Sonoma

Peter Baczek

Peter Baczek did this landscape etching titled "Sonoma" in 2016, the year that the Sawmill Fire in Sonoma County, California in 2016, an area that burned again in 2017, and each subsequent year, including the Glass Fire in Napa/Sonoma counties in 2020.

This composition exposes the vulnerability of rural structures, a barn can be seen across a field of grasses. To the left is a small stand of highly flammable Cypress trees and further woods can be seen receding into the background.

In the sky above rise plumes of gray smoke that cover the whole horizon, above them a lighter gray sky. The etching has its own quiet beauty as a composition, there is a peace, no wind, no sharp sunlight or shadows but one has but to survey the distance to began feeling a sense of dread, and helplessness and a need to act.