Hayman

This June I finished a large pencil drawing entitled 'Hayman.' It incorporates the June of 2002 Hayman Wildfire smoke plume as I saw it from Denver, as well as sections of my apartment building at the time.  

The original drawing is 6 by 16 inches and was made with a drafting pencil and gum eraser. Reproductions preserve the original dimensions of the art on 18 by 26 inch paper. They have a title stamp, and are signed and numbered up to 500. Approximately 10% more are labeled 'artist proof.' 

Below is a two inch square segment I offer to illustrate the scale, sharpness of line, and smoothness of gradation required in my technique.

 

This drawing was a feat of concentration, as well as endurance. I worked on it off and on over nine years, in three towns, in two states. It's been sneezed on, coughed at, and dropped face down. I caught my kitty cat laying across it once, before I killed her. I remember almost spilling my coffee on it . . .  you could have sold tickets to that one. Most recently it fell out of a wheelbarrow into late snow-melt mud as I packed it away to leave Gothic. That was fun. Thank gods it was wrapped in plastic at the time.

Believe me when I say I never thought I'd see the day.
 
The wildfire depicted in my drawing was a genuinely horrific event in Colorado history, all the more awful because of its nefarious ignition. The image I remember most vividly is the one I incorporated into my drawing . . .  the view out my forth floor apartment window the second or third night of the fire.

That evening I saw a boiling mass of smoke erupting out of the mountains to the southwest of Denver. I thought it was a storm at first, but the more I looked the more I realized that it was moving too fast to be a normal cloud. It was back-lit by the sunset and resembled more a volcanic explosion than a thunderhead. After the sun went down the plume continued to glow red by its own light. To a man from anything-but-wild Indiana, it was an astonishing sight.

It is important to note that there was one civilian casualty as a result of smoke from this wildfire. Even more tragic, five fire fighters died in an automobile rollover accident on their way to help put it out. I dedicate my drawing to these six people as a remembrance. You can read more about them here.

I owe my first numbered print (1/500) to a person I knew in Denver just before I started the final version of the drawing. But I can't find him. Lee Crutchfield . . .  get a hold of me.