eOpicle

There’s something uniquely American about turning catastrophe into home décor. Not fixing the catastrophe. Not preventing the next one. Not looking at the broader systems that turned entire forests into giant scented candles for the atmosphere. No, no. We take the ashes, sand them smooth, put a tasteful matte finish on them, and sell them beside artisanal candles named things like Smoked Cedar Reflection for $84. So when I heard that a Fine Arts & Crafts Guild was proudly welcoming an artist who works with wildfire-fallen trees, I thought: of course they are. How could they not? We live in a civilization where disaster has become both a content category and an aesthetic. Somewhere between “rustic farmhouse” and “late-stage climate anxiety,” there now exists an entire emotional economy built around making devastation look spiritually therapeutic. And honestly? I’m fascinated by it. Because on one level, it’s beautiful. It genuinely is. Taking wood from trees destroyed by wild...