Hinckley Fire Series: Three Trains- Panels 3-4 The Storm Painting

My art usually is inspired by stories. Stories about the topic of climate change as a human caused global disaster relates very well to my installation “The New Climate” which is based on the story of Minnesota’s greatest human caused environmental disaster “The Great Hinckley Fire of 1894”. As a special education teacher in a St Paul school, the 6th graders I work with have a history day project that they can submit and advance to a state competition. A few a years ago, one of my more inquisitive students asked “What is your History Day Project?” If I had one? What would it be? To my student I answered The Hinckley Fire, and none of my students and many of the adults in the classroom had not even heard of the Hinckley Fire that occurred in 1894. The Hinckley Fire was part of my grandfather’s family stories told to me as a young child. In his words “we had a relative in that fire that was part of the history books”. I never thought about it much until this time because I was also invited to participant in a collaborative art exhibition at the Hinckley Fire Museum. In Working with the Fire Museum, I also initiated four of the artist from that collaboration into a self co-curated exhibition entitled “The Great Hinckley Fire of 1894: The New Climate. I had added the by-line The New Climate to the show after making the connection of humans today causing climate change to Minnesota’s greatest human caused ecological disaster to date. THREE TRAINS The Three Trains piece the exhibition was based on the three trains that encountered the fire that afternoon, two of which most people survived and one where the passengers and train didn’t make it out. In researching the train routes, I came across a recently published paper about the GIS mapping the physic scar of the Hinckley Fire. The mapping was completed in 2015 and was the basis for a painting on how severe the fire storm was burning 480 sq mi in 4 and a half hours. Eleven communities were destroyed and close to 500 people were killed not counting the tribal communities in the area. In researching the human stories of survivors, the book titled Eld Cyclonen originally published in Swedish in 1894 but later translated to English, gave first hand accounts of the most amazing tales of survival during the fire. Also, to my surprise the picture of my grandfathers relative John McGowan who was as it turns out to be the fireman on the train from Duluth. The following excerpts from Eld Cyclonen: p.32 Two trains from Duluth arrived on the Eastern Minnesota line and on the first train rescued about 500 persons who otherwise surely have perished. The second train arrived at 4:05 but because of a burnt out bridge could only proceed about a mile from town. Nevertheless, here gathered about 100 refugees who were taken aboard the train and after a hot race with death successfully reached the swamp, Skunk Lake, and were saved while, while the rescuing train , only a stones-cast away went up in smoke and ashes in a few minutes. My my intention for the viewers is to feel the force and wonderment of nature as it becomes out of balance. I choose to embed the outlines of the acrylic colored composition in charcoal which conveys a smoky quality to the overall canvas. Projecting the smoky atmosphere of a burning fire.

Multi-paneled Painting:Acrylic on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:48 W x 36 H x 1.5 D in

Number of Panels:2

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.