Stephen Bruce is a fan of hot sauce, but not necessarily for eating! He talks about repurposing cooking ingredients like vinegar and pickle juice to paint his copper sheets. He gives a demonstration on etching copper with an industrial-grade acid, not a food-grade acid, because it takes a long time for organic acids to react with metal. Stephen uses a sanding machine to break the surface of the metal on the copper sheet, so that the acid can penetrate more effectively. The copper is so sensitive that dampness from skin can change the color of the metal. When asked what part of nature is going through his mind, as he pours droplets of acid onto the copper, Stephen says: “This sounds crazy, but ultimately, I want it to look like an underwater kind of plant. And it’s funny, because I don’t know that there’s an underwater plant that looks like this.”
Hot Sauce and Copper Art
Stephen Bruce shows his workspace in his East Bay (United States) studio and talks about his unique craft of treating copper sheets with acids used for cooking and condiments to create striking copper paintings.
The art of Stephen Bruce (he), an educator and artist working predominantly with copper and brass sheets, is tethered in nature, both in the sourcing of his material and the visual wonderment he creates on and in his chosen medium.
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