DECIDUOUS SERIES
The ecology of Dutch elm disease is a lens in these paintings for contemplating urban forests, sense of place, and change.
This series grew out of a reverence for the urban forest—specifically the vanishing grandeur of elm-lined boulevards. The work is also a meditation on how the places we know are altered by natural forces over the course of our lives. "Deciduous" refers to this conditional nature of our changing environment.
I began this body of work by calling the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to request a list of trees recently culled from my childhood neighborhood. I located the stumps, tacked down sheets of vellum, and traced the visual features to create “found drawings.” I took these field drawings to my studio where I retraced portions of them to create seven small compositions. Each painting is a one-to-one scale map, describing an actual object in the world. Each “map” is embellished with delicately painted patterns pointing to ecological links between the tree, the fungal disease agent, the insect vector, and the human role in managing the epidemic.
Suite of 7 paintings and 1 letterpress print, 2012
I began this body of work by calling the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to request a list of trees recently culled from my childhood neighborhood. I located the stumps, tacked down sheets of vellum, and traced the visual features to create “found drawings.” I took these field drawings to my studio where I retraced portions of them to create seven small compositions. Each painting is a one-to-one scale map, describing an actual object in the world. Each “map” is embellished with delicately painted patterns pointing to ecological links between the tree, the fungal disease agent, the insect vector, and the human role in managing the epidemic.
Suite of 7 paintings and 1 letterpress print, 2012
