Emerging Red

The process of painting Emerging Red [above] included many thoughts about potential, city planning, how reliance upon automobiles and consumerism have impacted the American landscape, and what catches and directs the eye in a scene. The place which inspired it [below] is not particularly striking; in real life, the tree itself, though magnificent, is treated as a "decoration" for a parking lot. As most of us no longer live particularly close to nature, the little bits of nature that we see used as ornamentation are refreshing but not often deemed central to one's experience of a street or town. In painting the little red tree, I wanted to allow its full splendor to manifest itself, and I wanted to give it a setting in which wilderness and the work of man seem to find a comfortable balance. I left the beginnings of this painting behind to spend Thanksgiving in the mountains of Georgia, wandering through the woods and across river beds. . . upon returning, I was all the more eager to create a bold splash of life on the canvas.