wildfire redwood : april ’23
Wildfire Redwood Charcoal was gathered by artist Shinehah Bigham at the site of the CZU (short for “San Mateo — Santa Cruz Unit”) Lightning Complex fires that burned in Northern California beginning in August 2020, and continuing to smolder well into 2021. That year, more than 4 million acres of land burned — about 4% of California’s 100 million acres of land — making it the largest wildfire year in the state’s recorded history. The August Complex fire has been described as the the first “gigafire,” burning an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Most of the massive, 300-foot, 2,000 year-old, old-growth redwoods survived this burn as they have survived so many, scarred but now green with new growth. Wildfire Redwood, made with burned redwood remnants, is a tribute to these enduring elders.
contributor: Shinehah Bigham
Shinehah Bigham writes: “I use locally foraged earth pigments from stones, ochres, clays and botanicals found around Santa Cruz and Watsonville to make abstract and representational paintings. They come from wild, windy cliffsides, serene creeksides deep in the forest, and 500 feet deep under the ground, unearthed by the digging of water wells. After the intimate process of foraging these pigments from our nearby environment, I grind, levigate and mull them into paints, using the traditional tempera technique with egg yolk as binder or handmade watercolors with foraged binder of acacia or plum tree gum. When using the handmade mixtures, I try to let the expression of the paintings embody the nature of the pigments themselves, as what they are made of is a part of what they are about.
The land in which I respectfully gather these precious pigments is within the unceded sacred indigenous homelands of both the Awaswas- and Mutsun-speaking peoples from which the modern Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is descended. This land is known to the Amah Mutsun as Popeloutchom.” www.shinehah.art
Image from Shinehah’s website.
22% donation recipient : Amah Mutsun Land Trust
The Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT), writes: “AMLT is an initiative of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, is the vehicle by which the Amah Mutsun access, protect, and steward lands that are integral to our identity and culture. The AMLT returns our tribe to our ancestral lands and restores our role as environmental stewards. Due to our difficult history and generations of physical, mental, and political abuses, our land stewardship practices were disrupted, and much of our culture was lost. AMLT serves not only in the re-learning of our history and restoration of indigenous management practices, it also serves as a vehicle for healing. By restoring our traditional ecological knowledge and revitalizing our relationship to Mother Earth, we also restore balance and harmony to the lands of our ancestors.” www.amahmutsunlandtrust.org