Most artists have an image or pattern that repeats and persists in their work and mind. Since I started creating images, I have been particularly drawn to making trees.
Trees are connectors. They originate below ground and stem up into the sky. They funnel water upwards; some form interconnected and complex root colonies. In many religions, they hold symbolic and spiritual significance as conduits between worlds. In diagrams, trees link genealogy, history of languages, and evolutionary patterns. To me, they have always expressed anthropomorphous qualities.
I started creating tree works with mixed media and oil on canvas, then I moved to wood panel. I was originally inspired by a piece I saw by Egon Schiele, where he painted the negative space around a form and left the object an underpainting. I began experimenting with wood stains and painting with oil on wood. My earlier works on wood were simplified versions of what I would later make as I first focused on color, feeling and form over visual storytelling.
