Meditations on Fire No. 9 - Vienna Sausage Memory

From a painter’s perspective, this painting is organized as a broad color field where the sky carries a saturated vermillion red, pressing down with warmth and memory, while the ground settles into Prussian blue grass, cool and anchoring. The flame itself is simple, built from restrained mixes of orange and white, its form suggested rather than described. It leans east, shaped by wind and gesture, echoing how light begins in the east. The surrounding color reflects the fire’s presence, as if the land itself is living and responding. 

The memory held in the paint returns me to a day trip with my family, out on open land where my father made a small fire just as he always had. Vienna sausages, a staple from his generation, turned slowly over the flame. He always spoke of growing up near Paguate, of time spent at his grandparents’ sheep camp, where meals were modest and days were long. But he had the same pure joy that my brother and I felt in our chests, not loud, but steady and warm, laughing and enjoying roasting Vienna sausages. The painting honors that way of living, where simplicity is not lack, but a form of abundance.