A God In The Hearth

Fire Study #20 oil on paper  12" x 16"

I first began to think deeply about the relationship between human beings and fire in October of 2013 while at the Playa Artist Residency Program in eastern Oregon. The residency lies at the foot of a steep escarpment called Winter Ridge on the shores of the shallow alkaline Summer Lake. It is a wide open high desert landscape, populated more by cattle than people and not many of either. All along the steep slopes of the ridge stood dead juniper and ponderosa pine, the blackened remnants of the Toolbox Complex Fire in 2002, one of the worst in the nation that year. Many nights at the residency I sat in the common room enjoying the warmth and light of a large stone fireplace while snow whirled and blew outside. The contrast between the wildfire that had swept this landscape (and which had come very close to destroying the property on which I stayed) and it’s comforting cousin in the hearth before me, became a focus of contemplation. 

The paintings in this exhibit are the beginning of an ongoing visual essay exploring our deep connection to fire and the impacts of fossil fuels. Without fire we would not even exist. Cooking food allowed our guts to shrink enabling us to walk upright, and our caloric hungry brains to grow ever larger. Using fire we became like it, sweeping across landscapes and transforming them utterly. In it’s varied forms we simultaneously love fire and fear it. But all too often, at our peril, we take it for granted. To make matters worse the fires that fuel modern life are largely hidden. For millenia the hearth fire was the center of social life, a source not only of nourishment but of light in the dark and warmth in the cold. But now most of our fire is locked away in engines and power plants, sealed up like a genie in a bottle and made to do our bidding. 

"Burn (Cascade Creek fire, Mt. Adams WA 2012)"  48" x 114"

These paintings compare traditional fires and fireplaces to the hidden fires in engines and power plants. Comparisons are also drawn between coal and wood, a reminder that fossil fuels are essentially fossil landscapes from a time eons before human beings existed. One ironic result of their use may well be an increase in wildfires on today’ s landscapes, especially in the American West. The work as a whole is meant to remind us of the primacy of fire in our lives, and to make us consider both the necessity and the difficulty of weaning ourselves from this dependency. For as our hidden hearths blaze merrily away the climate of the planet is changing as a direct result. 

Just because we don’t see the flames doesn’t mean the world isn’t burning.

October 2015

"Four studies of the Coal Fired Power Plant at Boardman OR"
oil on paper  12" x 16" each

"A God in the Hearth" now scheduled... twice

My show "A God in the Hearth" has now been officially scheduled. Twice.
The first showing will be at Portland Community College in the Cascade Campus gallery this November and will run through early January. Then the work will be shown at Betty Feves Gallery at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Oregon from February into March of 2016. The first show will be a slightly smaller version than the second due to space limitations, but not too much smaller. I'm excited to experiment with the presentation as well, possibly including some installation work and a few choice quotes on the walls from my written essay on the topic like the one above. New work will be posted here soon.

People's Choice

My painting Burn in background at the West Coast Biennial in Redding CA.

This weekend I drove down to Redding California to pick up my painting "Burn" from the West Coast Biennial at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park Museum. When I got there I was told, "By the way, congratulations. You won the 'People's Choice' award".

I was and am incredibly touched. There is often a huge chasm between the aesthetics of the fine art world and the general public. What curators, museum directors and art critics pick out as noteworthy is often completely alien and incomprehensible to the individual who is likely to say, "I don't know much about art but I know what I like." Personally I never saw any reason why one couldn't or shouldn't try to engage both audiences. The fact that Bonnie Laing-Malcomson, the curator of northwest art at the Portland Art Museum selected my piece to be included in this show was enormously gratifying to me. Winning the "People's Choice" award is equally so, and gives me hope that my work can occasionally bridge that seeming chasm.

"Burn (Cascade Creek Fire, Mt. Adams WA 2012)" 48" x 114" oil on canvas

A show and a sneak preview of prints!

Attic Gallery in Portland asked me if I'd be willing to have a show of my older work that is still available. So of course I said, "Why not?" I also have a few small new pieces I'll be bringing down to include in the exhibition this April.

But it got me to thinking. There are a lot of older sold pieces that people still ask about. Recently a friend asked if she could have a small print of one these. She did a little research and found an awesome place here in Portland that specializes in fine art reproductions. I had two prints made for her and they came out great. So in addition to the older original works in the show I'll be selling affordable prints of some of my favorite images from years past. I haven't yet decided on how many or which ones but they will definitely include these three:

"The Playhouse"

"Backhoe"

"The Fox"

More Good News

I just found out that both the paintings I submitted for the "Expressions West 2015" show at the Coos Art Museum have been selected. They'll be on display from April 24 to June 27.
I'd like to thank the juror Brian Hoover. He is an amazing artist by the way and it is always an honor to be judged favorably by my peers.

The pieces that will be included are:

"Barricade" oil on canvas  50" x 34"

and 

"Roof"  oil on canvas  36" x 49"

A Busy New Year

2015 has started off fairly busily.
My painting "Truffula Seed" comes down this week from Art Convergence 2014
at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center in Washington.

Coming up I'll have two pieces ("Under The Bridge" and "Hovel") on display at
The Idea Museum, in Mesa AZ.
from February 13 to May 24, 2015
for their special exhibit "Build It".
They contacted me out of the blue as they say, which was very flattering.

Also my big piece, "Burn" will be on display at
The West Coast Biennial of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding CA
from January 30 to May 3, 2015

"Burn (cascade creek fire, Mt. Adams WA 2012)  48" x 114"  2013

In February I'll be heading out to Boardman Oregon for a tour of the coal fired power plant there, the last of its kind in the state. I'll collect reference material for another large painting on the scale of "Burn" as part of my ongoing visual essay on the deep connections between human beings and fire and its impact on the environment.