On Fire

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

The Oregon Trail Albert Bierstadt

Who among us isn’t fascinated by fire? After sitting around communal fires for tens of thousands of years it may be in our genetic code to be drawn to fire for all the benefits that a good fire can represent. A campfire means warmth, nourishment and perhaps friendship. It can also signal the place where information and stories are passed along. Historically, artists have used fire as an interesting, moody light source for their subjects rather than a subject in and of itself. Wildfire often signals violent destruction and the omnipotent power of nature, and is looked upon with both fear and fascination. Each year in the Flint Hills of Kansas, fires are deliberately set on tens of thousands of acres of grassy range land to control weeds and enrich the soil before the new shoots of spring emerge. These vast grasslands, once the bottom of a prehistoric shallow sea, have evolved with fire over the eons, and are depend…