"The Fire and The Rose are One" (2003-2004, Mineral Pigments on Kumohada Paper, 89 x 66 in Copyright © 2004 MakotoFujimura, Private Collection)
is one of the four panels painted in ensuing dark months after September 11th, 2001 in Fujimura's Ground Zero studio. It was recently exhibited at Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University.
Thomas Hibbs, in his new book "A Theology of Creation: Ecology, Art and Laudatory Si'" speaks of "The Fire and the Rose are One" painting:
In conversation with (T.S.) Eliot, Fujimura constructs four large paintings, who color schemes and use of layering ... Three of the titles - all derived from line in Eliot's poems ... Between Two Waves of the Sea, The Still Point, and Zero Summer underscores stillness, silence and absence. Only the fourth painting, Fire and Rose are One accentuates natural imagery and transformation...Brimming with color, the paintings invigorate rather than short-circuit the imagination.