Oh, how my knees quaked and spine shivered when I first walked into the gallery at the Nicolaysen Art Museum! It is gargantuan space. I had create a plan for Terra Ignis based on photographs and layout schematics. But the gallery’s immensity did NOT compute in my brain. Not even close.

So, after a tiny bout of stage fright, I was back to the drawing board. Which meant throwing out my plan and re-thinking everything on the spot. I started with the bones—the black mesh—to frame the walls, corner to corner, with shadows before adding my red silky, swirling lines.

Here are a few process images that I call Stage One: Before the Red.

See also: Then came red, my shining life of fire.