I began this project during a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in December 2017.
I first saw this oak tree in October 2016 and then returned in 2017 to find it chopped down and in pieces. My experience with this tree felt much like my emotional relationship with our living environment on a larger scale. At first I felt anger, then sadness, and then a desperation to save and preserve the pieces. Pieces of Earth, like beautiful artifacts from another life. I considered the connection between human and nature, and creation and destruction. I studied the materials and their states, evolution and function.
In a broader sense, the work is about a shift in scale and perspective.