Fire Rising
Cold wax and oil
17 x 14" framed
$300
Millions of acres of western forest have been affected by severe drought as the planet warms. Drought weakens the trees' defenses against insect damage, resulting in widespread mortality. It creates conditions favorable to wildfire, both in living and in beetle-killed forests. Our summer skies have been hazy with smoke from Washington, Oregon, Montana, California, and yes— even British Columbia. We now drive through miles of blackened burn-scars. Several years ago, after a bad fire in the nearby Jemez Mountains, the Rio Grande ran black with ash, even as far south as Albuquerque.
Fire is destructive but also transformative. Some forests regrow, others revert to scrub and grassland.
Our children and their children will live in landscapes forever changed by these fires.