The Solar Burn images are created by sunlight. Since the weather at the Chateau is frequently cloudy for long periods of time, Ross decided to gather the Solar Burns in New Mexico. Every day for one year, he placed a white wooden plank under a large magnifying lens. As the sun passed across the sky, it burnt a mark across the plank. Changing weather patterns acted to modulate the burn: sunny skies created a broad smoke flare, passing clouds left unburned interruptions, and cloudy days produced blank boards.

The Solar Burn Spiral is made by following the curvature of the burns as they are placed end to end in chronological order from summer to winter. This spiral is similar to double spirals found in rock drawings and carvings of many ancient peoples, including the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Now recognized as a solar figure, this ancient archetypal form appears again -- renewed in the Solar Burns.

Now a contemporary art museum, the Chateau d'Oiron, a fifteenth century castle in France's Loire Valley, originally belonged to Claude Gouffier, Royal Equerry to Kings Henri II and Francois I.