Trees

Trees

These recent paintings using trees as subject matter are a close-up lens on the tree as symbol. My trees exist in the three worlds, with the branches in the heavens, the trunk in the world we inhabit, and the roots in the underworld. Trees are symbolic in many cultures; from Christian and Jewish mythology, to ancient Egypt’s “Holy Sycamore” which stood at the gate of life and death, to the Mayan culture’s “Yaxche,” which has branches that hold up the heavens.

Many of my images feature the tree in winter or spring, when the skeleton of the tree is revealed: reminiscent of the tree as a symbol of resurrection, appearing to return from the dead every year in spring. In my work, the viewer will also notice recurring imagery of the world below and the transparent underground.