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A God in the Hearth: A Visual Essay on Fire and Fossil Fuels
Cascade Paragon Arts Gallery
By David Carmack Lewis
Burn (Cascade Creek Fire, Mt. Adams, WA), 2013, oil on canvas, 114″ x 48″
Special event
“Climate Perspectives: Approaching Climate Change through Art, Science, Journalism, and Ethics”
Cascade Gallery is hosting a panel discussion on climate change Friday, January 8, 2016, from 1-3pm.
“Climate Perspectives: Approaching Climate Change through Art, Science, Journalism, and Ethics”
Friday, January 8, 2016, from 1-3pm
Across from the Gallery in Terrell Hall, room 122
Cascade Gallery is hosting a panel discussion on climate change in conjunction with David Carmack Lewis’s painting exhibition A God in the Hearth: A Visual Essay on Fire and Fossil Fuels. Four professionals representing the arts, humanities and sciences will discuss differences and similarities in how they approach issues around fossil fuels and climate change. The discussion will explore how individual perspectives inform the issues, and what cross-disciplinary collaborations will be needed to continue to address climate change. A reception will follow in the Gallery (Terrell Hall room 102).
Sharon Delcambre
PCC Instructor and Climate Scientist
Panelist Sharon Delcambre earned her PhD at the Center for Climate Research and the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches Global Climate Change at Portland Community College. Visit Sharon’s website.
David Carmack Lewis
Artist
Panelist David Carmack Lewis is a professional artist currently working on a long visual essay called A God In The Hearth about our deep connection to fire and the impacts of fossil fuels. Visit David’s website.
Michael Paul Nelson
Environmental Ethicist
Panelist Michael Paul Nelson is an environmental scholar, writer, teacher, speaker, consultant, and professor of environmental ethics and philosophy at Oregon State University. Visit Michael’s website.
Cassandra Profita
Reporter
Moderator Cassandra Profita is a reporter for EarthFix, an environmental journalism collaboration led by OPB in partnership with six other public media stations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Visit Cassandra’s website.
- Exhibition dates: Friday, November 13, 2015 – Friday, January 8, 2016
- Artist talk: Friday, November 13, 2015, 2-3pm, Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building (MAHB) room 104, PCC Cascade Campus
- Opening reception in the gallery: Friday, November 13, 2015, 3-5pm
- Gallery hours: 9am-5pm, Monday – Friday
Cascade Gallery presents oil paintings by David Carmack Lewis that explore our deep connections to fire and the impact of fossil fuels. Lewis paints burned landscapes and “portraits” of traditional fires, fireplaces, and the hidden fires of engines and power plants. In addition to this familiar subject matter, it is the rich colors, contrasting scale, skewed points-of-view and juxtapositions that push viewers to consider contradictions of the necessity of fire, our dependency on it, and its effects on the planet, especially in the American West.
“In it’s varied forms we simultaneously love fire and fear it. But all too often, at our peril, we take it for granted. To make matters worse the fires that fuel modern life are largely hidden. The hearth fire, once the center of our lives, has been locked away in a metal cage, sealed up like a genie in a bottle to grant our wishes. But as our hidden hearths blaze merrily away, the climate of the planet is changing as a direct result. Just because we don’t see the flames doesn’t mean the world isn’t burning.”David Carmack Lewis
David Carmack Lewis studied illustration at Virginia Commonwealth University and then worked as a staff artist and freelance illustrator for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. He also studied fine art and printmaking at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales. Lewis has been exhibiting his paintings since 1995 and in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade. He began this series of paintings in 2013 inspired by his time as an artist-in-resident at PLAYA in Eastern Oregon. Visit his website at www.davidcarmacklewis.com.
A God in the Hearth is a registered event with ARTCOP21, a global festival of cultural activity around climate change.