NICHOLAS HERRERA

DESPUÉS DE LA LUMBRE / AFTER THE MIDNIGHT FIRE

“This piece depicts land that was the homestead of my great-great grandfather.  The earlier settlers in the valley had been killed by the Comanches because it was on one of their routes. The soil was good, so my great-great grandfather planted potatoes and began making vodka and trading with the Comanches when they came through–and that is how he survived. I have been working this land all my life–so it is deep in my soul. This land and its trees has been my refuge. We had a really bad fire that started from a lightning strike up an overgrown canyon and the fire took off so fast – this painting shows it coming down the mountain. It was a like a wild dragon–swallowing everything that was dry. This painting shows me and my girlfriend trimming around the cabin to save it and trying to catch our horse, who had just took off. The first time I went up after the fire, I felt like my family was gone, because I was so attached to all those trees–seeing them, being around them, sitting under them and hearing the birds sing. They were my friends. There were pines, cedars, giant aspens that were probably more than a hundred years old, there were oaks that were four feet across, huge and really ancient. And they just burned – some all the way down into the roots. It was a hard piece to paint, it is so personal, but I think it is important to show what is going on in the world now–there are floods, fires, extreme heat–things have changed with global warming.”