Fire (Red)
2020
Watercolor and pastel on Bhutan Mitsumata Rice Paper and Pink Granite and Rose Rock Shrine
62 x 110 inches
Derived from the color iconography of Tibetan Buddhist Prayer Flags, in which red = fire, these paintings are made by applying many layers of watercolor paint over a period of several days or weeks. Returning to the most fundamental elements of the earth's being, and ours, the pigment is the prayer. Confronting a sense of helplessness as we watch the earth burn, a pandemic rage, hunger spread, refugees fleeing for their lives in an inhospitable world, I look to the elements as a guide. In Buddhist iconography fire is the burning of obstacles to enlightenment.