The Process of What’s Left

Charcoal rubbings from burned trees, silk, earth
2022

The Process of What’s Left is my early processing of the Calf Canyon / Hermit’s Peak fire — New Mexico’s largest wildfire in recorded history, and a fire that nearly swallowed my childhood home. I visited the burn scar and was captivated by a haunting, transparent forest. I found rocks scorched on one side and completely intact on the other.

There is much focus on the amount of burned acreage due to the magnitude of the fire’s reach. I’m interested in gathering subtle details of the changed landscape that may otherwise go unnoticed.

I created this work by wrapping trees in silk and gently rubbing the charred bark. I made charcoal drawings from charred wood and plastered rocks with silk, imprinting their unchanged shape in the fabric gauze.  

Viewers could walk among the layers of the installation and experience what was only a fraction of the fire’s aftermath.