Oil on Canvas. 2020
This summer we were caught in the crossfire. Just as we can't be near each other, we can't work together like we used to, neither could the firefighters. The plague of the century is making it exponentially harder to fight the worst wildfire season we've ever seen. We must confront and contend with the edges of civilization that touch our compromised forests and rising oceans. We must accept the climatic damage we've caused and act to protect our most vulnerable.
This painting was inspired by a photograph taken by a wildland firefighter of the Juniper Ridge Fire in Oregon, August 2020. The canvas is stretched on a hand-built wooden frame. It is part of a series (I am currently creating) of summer 2020 wildfire imagery.
The calamity of our actions is finally reaching even the planet's most privileged (if only just a little). The coronavirus's massive impact on the trajectory of my life, and of those around me, cannot help but change me forever. From now on, life will be a series of disasters arising from the clash between humanity's obscene hubris and the inevitable pushback of nature. Pandemics, fires, floods, overpopulation and deforestation. The terrifying trajectory of climate change sets our epoch apart from the rest; my art is time-stamped with humanity's dealings with this existential fact.