When Trees Lose Their Leaves,
Do They Miss Them?
While contemplating these iconic leaf forms, there was no need to impose any further interpretation on Nature's own ready-mades. The result is this series of pulp paintings made by arranging individual leaves on freshly made (wet) sheets of Japanese-style paper and applying finely beaten pigmented pulp around them to capture their elegant shapes and gestures. Dyes, extracted from tiny alder cones, were used to tint the paper to a rich, translucent brown.
When Trees Lose Their Leaves, Do They Miss Them? is an installation of sixty individual pieces -- a tapestry that references a host of ideas and emotions about the wisdom of diversity, the melancholy that comes with age and acknowledgement of our ephemeral existence.

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (DETAIL R1C1_0072)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C2_0074)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C4_0088)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C5_0085 )

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C6_0086)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R4C4_0173)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C7_0140)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C7_0140)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C1_0130)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C8_0150)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C6_0200)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R1C9_0186)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C9_0163)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C3_0110)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C3_0158)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C4_0136)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C2_0127)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R3C5_0102)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C1_0147)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C2_0152)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C4_0116)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C5_0139)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C6_0157)

Copyright © 2017 by Amy Richard; pulp painting on artist-made kozo and mitsumata paper; 10.75 X 8.5 inches (Detail R2C7_0106)