The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.
(TS Eliot)

You may have heard about all the fires blazing in California right now. They’ve been burning for the past week, started by dry lightning strikes last weekend, not helped by the dryest year since who knows when. The result is that the Valley has been covered in a thick blanket of smoke for days now, and it’s pretty dangerous too. I’ve never seen anything like it – smog, really. The sunlight, as it filters through, has a distinctly orange tinge to it, the shadows are a dim twilight blue. It’s pretty horrible, and I hope it clears up soon, but the air likes to sit still in this hot Valley.

I braved it for a bit over a couple of lunchtimes, to draw the bike barn from a vantage point at bainer hall, uc davis. It’s a scene I’ve drawn a couple of times before – once last July, and then again with leafless trees on a clear January day. They are below. Today I marked the horrible smoky sky.