He has drawn and painted over 6000 such pieces of ClohnArt.

Even as a kid, John enjoyed art, imagining and creating new things. He and a friend founded ClohnArt in the late 1990’s. He branched out on his own with a separate studio in 2008. His first professional art festival was in 2013, as an Emerging Artist at Three Rivers Art Festival in Pittsburgh. In 2014, John received the emerging artist second year award at Three River and participates in several art festivals annually. He became a member of the Artist Association of Pittsburgh in 2019.