For years I have been drawn to take pleasure in and photograph trees and my phone is full of images, mostly of mature unique individuals. I am fascinated by their strength and beauty, their forms that, marked by broken limbs, scars, burns, lichens and mosses, reveal their life stories. I’m drawn to their wrinkles, bark patterns, gnarled roots, and hearty trunks that remind me of my own body, and I want to hug them. I think of how they are challenged to make a whole life rooted to one spot, reaching down into the rocky earth for nutrients and water and up into the sunlight for their miraculous photosynthetic meal-making. I notice the evidence of the challenges of storms, droughts, insects, animals, humans with chainsaws, bulldozers and chemicals, and now the blazing heat of a changing climate. There seems so much to learn from knowing them.

Working with multiple photographs, wooden boxes, burned planks and branches, I honor these inspiring models of beauty, determination and adaptability.

Click below to view larger images in a slide show. Be sure and see the From the Studio page.