sometimes there’s a strange red ash left behind in the fireplace and I don’t know what causes it – a certain kind of firewood, or something in the wood, perhaps – but I feel a compulsion to treat it as something precious, like some rare mineral given up by the earth.

I used it to make these small paintings (8 x 8″).

PVA glue, ash, charcoal, conte crayon & chalk on roughly primed board. (2019)