Description
In the Wings was created using charcoal from the forest after the Caldor Fire of 2021. I live in Christmas Valley with my family, and spend much of my time sketching and painting outside, ‘en plein air’. After the wildfire, I felt compelled to make art which responded to the dramatic events which had transformed the landscape overnight, and set about gathering charcoal as soon as it was safe to do so. Charcoal in my first love as a medium, and its use dates back to the earliest human impulse to create images on cave walls. This primal impulse resulted in a series of drawings and paintings, titled ‘Call & Response: Visions of the forest after wildfire’.
This piece represents first dawn light spilling over the valley ridgeline after the fire. When I witnessed this scene, the morning sun filtering through russet pine needles and burnt branches reminded me of butterflies. A friend had described the phenomenon of Christmas Valley’s survival as, ‘a strip of green, with burnt wings of valley slope on each side’, and remembering her words at that moment, the title was obvious. The moment of illumination I witnessed that morning felt like hope, a transcendental event that reminded me that nature finds a way to recover, to regrow and move towards the light. Winter was coming, and after that Spring – so the new growth really was ‘Waiting in the Wings’.