Cool Hunting

I will openly confess to being an adamant non-smoker, but even I have admit the sexiness of T.R. Ericsson's latest body of work, "Nicotine Dreams," currently on view at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York. Inspired by his mother’s lit cigarettes that "discolored the white ceilings and floral wallpaper patterns of the house into tarnished gold," he used nicotine to produce the pale, golden palette of this series.

To create these works on paper, Ericsson used a silkscreen process, which essentially acted as an intensified version of the process that turned his mother's white ceiling yellow. Digital photographs were burned into silkscreens, which were then placed above ashtrays filled with smoldering cigarettes, slowly creating pictures onto the paper while destroying the screen. The process required anywhere from fifteen to six hundred cigarettes to create a single image.

You can see more images on the website for Paul Kasmin Gallery. More information on T.R. Ericsson can be found on his website. Also be sure to check out Thirst Magazine, a limited-edition art magazine that he publishes bi-annually, as well as a limited edition series of photographs that can be purchased for just $75.