Charcoal on Rives BFK paper, 12 x 12 (framed, 16-3/4 x 17-1/4 inches)

Artist: Karen Bondarchuk MI

Cocooned from Covid-19 and contact with others in Michigan, with my iPad as my connection to the world, watching the 2020 Colorado wildfires unfold had an air of unreality. Only when I received a chunk of burnt wood this March did they become very real. Opening the ziplock baggy released a faint smell of wood smoke, a hint of the devastation that unfolded a few months ago. I thought of the pan-species experience of witnessing a wildfire, the shared understanding of danger and loss.

www.karenbondarchuk.com