WTC Tribute Page
In rememberance of all those who lost their lives
I created this page to show some of the pieces that I created as a result of being affected by the WTC tragedy. Some people have termed them powerful, troubling, even greusome.

I tried to turn even greusome images into art, and war is not always pretty. It was what I was feeling at the time.

#080 Fallen Explained
While #079 "911" was well received, many people questioned me as to why I would create "Fallen". To be honest, I thought it was amazing that the individual was caught on film.

I had a stack of images from the WTC tragedy.I laid them out on the floor and asked my wife and kids which one they liked best. Each one of them had a different #1 choice, but they each chose the "Fallen" image as their second favorite. It was my first choice so I decided to create it.

I guess what stuck me most about the image was my belief that if I was faced with a hopeless situation in which I would be burned to death or forced to leap to my death, I believe I would opt for the later. I don't know if this man jumped or was blown out of his window, but his death affected me, and since I believe war is anything but pretty, I created it. You might not like it, but to me, it is reality.

When I get a chance to create more images for myself, I anticipate creating more of those WTC images.

Woodburner.com WTC Tribute Page

Fire becomes an artistic tool
By Chad Brooks Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted on October 11, 2001
When Edward Montalvo of Palatine tells people he has had no formal art training, they have a hard time believing him.
The senior industrial engineer at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago has been making pyrographic artwork for the past 2¨ years. His creations were recently on display at the Palatine Library.
Pyrography uses fire to create art. Hundreds of years ago, people would put metal pokers into the fireplace to heat. When it was hot enough, they would quickly push the poker into wood to create designs and impressions.
Today Montalvo draws his image onto a piece of wood and then uses a tool to engrave his image.
Montalvo said he got the idea to start burning drawings into wood after a project Abbott was running.
"They were doing laser engraving and I wanted them to do a picture of my kids in wood," Montalvo said. "It didn't come out very good and that reminded me of the wood burner that I bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago for like ."
From there, Montalvo said his interest took off.
He began by making images of Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop, but Montalvo said when he tried to do images of real people their faces would come out looking like a cartoon.
The library was the next stop for Montalvo who then went to the library and checked out books on drawing faces.
"I just taught myself to draw the faces," Montalvo said. "Now I can do portraits that actually look real."
Some of his work includes portraits of his kids, Britney Spears, Elvis and Harry Caray.
Other pieces include the Chicago skyline, Windsor's Castle and re-creations of pieces such as Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper."
Now he is able to teach others the art.
"I have taught my father and now I am teaching my daughter," Montalvo said. "Anyone can learn it."
After the recent tragedies in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, Montalvo made a special creation.
He found a picture of about six firefighters resting on a pile of debris and burned the image into wood.
"I did it because that is how I was feeling at that moment," Montalvo said.
Over the past 2¨ years Montalvo has created more than 80 pieces, with many of them on display at his Web site.
His work can be seen on his Web site at http://artburn.00server.com/.