Xylem Rays
I use my practice to explore the intersection of painting and the natural world. In my ongoing series Xylem Rays, I paint the self-organizing patterns that emerge from trees’ vascular tissue, known as xylem. The Xylem Rays paintings require prolonged visits to forest lands and sustained periods of reflection and study in my studio. Informed by both my own metaphysical connection to and physical dependence upon nature, I make nearly photorealistic representational paintings of xylem that, due to the inherent formal characteristics of their subjects, read like biomorphic abstractions. Together, the paintings in the Xylem Rays series depict the natural history of the landscapes from which they emerge, written in the unspoken language of the structural integrity and biological resilience of trees.
Xylem 14 / (Black Oak, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California), 48 x 60 x 2 inches, Oil on linen, 2020. Private collection.
Xylem 13 / Ode to a Grizzly (Yosemite National Park,Sierra Nevada Mountains,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2018.
Xylem 10 / Ode to a Mountain Lion (Los Padres National Forest,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2016.
Xylem 12 / (Arroyo Seco, Pasadena, ,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2016. Collection of Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA.
Xylem 9 / (Eaton Canyon, San Gabriel Mountains,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2015.
Xylem 7 / (San Gabriel Mountains,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2014.
Xylem 8 / (Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2014.
Xylem 6 / (Mendocino National Forest,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2013.
Xylem 5 / (Eaton Canyon, San Gabriel Mountains,California), 36 x 48 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel 2013. Collection of Derrick & Lauren Cartwright, La Jolla, CA.
Xylem 4 / (Eaton Canyon, San Gabriel Mountains,California), 36 x 48 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2013. Collection of Paul & Betsy Shivrick, Aspen, CO.
Xylem 3 / (San Gabriel Mountains,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2012.
Xylem 2 /(Angeles National Forest, San Gabriel Mountains, California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2012.
Xylem 11 /(San Gabriel Mountains,California), 60 x 80 x 2 inches, Oil on canvas on panel, 2016.
