We are in wildfire season. Greece, Quebec, China and many other places around the globe are burning. This the result of global warming and climate change. Here in California, given our hot and dry weather, we wait and remain ever vigilant.

I made a series of paintings when I and other Northern Californians experienced the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Sonoma and Napa counties.

For me, making art about these fires was important. Processing the dread I felt through art was therapeutic. Creating art through challenging life events allows for engagement, action and the possibility of coming to terms with the ‘what is’, the ‘what it means’ and the ‘what can I do’.

Artists lean in and bring meaning and empathy to tragedy. I understand that this in no way mitigates the real loss people experience and the despair people feel. But it is one path towards healing.

I based these paintings on what I saw on location, and from photography, my own and from media sources. I listened to some first person narratives. I visited the fire zones, in places like Coffey Park and Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa, California. By witnessing the devastation, it became real to me. These existential landscapes were bathed in an eerie light, that passed through smoke-choked skies. I saw the detritus that remained. There were swirling tangles of blackened branches, fragments of broken concrete, puddles of melted aluminum wheel rims, and broken porcelain amongst the gray ash. It had a kind of tragic beauty.

I also was inspired by the stories of the heroism of firefighters and other first responders. I couldn’t resist an homage to their efforts.

There are several major factors, both natural and man-made, that cause these fires, but at the dark heart of it, it’s the record-breaking heat and drought, the result of climate change. The scope of this crisis is staggering, but I prefer to focus on the small creative things I can do.

These artworks were created in the spring of 2018, as part of an independent study with artist and educator Chester Arnold at the College of Marin in Novato, California.