California Wildfire Paintings

The art genre called “Terrible Beauty” inspired this series. The paintings are uniquely beautiful scenes of devastating disasters. I believe it is the beauty and craft in great works of art - whether a Beethoven symphony, an entertaining Charles Dickens novel, or a brilliant Rembrandt painting, that pulls us in, captivates us, and opens us to feel moved by its sometimes dark insights. Plus beauty soothes us in dark times. Another name for this dark beauty is “Duede”, which Garcia Lorca described as ‘Death in which you can hear music sing'.