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I worked in New Zealand for a while, doing fire research. We instrumented the slopes with heat sensors and lit it on fire--the flames were really intense, and the igniters just calmly walked out of the brush with the wall of heat behind them. Research or not, the image of a firefighter among the flames is always intriguing. **This painting can be framed at additional cost.

I love making art, but my day job is wildland firefighting. I fell backwards into fire management after earning a degree in Forestry. Most of the summer, I travel to fire assignments, predicting fire spread and behavior one day or several weeks in advance with the goal of helping managers make good decisions about ongoing wildfires. I've held positions in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, in Christchurch New Zealand, and Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Fire behavior prediction involves fire science, knowing the 'art' of fire, and some computer wizardry. Wildfire can indeed be destructive, but in the natural environment, fire means renewal, regrowth, and a diverse landscape patchwork. My...