Acrylic on paper – 18 x 24 inches.
For the past few weeks waves of fire have roared and raged across California, leaving blackened earth and desperation behind. Every day the red sun simmers in an amber haze; every other day ashes sift down on us like showers of grey snowflakes. It’s not possible to ignore the frightening power of wildfires, but in this painting I wanted to show a different kind of fire –no less frightening — a mystical fire. Many people, especially the literal-minded, are unaware that such fire exists. But it sometimes comes to visit those whose ears and eyes are open . We are the trees. It burns all of us differently, I imagine. To me it is cold, like an icicle, like a windy night in January. It’s a fire of grief and joy, and it burns like a white sun.
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Another painting that makes what we might think impossible, undeniable, perhaps a little like dreams becoming reality. A powerful, foreboding, and prophetic work. Beautiful and frightening at the same time. One assumes that the mystical experience must be full of contrasts, contradictions and ineffability. Your descriptions of the mystic fire being like ice, the joining of grief and joy, seem perfectly apt. The painting from this contrastive point of view contains many contrasts, contradictions and ineffability: beauty and fright; deep darkness and brightness; fire, water, earth, wind, all merging. This verbal description suggests chaos. Not at all. In fact, just one more contrast: chaos and control. Impossible yet undeniable.