Art: Genesis Chapman’s Fire on the Mountain IV: The Bonfire of Our Insanity

Let’s talk about fire. Not the cozy, marshmallow-toasting, Instagram-worthy kind. No, we’re talking about the kind that signals the end of the world as we know it. The kind that doesn’t just destroy forests—it incinerates the very idea that we’re good stewards of this planet. Enter Genesis Chapman’s fourth entry of his Fire on the Mountain series, a towering inferno of a painting that doesn’t just depict destruction—it dares you to look away. Spoiler: You can’t.

Chapman’s work has never been subtle. He doesn’t do gentle reminders or soft warnings. His art grabs you by the collar, drags you into the flames, and screams: THIS IS HAPPENING. RIGHT NOW. Born and raised on Bent Mountain, Virginia, Chapman saw firsthand what happens when corporations decide that your home is just another patch of land to plunder. The pipeline industry treated his childhood landscape like a doormat, and he responded the only way an artist can—by immortalizing the devastation with ink, fire, and righteous fury.

Where the World Burns and Nobody Notices

So, what’s going on in this  installation of Fire on the Mountain? Picture an apocalyptic firestorm straight out of Dante’s Inferno—except Dante didn’t have fossil fuel conglomerates making a profit off the wreckage. Flames shoot into the sky like an unholy oil spill igniting into a death pyre. The snow or water in the foreground? That’s not a hopeful contrast—it’s fuelfor the fire, the last remnants of nature about to be swallowed whole.

The colors are pure chaos—molten reds, diseased yellows, smoke-thick blacks. Chapman paints fire not as a fleeting disaster but as a force that replaces the landscape. This isn’t a wildfire that will eventually die down. This is a system burning itself out with no intention of stopping.

We’ve Been Playing with Matches for a While

Let’s be real—this isn’t the first time we’ve seen art sounding the alarm on environmental destruction. The Hudson River School artists painted nature like it was an untouchable divine masterpiece, and the Romantics freaked out about its untamed power. But Chapman? Chapman’s not painting what was—he’s painting what’s left. His work isn’t about the sublime beauty of nature; it’s about the sublime stupidity of thinking we can keep setting everything on fire without consequences.

He’s part of a long tradition of artists turning disaster into a wake-up call. Except we, as a society, seem to be hitting snooze. Again. And again. And again.

The Big Question

Here’s the thing: Fire isn’t just a symbol of destruction. It’s also a warning. A transformation. But what are we transforming into? When the smoke clears, will we actually learn from this? Or are we just going to keep letting Big Oil set the world ablaze while we scroll through TikTok?

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