Living With Fire: Adapting to a Changing World
Project Background
In the summer of 2018, one of the earliest mega wildland fires breached my hometown of Redding, CA destroying landscapes, homes and lives in a magnitude that has now become a norm. My mom watched the flames on the hillside. The fire was coming her way and she and her neighbors knew it was a matter of time that the sheriff’s office would evacuate her area. She was displaced for over a week, glued to the news, wondering if the winds would shift and blow the fire into the canyon flanking her backyard. The fire raged for over a month.
While Redding was still coping with the loss of homes and vegetation, the Camp Fire ravaged the nearby Paradise community, becoming the deadliest fire in the region. Then In 2020, while we all sheltered in place awaiting the COVID vaccine, the skies above my home in San Francisco turned an apocalyptic orange. The August Complex fire in Mendocino, the Glass Fire in Napa, and the CZU Lightning Complex fire in Santa Cruz enshrouded Northern California with smoke. Firefighters from other states and countries were deployed to help curtail the blazes, exhausted from the seemingly ceaseless blazes in this global phenomenon never seen in our modern era.
My father was a firefighter long before these megafires entered our social consciousness, and I remember the toll fire season would take on him. Now fire season is no longer a thing. Megafires happen year round and in parts of the world that hadn’t experienced them before: Quebec, above the arctic circle in, Maui, and the list goes on.
This project is a two-part artistic exploration of intensifying wildland fires and community impact.
A body of artwork. I created a series of sculptures, videos, jewelry pieces and an installation structure drawing from my research and interviews on the topic of fire in our modern era.
A community art exhibit. I partnered with the Shasta County Arts Council to curate a juried show of art from the Northern California community. I designed this community-focused event to create an experience that connects artistic imagination so as to foster social resilience of those who have been scarred by fire. Here is where I test the theory that art can inspire us to bravely lean into difficult feelings and frictional spaces in order to reconnect, reimagine, and reignite a brave new way of rebuilding practices that address global issues and honor the earth.
What living with fire means to me:
In July 2018, I was glued to my phone, feverishly refreshing Cal Fire’s real-time incident reports and awaiting updates from my mom about the rapidly advancing Carr Fire heading towards her west Redding neighborhood. I watched this disaster unfold from more than 200 miles away, powerless to do anything to help. She was evacuated for weeks, anxiously wondering if drifting embers would ignite the wooded canyon below her back yard. (click for more)
I grew up in Nor Cal fire country. My dad was a wildlands firefighter captain for CDF, the agency now known as Cal Fire. He worked tirelessly until knee injuries forced him to retire. Growing up in Redding means growing up with fire. A smokey sky veiling the sun in orange and gold marked the end of summer, signalling a return to school. My dad would be out there with his crews suppressing these fires, inhaling carbon from the burning landscape, and smoking cigarettes at base camp—activities that ultimately led him to succumb to lung cancer at 55.
Now having witnessed the landscape of my childhood change from the 2018 Carr fire, and seeing the loss and devastation, I perceive how the scarring on the landscape is mirrored in the scarring of a community that witnessed the devastation in real time as they were forced to make split decisions on what to take with them when evacuation orders came.
This community scarring and community held trauma is what strikes me the most. We have a new split decision we face in the aftermath: do we hold onto memory through fear, or can the trauma be a catalyst for growth and reimagining. This is where art comes into play. Art connects communities together through contemplation and dialogue. Artworks have the power to activate a visceral reaction that impassions individuals to make meaningful and lasting change.
This project built on an Artist in Residency at Whiskeytown Lake, interviews with community members, and research on ecology and fire science has helped me to better understand our collective experiences, challenges, and the opportunities that await for us to reimagine better.
A Reimagined Forest: Metals and Mixed Media Sculpture
Forests are changing. First from fire suppression and now from untamed wildland fires reclaiming their right to exist in the mix of climate change and drought. I take artifacts fromt he fire (burned wood and photographs of recovery) and create metal and wood sculptures to honor what was and imagine what will be.. The recycled copper wire in these pieces represent many elements of the fires including root fires, smoldering root systems that continue to burn (sometimes for years), fire resilient plant species that grow back vivaciously after the forest floor has been cleared and the tree density is lighter, and the human impact on nature.
Split Decision (2022)- Charred Wood and Utility Wire
As I was walking through a portion of the Carr Fire burn scar with my mom, gathering burned wood for sculptures, a portion of a tree stood out to her. She called me over, "How about this one?" It was perfect. My mom had to make a split decision as to what to take in her go bag as the fire rushed over the hills towards her neighborhood.
Symbiosis (2023)
A copper fern frond made from recycled utility wire and copper sheet wraps around a charred piece of Redwood I found in the 2020 Napa Glass fire burn scar. Ferns love growing under the cool canopy of redwood groves. The two species enjoy the same moist climate and they feed each other and are part of a luscious symbiotic ecosystem supported by the forest floor.
Wound (2024)
Burned wood from the 2020 CZU fire and recycled copper utility wire. Some parts of the forest receive a simple clearing out of underbrush and the lower branches of the trees. I hiked part of the edge of the CZU burn scar in the Santa Cruz Mountains and came across one of these areas where the forest floor was covered in blackberry brambles winding around and consuming the charred remains on the forest floor.
Mycelial (2025)
Burned wood from the 2021 Dixie Fire and recycled copper utiilty wire. Trees communicate to each other in the woods through mycelial networks. The mycelial network cradles the charred wood as a promise to hold the wood’s memory, soon to be absorbed into the fungal web ready to regenerate a new forest.
Experimental Video
This project includes a series of short videos–a mix of documentary interviews and experimental audio/visual textural pieces in collaboration with composer Jacques Desjardins. Each video will take on a different vantage point and speak to a transformation of what was before to what is now. Vantage points include the resilience and shifting textures of nature, evolving approaches to land management, the mental and emotional health of our communities in the face of disaster, and reenvisioning firefighters as self-actualized in the face of trauma–down from the hero’s pedestal.
Beyond Us
2023Beyond Us is a short experimental documentary video created in collaboration with composer Jacques Desjardins. This video documents some of the changing landscapes in the Redding and Whiskeytown Lake, California regions affected by the 2018 Carr Fire. Set to an original score, the video journeys through the transformed landscape and captures the recovery in this drought-stricken region that is experiencing longer and hotter fire seasons. Voices of people who are connected with the area–a park ranger, a botanist, artists, and a snippet from President John F. Kennedy's dedication speech at the lake–set the stage for contemplating how humans are intricately connected to the environment we experience.
Before Us
2024Before Us builds off of the shock of the Carr fire’s devastation seen in Beyond Us and centers on a feeling of coming to terms with the inevitability of change. This short experimental documentary video was also created in collaboration with composer Jacques Desjardins. The imagery and score delves into memory and dreams of a deeply familiar place, Whiskeytown Lake. When the phase of grief reaches acceptance, we can move from a fixed state of attachment and open ourselves up to growth and transformation. In this place we can be more open with curiosity to discover a new kind of vibrant beauty.
Wearable Totems - Forged in Fire
These jewelry sculptures are inspired by natures resiliance in the face of wildland fires. Photos on the left from my hikes through burn scars inspired the jewelry on the right.
Budding Fairy Ring
Redwoods send sprouts that are clones of themselves when they are damaged. These trees grow from the base of the trunk and will turn into what is commonly called a fairy ring.
2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire - Santa Cruz Mountains.
The Fire Within
2023 - Sterling Silver and Carnelian
Inspired by fairy rings.
Tree With Webs
2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire - Santa Cruz Mountains. When you look close enough, you see what comes back first in the forest after the burn.
Tree With Webs Pendant
2023 - Sterling Sliver and Patina
Inspired by webs in burned trees.
Mt. Lassen Through Ghost Trees
2022 Dixie Fire - Lassen National Forest. Once a thick forest, now stripped from fire, a new view is revealed.
Open Spaces
2025 - Sterling Sliver and Patina
Inspired by a new unobstructed view of Mt. Lassen.
Living With Fire: A Community Exhibit
This juried group show was created in partnership with the Shasta County Arts Council and exhibited across Redding art venues. This exhibit is my call for connection with my hometown community. It’s an artistic reminder that community unites us in difficult times. The Northern California artists in this exhibit were asked to share their interpretations of what it means to live with fire and adapt to a changing world. Their creative works depict literal and metaphorical explorations of lengthening fire seasons, loss, trauma, recovery, regeneration, fortitude, resilience, or regeneration in the context of living in a fire-prone and fire-adapted region.
I invited viewers in this space to connect with the creative brilliance of these artists who see the world intensely and soulfully and to allow the work to ignite their own experiences of living with fire. The exhibit was designed to be a place of healing through community and a call for contemplation and conversation.
From my curator's statement:
“Allow this exhibit to be shared with friends and strangers. As you move through the space, connect with other attendees, talk about the work and what inspires you about it. Share your own experience with fire and refuel your hope and spark your imagination of how we might collectively live better with fire.”
Images coming soon