Artist Statement

FIRESTORM is a Monument and a Memorial designed to honor. To honor those who were lost, to honor those who survived and to honor those who rebuild from the devastating forest fires and wildfires that plague the State of Oregon. This monument, built from the love of the land and to inspire hope of a better future, is carefully designed to honor for centuries, not days, weeks, or years. Never can we forget the tremendous loss these fires have created with an uncontrolled frenzy fueled by the wind and a climate of growing heat. FIRESTORM the Monument and Memorial honors, documents and beckons change. 

Strength, courage, and perseverance are defined in forceful creative visual terms in this Monument and Memorial titled FIRESTORM.  FIRESTORM once realized at full scale will stand as the first public art monument memorial in the State of Oregon dedicated as a public art monument memorial to a devastating and predictable reality. No soft touch or decorative appearance can hide the grief of loss and the loss of trust. FIRESTORM as a monument memorial must be unconditional in visual power to stand as a public statement worthy of purpose.  A purpose and a visual language that must inspire, educate, and define this continued condition of nature unleashed to the contemporary viewer as it will the future viewer centuries from this date and this time. 

Dignity of loss requires a powerful and compelling public art statement that will inspire response and personal ownership. FIRESTORM has no equal in the state of Oregon by design, by content and by purpose. These continued forest fires and wildfires devastate the land, the animals that inhabit that land and most importantly devastate the people who call this state home. However, the human will to stand against challenging odds and to change the future is a powerful force. A force as rendered in the FIRESTORM Monument Memorial figures holding those illusionary stylized flames at bay. 

I grew up in the mountains of Oregon and know well the beauty of the place. In my travels since I left the state, I have never found its equal. It is that memory and that grounded belief that inspired the FIRESTORM Monument Memorial design. I will not shy away or be distracted from my obligation to present a public monument and a memorial dedicated to the highest cause and purpose. As a seasoned artist and as a professor of art I have never cared if people like or dislike my art in any form. What I do care about and what I am continually challenged by is the driven need to create public art statements with a strong enough visual voice to inspire change.

The FIRESTORM Monument Memorial is necessary as a statement and as a symbol.

Robert L Barnum