This piece is on of several created collaboratively with artist Mary Kay Neumann for t The Flowers Are Burning: An art and social justice project that can be found here: https://www.theflowersareburning.com

"Burned By The Fire We Make: Flowers are Burning Series"
Collaborative Watercolor by Mary Kay Neumann and Helen Klebesadel 22x30

“And when Man gained dominion
Over land and the oceans
He began to harm the planet
With his asphalt and his toxins

And to lay the forest bare
And to poison even the air
And he killed every beast
And taught the seas how to bleed

Burned by the fire we make,
What a shame.

Then the winds gave in
And the rain knew no season
And the sun came to beat
On a land of sand and diseases

And when God looked down
On the earth and saw it was broken

Then the tears of God fell down
Through a hole in the ozone

Burned by the fire we make
What a shame.

This is the nature of the human race
To kill off anything that gets in our way
Poor Mother Earth we disfigured her face
Man is the maker of his own disgrace
Burned by the fire we make
What a shame.”

– Lyrics by Adrian Belew, “Burned by the Fire We Make” Used by permission of Adrian Belew