pyrotechnic art

Last night's firework display, marking the end of Steamboat Days, in Winona was mostly the same as I remember it as a youth in the 60's and 70's. It was nice to see it held along the banks of the Mississippi River once again. It seemed that the only thing that had changed was the look of the levy in Winona and the appearance of some of the fireworks themselves.

Because we often seem to be travelling or visiting around the Fourth of July, I can't remember the last time I managed to sit and watch a fireworks display, so last night was a bit of a treat, to be able to enjoy it with the family.

While I tried to enjoy the show the way I used to, and the way my children most likely do, it took on a new perspective for me.

At one point, during a momentary lull, I looked up and thought that it was the perfect night for fireworks -- the cloudless, midnight blue sky made an excellent backdrop for the vivid colors in the explosives. And thinking of the sky as a backdrop made me think of the fireworks themselves more as an artist's creation than simply as a display of color. A work of art, displayed briefly, fleetingly. Do pyrotechnicians, at least some of the better ones, ever think of the sky as their canvas and their fireworks as art?

I recently read a children's book called The Firework-Makers Daughter by Philip Pullman in which the making of fireworks was definitely seen as the work of an artist as they created different colors and worked to have the fireworks "do" things when exploded. The artistic pyrotechnician who sets off the fireworks could also think of himself as an artist as he plans the order in which each firework is displayed and where, in relation to the other fireworks it will explode.

Maybe they already do and it's just not appreciated that way by most. I think it's an intriquing idea, in any case.