Above: Surprise, Surprise No. 11 carries the intense color and movement of autumn at its most dramatic moment. Layers of orange, red, yellow, and ember-like tones spread across the surface like falling leaves, flames, smoke, and sparks rising into the air. The image seems caught between two states: a forest floor covered in brittle autumn branches and a fire already burning through the landscape.
The drawing moves through the color field like flame itself—sometimes suggesting branches and fallen leaves, sometimes the upward movement of smoke or fire reaching toward the air. The work has a sense of sound as much as sight: the imagined crackle of burning wood, the shifting movement of embers, and the quiet transformation of organic material returning to another form.
Below: The reverse surface reveals another layer of the same elemental energy. Hidden colors and transfers create the sensation of heat glowing from within, like embers beneath ash or light passing through smoke. The relationship between the two sides suggests the changing appearance of fire depending on where it is viewed from: bright flame, glowing coal, drifting smoke, and the remnants left behind.
The image moves between destruction and renewal. A branch can be a fallen object in the woods, a source of warmth, or the beginning of a new transformation. The work holds all of these possibilities at once.
Reflection: Surprise, Surprise No. 11 draws from early memories of Michigan autumns, woodlands, and the rituals of preparing for winter. Growing up in a home heated by wood meant that fire was not only a source of warmth but part of the rhythm of family life: finding fallen wood, cutting and transporting it home, stacking cords of firewood, and living with the presence of the material throughout the seasons.
Those memories exist alongside the visual experience of autumn forests, where millions of fallen branches and leaves create their own natural architecture of color and texture. The work transforms those experiences into something more elemental: the relationship between fire and forest, decay and renewal, labor and comfort.
Like the other works in Surprise, Surprise, the image emerges through accumulated states. Layers of color, folded surfaces, and transferred marks create a record of transformation. The final work feels both preserved and temporary—a moment where the fragile beauty of autumn and the intense energy of fire exist together.
Above: Surprise, Surprise No. 11 carries the intense color and movement of autumn at its most dramatic moment. Layers of orange, red, yellow, and ember-like tones spread across the surface like falling leaves, flames, smoke, and sparks rising into the air. The image seems caught between two states: a forest floor covered in brittle autumn branches and a fire already burning through the landscape.
The drawing moves through the color field like flame itself—sometimes suggesting branches and fallen leaves, sometimes the upward movement of smoke or fire reaching toward the air. The work has a sense of sound as much as sight: the imagined crackle of burning wood, the shifting movement of embers, and the quiet transformation of organic material returning to another form.
Below: The reverse surface reveals another layer of the same elemental energy. Hidden colors and transfers create the sensation of heat glowing from within, like embers beneath ash or light passing through smoke. The relationship between the two sides suggests the changing appearance of fire depending on where it is viewed from: bright flame, glowing coal, drifting smoke, and the remnants left behind.
The image moves between destruction and renewal. A branch can be a fallen object in the woods, a source of warmth, or the beginning of a new transformation. The work holds all of these possibilities at once.
Reflection: Surprise, Surprise No. 11 draws from early memories of Michigan autumns, woodlands, and the rituals of preparing for winter. Growing up in a home heated by wood meant that fire was not only a source of warmth but part of the rhythm of family life: finding fallen wood, cutting and transporting it home, stacking cords of firewood, and living with the presence of the material throughout the seasons.
Those memories exist alongside the visual experience of autumn forests, where millions of fallen branches and leaves create their own natural architecture of color and texture. The work transforms those experiences into something more elemental: the relationship between fire and forest, decay and renewal, labor and comfort.
Like the other works in Surprise, Surprise, the image emerges through accumulated states. Layers of color, folded surfaces, and transferred marks create a record of transformation. The final work feels both preserved and temporary—a moment where the fragile beauty of autumn and the intense energy of fire exist together.