Good and bad fires: making art in a burning world

Abstract

The absence of indigenous cultural fire with growing climate change, on top of a century of fire suppression has ultimately led to the issues of wildfire we face today. It is a complex issue that plagues society with a responsibility to act on it, while being a part of a system that makes it difficult to accomplish anything. It is not a matter of "if" a fire will come, but when. The weight of this is placed on Federal Land Employees who work overtime to make almost no dent in the efforts to restore, while also trying to contain the fires that threatens livelihoods. Because of hotter and drier climates and the reintroduction of controlled burning, fire has been brought back into the landscape. The creative process offers me a way of illuminating the complicated narrative of forest history combined with the reality of landscape. Constructing pieces through various processes of painting, burning, drawing, and textile offers different entry points into the wildfire conversation. My research paper aims to expand on both acknowledging and redefining American's relationship with wildfire.