Light Painting Photographer Kirk Edwards recently shared a pretty cool Light Painting project called “Cooking Up Something Light” These images were pretty unique and not something I had seen before so I reached out to Kirk to find out a little bit more!
Hey Kirk I recently saw your images from Cooking up something Light! Those are really cool can you tell me a little bit more about these images where did this idea come from?
Thanks, Jason! While I can’t remember the exact “Aha!” moment that made me think to try putting lights on a Kitchen Aid attachment, I can tell you that ever since this little parasite called light painting took hold of my brain I find my self constantly playing the “what if” game. You know the “what if” game, right? For example, you’re cleaning your kid’s room and come across one of their light up toys and you think “Hmmm.. what if I take that twelve dollar Star Wars light saber and wave it behind a model on a Lyra ring? That might be really cool?” Then you try it and the result is even better than you had imagined. Next thing you know you’re stealing every toy from your kid that has a light on it and writing it off as photography gear.
Back to the Kitchen Aid, I’ve always liked spirographs ever since I watched your How-To video a couple years ago, and I’ve done my fair share of them over the years. But I think it’s important to progress as an artist and to try to avoid doing the same thing over and over. So the Kitchen Aid idea was just another “what if” moment applied to an old concept. Really love how they turned out.
They are really cool and YES I know the What If game very well, lol… It looks like a holiday light string, is that what you used to create these images?
Yes, they are called “Fairy Lights” on Amazon. They are basically a group of tiny LEDs on a bendable copper wire. Super affordable and very versatile.
How did you get the lights to stay on the Mixer?
For the paddle attachment, once I decided where I wanted the lights the go I just used small pieces of gaffers tape to hold them in place. Then I bundled up the extra length along with the power supply and taped them somewhere out of the way, making sure to conceal any extra lights. Same for the dough hook.
Did you modify the mixer at all to get it to work?
No modifications were needed this time around. But I’ve already got a whole slew of “what if’s” swirling around for next time.
Oh I bet you do! Are you planning on creating more images like these and expanding the series?
The feedback from these has been so positive that I am already planning on creating a series of additional images to accompany these. So stay tuned;)
Where can we see more of your work and stay tunned?
All of my work can be seen on my Instagram @_kirkae. Website coming soon.
Great man, thank you for tanking the time to share these images! I am sure they will inspire some other creatives to tape lights to their kitchen appliances!