Cobb Mountain
Loch Lomond, California
2015-2016
On September 12th 2015, a wildfire raged through the community of Loch Lomond and surrounding towns. By the time the fire was fully extinguished on October 15th it had consuming over 76,000 acres of land, destroyed nearly 2000 structures, and claimed four lives. As the fire approached the property on which I lived and worked, a team of fire-fighters plowed a fire break up the steep mountainside along the property line - a preventative measure that arguably saved the property and numerous structures from burning, but also exposed a vein of clay which I later discovered and began using for the duration of my time in California. The clay itself contained fragments of stone shattered from the heat of the fire and charcoal from burned tree roots. Along with these physical remnants of the fire, the clay - and works created from it- carried the weight of this tragic, yet fortuitous event.
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