After living my entire life in southern latitudes, it was only a few years ago that I finally experienced autumn in a northern climate. Witnessing a true change of seasons, I was captivated by the brilliantly colored leaves on the trees, and soon after, the spectacle of the leaves falling all around us—I couldn't stop collecting and studying them.
For several weeks, I made it a goal to make one pulp painting per day from a myriad of different tree species. Each leaf image was captured by applying pigmented pulp around individual leaves, documenting their elegant shapes and allowing the paper’s translucency to define the form. They ended up being part of a large installation of sixty pulp paintings entitled, "When Trees Lose Their Leaves, Do They Miss Them? This set of notecards is a sampling.
Individually, these moments of attention evoke a melancholy that comes with age and the acknowledgement of our ephemeral existence. Collectively, they remind us of the brilliant designs in nature and the wisdom of diversity.
LEAF RELIC NOTE CARDS (When trees lose their leaves, do they miss them?)
My work is a response to the miraculous energy in nature—an invisible force that creates such exquisite forms and textures in every living thing. Studying these forms and distilling them into imagery and sculpture is my way of “reading” nature. As I do so, I can’t help but wonder: what is nature telling us with its beautiful expressive language?