The Fire We Feared

"I grew up on a farm in northern Alberta with my grandmother, who was deeply afraid of fire. She worried constantly that a forgotten stove or stray spark could take everything away. Because we were so close, that fear became part of my imagination too.

This piece isn’t a portrait of an actual place, but of a feeling. The isolated house, endless prairie, and luminous sky draw from memories of childhood, where ordinary fears could grow larger than life and take on a dreamlike quality. Looking back, I think many of my paintings are rooted in those years, when imagination transformed loneliness, boredom, fear, and wonder into entire worlds.

The house remains standing beneath the swirling sky, a reminder that the things we fear most often live in our minds long before they ever exist in reality."