Sometimes art is influenced by odd events totally outside of the realm of the work itself. I never meant for this painting to be these colors, or for all the horses to have blazes. It started out as a very different painting, and evolved into something else as I painted while watching uninterrupted news coverage of a terrible fire near Malibu. There was something horribly beautiful about the dark smoke and bright orange flames meeting the cool blues of the Pacific sky and ocean, and those colors started creeping into the background of my painting. The most horrifying thing for me about watching a wildfire burn is worrying about the animals who might be trapped. I watched as a man and woman brought their four horses down from the hills, seeking refuge on the beach. Each rode bareback, leading another horse, with only halters for bridles and lead ropes for reins. Who knows what they left behind them, but at least they got the horses out. What started for me as an ordinary racing painting became a sort of tribute to that couple and their horses. I discarded an earlier version of the composition which included a jockey to the left, so I'd have just two riders and four horses like the scene in Malibu. It seemed only fitting to give all the horses big white blazes, and dub the painting "Blazes." "Blazes" was accepted in the prestigious American Academy of Equine Art Juried Exhibition in 1994.