Local man creates art with sunlight

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

If it weren’t for the flip-flops, corduroy pants and henna tattoos he sports, Brian Chandler might look a bit like a mad scientist with his huge black goggles.
Then, as he lowers his magnifying glass in the bright, early-afternoon sun at Arroyo Burro Beach in Santa Barbara, it becomes clear why he needs the eye gear.

Brilliant light emanates from the small wooden bowl he holds in his left hand, wisps of smoke curling away as his steady right hand guides the focused beam, burning an intricate design into the bowl’s outer edge in mere seconds.
“That’s what is so beautiful about it,” Chandler says. “It’s so simple.”
As he finishes outlining the words “amor vincit omnia” around the outer rim, Latin for “love conquers all,” he starts adding small dots along the bottom of the bowl in a remarkably uniform pattern. Perhaps he’s so skilled at it because he’s been doing it for 24 years.
Chandler first started burning art onto wood with a magnifying lens, known as solar pyrography, at the age of 10, when he read about the children in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies using Piggy’s glasses to start a fire.
“I went outside and tried to start a fire in a pile of leaves,” Chandler says. “They were just sort of smoldering, and I realized I could make designs on the leaves.”
Chandler says he’s never burned himself, although he’s definitely felt the heat of the intense beam on his skin and seared more than a few holes in his pants over the years.
Since moving to Santa Barbara in 1999, Chandler says he’s done more than 3,000 pieces. Before that, he traveled along the coast, selling his art and taking commissions. His largest work to date is a front door for a home.
“I kick myself every time I tell that story,” he says,” because I never took a picture.”
It’s his only job, and it keeps him going, Chandler says. He has a deal going with a guy who sells wooden earrings. He sends Chandler a pack of plain earrings, Chandler burns a couple of them and sends them back, keeping the rest to decorate and sell himself.
His designs are inspired by nature, the sun and shamanic culture, he says. Old World imagery, including African and Eastern symbols, are common themes he prefers to work with.
Hip-hop and reggae artists also commission a lot of work from him, trying to get away from the “bling-bling” look, he says. Every now and then, someone will ask him for a commercial slogan or a sports team insignia. He’ll do it if the customer is cool, Chandler says, but he prefers to stay as anti-corporate as possible, even if it means he doesn’t make a ton of cash.
“This is what I want to do for a living,” he says. “I feel so successful, even though I’m a broke-ass, starving artist.”
His equipment is pretty basic: several different sizes of magnifying glasses, smaller ones for more detail, large ones for a wider burn path; a stack of driftwood, recycled wood and coconut wood; and the eye protection, alpine climbing goggles from Switzerland.
On cloudy days, he draws and plans designs, or helps out friends with a few temporary jobs. On most days, he’s usually sitting out at Arroyo Burro Beach or near Stearns Wharf, displaying his work nearby and on his body itself, from his intricate earrings to a wooden bracelet on his left wrist.
Although he’s been a solar carver for almost 25 years, Chandler admits he has held down some pretty odd jobs over the years. He’s been a hazardous material removal technician, a chef and a carpenter. He once had a job climbing towers to install antennas. Now, at 34, he’s confident solar art is his calling.
“Some people don’t have the patience for it,” he says. “I got the hang of it pretty easy.”
Chandler recently designed plaques for the city of Santa Barbara’s Solar Design Recognition Awards, and hopes to get involved with the city in art workshops for kids. He also plans to set up an official website soon, currently relying on his MySpace page, www.myspace.com/solarcarving, to attract fans and customers.
He’s one of the few people he knows that is serious about solar pyrography, and despite having a stiff neck from time to time, Chandler says his work sustains him.
“It’s such a destructive form of art,” Chandler says. “But out of destruction comes creation.”