Artists Introduction

Charlie Smith and Jaime Ladet are currently based out of Atlanta Georgia. They have been collaborating and touring together since March of 2004 when they spent the spring and summer sharing four different fire caldrons at nine different events within the Burning Man regional network. This touring and sharing of these caldrons has stimulated an inspiring commonality and friendship between the regional networks across the country. This tour led Charlie and Jaime to create a collaboration called "The Synapses Project". A six part, large-scale burning art project for Burning Man 2005. Synapses is a series of fully collaborative, community built and cared for fire caldrons. Sculptural elements were built in workshops held in New York NY, Atlanta GA, Austin TX, Los Angeles CA, San Francisco CA and Seattle WA by people of all levels of experience. After Burning Man 2005 each cauldron returned to the community that built it.

Charlie has been creating art and building sculpture since childhood. He has BFA from the Atlanta College of Art class of 1992. He has been involved in the creation of cutting edge art projects and art shows for over 24 years. Charlie's ultimate vision is "to create community built sculpture and art for the community by the community!". He has been exploring and developing art in the national Burning Man community since 1998. In 2002, "The Nausts of the Encompassment" were brought to the playa as a symbol of the four directions. On the night of the burn, people from four different regions pushed them around the inner circle as a symbol of communal strength and intent. Since their creation, the Nausts have been showcased at regional events across the country. Charlie has released, moved, and gifted fire caldrons to regional communities for the last five years.  

Jaime is an artist who works in wide variety of mediums including performance, fire arts, photography, sculpture, and painting. She has a BA in Theater Design & Production from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Jaime has been involved in fire arts and performance since 1995 when she was kidnapped by a group of silly fire clowns in the mountains of North Carolina. She has been performing, teaching, and collaborating with other performance and fire artists in her community, nationally, and abroad. Jaime is a documentary and fine arts photographer exhibiting her work in galleries and private collections since 1999.

Both Jaime and Charlie view this new project as a symbol of a higher level of commonality through collaboration, education and experience in the fire and arts communities. They believe this is a great artistic exercise in international collaboration. This project will build strong relationships between the supporting participants in the communities through working, learning, and developing new techniques in creating ART together.