Fire Series
The following three works document my visceral response to the Tubbs and Nuns fires which began on October 8, 2017 and engulfed the entire Bay Area with unhealthy smoke and heat. I lived seventy miles downwind from the fires, which consumed Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties, especially around Santa Rosa.
For six months, the San Francisco Chronicle reported the stages of the conflagration. News coverage began with the horror and speed of the immediate firestorm, the devastating scorching of the landscape, the loss of human and animal lives, the discovery of toxic debris that had to be cleared away, the human displacement, and the extended grief of the former residents with their extended families.
Finally, we saw the re-emergence of plant life and the rebuilding of homes: a renewal.
One Long Earth Song
2024
18” h x 36” w
thickened dye, spread by scraper on linen; paint, Tskineiko inks, and diagonals of hand-dyed mulberry paper and silk, and vintage silk log cabin blocks. Quilted by the artist.
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I’m a part of a group called the Westies, 13 textile artists who live in the “West,” a sub-group of the Art Cloth Network. We created the concept of this project together. The title, beautiful as it is, came out of our group conversations. Each of our pieces is the same size, inspired by a section of Edward Abbey’s Benedicto (blessing). We were each free to choose the section that most resonated with us.
I resonated with this section of Edward Abbey’s Benedicto: “May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through… a deep, vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs… where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful, and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you — beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.”
Heated Boundaries
68” h x 39” w
Kona cotton and silk shantung; hand dyeing, textile paint printed through Thermofax screens, fusing
FireStorm
29” h x 35” w
Kona cotton and embossed cotton; batik and hand dyeing, textile paint printed through Thermofax screens, fusing
Scorched Earth
29” h x 35” w
Kona cotton and silk noil; hand dyeing, textile paint printed through Thermofax screens, fusing
Threshold
29” h x 35” w
Kona cotton and silk noil; hand dyeing, textile paint printed through Thermofax screens, fusing
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Climate change has produced extreme and violent fires around the world. The closer that populated areas and “the wild” become, the greater the danger of those blurred boundaries and their surroundings becoming overheated. The threshold moment is upon us: to restructure the layered relationships of land, human inhabitants, and how we care for our environment.
Temples in paradise
2019
35” h x 49” w
silk shantung, embossed cotton dyed, fused and burned elements; batik, painted dye, textile paint through Thermofax screens, fusing
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In November 2019, the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA, erupted. I was distressed, saddened, and later, hopeful for new beginnings, based on reports of the resilience of the survivors.
The abstract shapes within the mountainous shapes represent the homes and the residents who lost so much as a result of a fire that couldn’t be stopped until it destroyed the city of Paradise. 120 miles away, I was affected by friends who did rescue work, friends who knew someone there. In this way, we each touch many lives. This piece became my expression of our human connections and our human resilience.
