Artworks Up In Flames

Art and the Forest Fire

(Three Fewer Kimonos)

To be specific the three artworks of mine that were in that house, gracing the living room and dining room, were all early kimono pieces of mine from the 1970s.

Each kimono-shaped piece was composed of four sheets stitched together, all of handmade rag. The source of the rag fiber was of my own clothing, as well as some my wife offered from her closet. This use of my own clothing increased by personal investment in the already labor intensive making of the paper. Two shaped deckles helped form the two particular shaped elements. Two shapes defined the body and two the sleeves. I made the paper from the pulped clothing. This use of my own clothing increased by personal investment in the already labor intensive making of the paper. Four hundred sheets of paper were formed, dried, and assembled. Few of the sheets were white. The color of the various sheets depended upon the color of the article of clothing that was destroyed and reborn for the project. Printing was on two zinc plates, butted together.

Just as the paper was of various colors, so was the inking. Not all ink was black, many had metallic powders added. In other words, there were no two shaped kimonos alike. The ink was driven into the soft, receptive paper at 5000 pounds per square inch pressure. There may be photographs of these three kimonos, or possibly not. They were all called Non-Geometric Kimonos. The house on the edge of the forest burned to the ground. Only the chimney remained standing and the Kohler toilet sat where they left it, although the water tank had burst.

There are three fewer kimonos. At the time I tried to justify their loss as poetically as possible. Of the two hundred or more homes destroyed, the home which had my three kimonos was the final structure devoured by flames. I suggested that the fire gods may have been appeased by the sacrificial offering of three framed kimonos.

I don’t really believe that the fire gods cared. They don’t have eyes, otherwise they would see not just these three artworks and stop, they wouldn’t have started charring the lovely pines, the beautiful Colorado scenic grandeur.

There are three fewer of my kimonos. That means there are 97 remaining, scattered. Fire can’t take them all.

The above was written long before the LA fires. I have no idea if any of my kimonos or fans went up in flames.




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