Artist Statement

I draw trees, not perfect trees, nor particularly healthy trees. Instead these are trees that represent resilience, steadfastness, and the persistence to keep growing despite isolation, invasion by other species or inclement weather. Some persevere with contorted and diminished grace, having been imported and planted in a climate that doesn't suit them. I find poetry in their defects and scars, their broken branches and healed wounds.
The technique I use to draw is burning, almost always on plywood, which presents a material paradox- full of glue and veneers, it is highly processed wood.

I use traditional pyrography pens, inks I make, and aquarelles, as well as small torches and heat guns, to get various effects on the wood. The work is in part successful when others start to pay attention to these types of trees, or tell me stories of trees that have been important to them, and of course when I hit the mark with the drawing itself, burned into the veneer like a tattoo.