Irene Fire

"It is not a quaint world of beauty but a world where indescribably gorgeous colors can hurt your eyes. It is not a world of evil but a world where unmitigated emotion can mix pleasure with pain in a volatile cocktail."

Art critic, artist, and collector Dan Prince made these observations in Passing in the Outsider Lane: Art From the Heart of Twenty-One Self-Taught Artists. They apply so powerfully to the work of Irina that her painting Awakening is on the cover.

Irina proudly takes the "fire" in her maiden name – Fireman – as a metaphor - for the brightness of her canvases.

"I didn't hold a brush in my hands for the first time until the end of 1991 – since then I've held it tight and never let it go. I work tirelessly, often all night; I forget time and find myself in different worlds. The indescribable states I experience are like those first pure, adolescent feelings of falling in love, when you cease to be the property of Earth.

The particularly deep, coloristic density with which her work lies on the canvas determines the originality and memorability of the images she creates; their energy causes them to merge and compress themselves into a cacophony of phosphorescent colors so intense it almost produces sounds. Using these highly-charged combinations of colors in the finest-hued moods, Irina expresses her own most complex emotions.

"I never begin with a predetermined theme – I let each theme define itself on the blank canvas. My hand moves on its own as my subconsciousness carries me to an unknown beyond. When I step back and look at the image I've produced – I can't believe it was me.

"My creations are my children, my friends, my accomplices. It is easy, interesting, and intriguing to socialize with them. They guide me and I follow eagerly. They shape me and build my life. I do my art the way I want, feel, and see it."

"And yet, as Marina Tsvetaeva wrote, 'The boundlessness of my words is only the shadow of the boundlessness of my emotions.' And I'd like to say in unison with her that the brightness, the different planes, and, I hope, the boundlessness of the works I create are only the shadow of the emotions which overwhelm me, the states I experience, and my belief in each human being."​

Irina's works have been exhibited in synagogues, cultural centers, art festivals, and galleries in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Nashville. As part of Dan Prince's collection they have been shown in museums across the country. Her works are held by private collectors in the US, Canada, Israel, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine.