“fire inside” [the story]
version 01, 02, and 03; version 03 was part of this collection
version one
in the summer of 2024, i made this painting one day just for me. i didn’t spend a lot of time on it and i didn’t have a plan. i just started painting, adding one part at a time and a felt like i was led by a fire inside.
naturally, i named it fire inside. it felt a bit personal so i had no current plans to sell it.
version two
in december 2024, i met this song that i loved.
“never seen a fire, like the one inside her;
even when she’s tired she could melt sierra snow
and make the goldenrod grow”
[broken bow by john calvin abney]
the song felt like music to go with this painting i did, so one night i [impulsively] bought handwritten lyrics of the song from the artist knowing i’d frame them and put them near the artwork. i recklessly ripped the canvas off the original frame and planned to put the lyrics in a frame juxtaposed next to the canvas. again, moving without much a plan, i updated the original painting to be a little more bold [and, of course, fix some parts to the original canvas that i no longer loved].
version three (the final version)
in april 2025, i had just bought this small (about 11x14 in) wood frame from a thrift store and wasn’t sure what to do with it, but it felt like a good piece for a collage…
at the same time, version two didn’t feel right anymore. i still loved the song and the handwritten lyrics, so i reframed those on their own.
and then i started recklessly cutting up the canvas art just enough so that it fit onto this wood frame. again, not much of a plan here other than knowing i wanted to collage it back together to fit in this new-but-old frame. i sorta wanted it to look like a bit of a rough mess because that is often what the fire inside looks like.
once the canvas was back in place, sort of, i added a bunch of random things to build on the story [paint, oil pastel, ‘zine cut outs, construction paper cut outs, etc] to the canvas once again led by the fire inside. no plan, no vision, just purely led by an inner fire and knew it was done [three versions later] when i felt it.
[sold in aug 2025, a few months after sharing it for sale]
