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EXPLOSIVE IN NATUREARTIST JAY SAGE FINDS THE BEAUTY INGUNPOWDER AND CHAOTIC CONTROLSTORY: REMY HAYNES - PHOTOGRAPHY: CHARLIE NEUNSCHWANDERIt can be said that Oklahoma based artist Jay Sage is fiery, perhaps even explosive. It%u2019s a strong statement to make, but it%u2019s not the artists personality in question, but his fascinating method of working with smoke, fire and gunpowder explosions. Coming from very humble beginnings, Sage is an artist who knew very early on that art is something that will stay with him for life. It was a refuge, a place to submerge in his life where one could create from inner most feelings of human nature. %u201cArt has always been there; I just never grew out of it. I got a science kit as a gift once and I thought it was cool, but I grew out of that quick. Ironically, what I do today is very chemical!%u201d shares Sage. Being an artist with no formal education on the field allows him to approach creating from a sense of freedom, creating art for art%u2019s sake. By using regular art supplies in a completelydifferent manner, mixing this with unique set of materials, he creates work that encompasses a little darker, more complicated nuances of human condition.Sage originally started as an oil painter, creating hyper realist, very controlled pieces. A medium that fit his nature at the time yet held the artist back from the creative outletthat allowed him to lose control. It wasn%u2019t until he threw himself into a watercolor Jay Sageworkshop that eventually led to working with gunpowder. From water to fire, Sage developed his signature methods and handwriting though pure accident after setting a watercolor piece on fire out of frustration. What he discovered in the process was the beauty of ceding absolute control. The artist uses fire as a paint brush by allowing it to flow yet carefully guiding it across the canvas. For Sage, the beauty lies in that controlled chaos: %u201cIt%u2019s all more like a dance. I have an idea and I can lead, but it has to stay fluid throughout the whole process. It%u2019s funny that I came from something as controlled as oil painting to this, but my goal was to master this medium. I wanted to take something utterly chaotic and control it.%u201d It isn%u2019t only fire that the artist so masterfully bends to his will. He is also giving back beauty to gunpowder which originally was discovered by Chinese alchemists in their quest for finding an elixir of immortality. As history has taught us, gunpowder became a weaponof warfare, a far cry from everlasting life.Sage sees the material as something that can be healing, coming back to its original accidental discovery. He uses gunpowder to return it to its initial purpose of healing people%u2019s souls. In many ways helping the artist and his stories, his soul, too, lives forever through his work.MOST MAGAZINE - ISSUE 50 57