Poise, oil on canvas, 72in x 108in, 2003
About the Series
2001-2003
The paintings in this series are about the chance arrangements that occur when trees and skies collide. The skies are fleeting moments held briefly by the arms of the trees. Many of the trees represented are not indigenous to Southern California and have been pruned and shaped for domestic and farming purposes.
The following is a quote from a book entitled “All the Little Live Things” by Wallace Stegner written in 1967.
“I admire the natural, and I hate the miscalled improvements that spread like impetigo into the hills. But who can pretend that the natural and the idyllic are the same? The natural is often imperfect, and Homo fabricans, of whom I am one, is eager to perfect it. So I clean it up and grub out its poison oak and spray for its insect pests and plant things that bear blossoms instead of burrs, and make it all Arcadian and delightful, and all I do is help jar loose a tax increase, bring on roads and power lines, stir up the real-estate sharpies, and get the hills cut up with roads and building lots. All is woe, with loss of Eden.”
Expose, oil on canvas, 24in x 48in, 2002
Surrender, oil on canvas, 36in x 60in, 2002
Billow, oil on canvas, 25in x 70in, 2001
Peak, oil on canvas, 30in x 50in, 2002
Poise, oil on canvas, 72in x 108in, 2003
Blanch, oil on canvas, 25in x 59in, 2002
Blink, oil on canvas, 25in x 59in, 2003
Quiver, oil on canvas, 42in x 49in, 2002
Defy, oil on canvas, 36in x 40in, 2003
Melt, oil on canvas, 24in x 48in, 2002
Ripple, oil on canvas, 25in x 70in, 2001
Spread, oil on canvas, 25in x 70in, 2002
Furrow, oil on canvas, 25in x 70in, 2001
