My sister and her family live in Arizona and have a cabin on a ranch were they can drive from their home and find cooler weather.  In 2002,  the Rodeo Chediski fire blazed through where their cabin stands and destroyed many homes around them.  They had the good fortune of having someone douse their cabin and spared them major damage- there were singed stairs and exterior damage , but were able to save the contents of the home.  I wanted to create a memory for them of how magnificent, mighty, and ferocious the fire was and yet they were spared; I painted this scene of the billows of smoke rising up miles into the sky.

for more on this event check out:
thehttp://www.azcentral.com/news/20120617rodeo-chediski-fire-timeline