Hagersville Tire Fire Series

Benediction. Triptych.

Chalk pastel on paper, 120" x 60", 1998

Breaking Over the Horizon

Chalk pastel, charcoal on paper, 40" x 60", 1999

Cleansing the Wounds

Chalk pastel on wood, 72" x 48", 1999

Fire Storm: The Watchers

Chalk pastel on wood, 72" x 48", 1998

Endless Sky / Rites of Passage (detail)

Oil on masonite with plastic film

Man on a Crane

Chalk pastel on paper, 40" x 60", 1998

Men in Smoke

Oil on mylar, 12" x10", 1998

Men in Vapour

Oil on mylar, 12" x 9", 1998

Raising the Crane

Oil on mylar, 12" x10", 1998

Study for the Sacrifice

Oil on mylar, 1998

The Sacrifice

Chalk pastel on paper, 60" x 80", 1998

White Heat

Oil on mylar, 12" x 9", 1998

 

This body of this work centres on imagery drawn from my near landscape, and, in particular, the Hagersville Tire Fire -- a local event of apocalyptic scale which forced us to recognize limitations, if only temporary ones, in our destructive relationship with the land.

I am using this material in both the anecdotal and metaphorical sense in which the elements of this disaster -- smoke, fire, firefighters and the landscape itself -- seek to relay the story of the fire as they conjure and connect with the larger issues that provide a framework for our cultural identity.