Johnston is one of us narrative painters here in Portland and we are really excited that he just won an @artrenewalcenter award for this painting! Here the figure in the painting has just carelessly started a fire and it is having an immediate effect upon Nature, as evidenced by the escaping fox. The iconic Mt. Hood (just outside of Portland) can be seen in the distance. In September 2017 teens lit some firecrackers in the Columbia Gorge forest which resulted in the Eagle Creek Fire that burned 50,000 acres and it snowed ashes on Portland for days. The climate crisis we are experiencing just compounds fires like these, yet we all seem to be indifferent to news reports on climate change.
