Miasma

For ten days we didn’t see the sun. The smoke was so thick and widespread that it created its own weather, an inversion as described by the National Weather Service. And it was only half as bad here as it was in the Willamette Valley and parts of California. The layering of public health crises on top of the rolling disaster that is our nation’s political situation is literally insupportable, to borrow a French word. It won’t stand–we tell ourselves–it cannot last. Though the weather is breaking today, the fog of deceit and disinformation continues. I feel trapped in it, as I have felt trapped in the house, unwilling to breathe the toxic brew outdoors. So I worked indoors, fully aware of my privilege to do so. The following collages document impressions of a landscape framed by the screen of Douglas firs in front of the house, bathed in light mediated by the shifting density of particulate matter. In this series, background (Canson 300 gsm watercolor paper) has become foreground (Doug firs), populating the work with all kinds of references to contemporary events, near and far.