“Lost Trees Found”

Due to extreme fire behavior, catastrophic atmospheric events and poor forest management, some of the trees of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and foothills in California are in jeopardy. The trees of the Sierra Nevada are unique lifeforms that work in community with all the flora and fauna to create a dynamic, healthy ecosystem. Each tree as individual as a fingerprint. Each beautiful and majestic but also vulnerable and fragile.

Lost Trees Found is a collection of artworks made from the materials that these trees grow and shed and is an attempt to draw attention to these trees. Each of the organic materials in the works have been manipulated and altered, are now brightly colored and artificial, arranged and organized with the hopes of drawing the eye and eliciting curiosity.

There are links placed alongside each exhibition piece that lead to this website with information about the tree from which each was created. There one finds correlating images, artwork, personal documentation and data about each tree.

The works in the exhibition are a small example of humans taking nature and using it to meet their own needs, while in contrast, the website and literature exhibits the glorious, multifaceted aspects of these lifeforms. For example, Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii, pawēyapi is made from Blue Oak buds and small branches, acrylic paint, pigment and matte medium in a wood support. This exemplifies how humans have manipulated the tree material by organizing it, covering it in paint and gluing it to a surface. Then one navigates to the site via the link and sees photos of the tree and reads about how Blue Oaks can compartmentalize a foreign object by growing around it which creates odd extensions on the tree.

This project incorporates and utilizes multiple mediums and methods: I conducted research, collected, sorted, cleaned, manipulated, photographed, took videos, drew, colored, painted, assembled and wrote about the trees at the heart of this exhibition. Connecting the unusual artworks to the factual and personal information on the website, I hope to create a tension for the viewer with the purpose of fostering a curiosity about their own natural spaces that might result in a deeper understanding and affection for the place they live. I believe that through that understanding and affection a practice of care will emerge.

This project is multifaceted and ongoing as I will continue to create works and contribute content to the project website as my knowledge grows and information is amassed. My research on these trees continues and I am actively taking a role to be a better partner in their preservation. By looking at my home through a bioregional lens I have come to understand and care about this place in a much more profound way.