W H OARETHESEWO O D S, 8 x 8 feet; china markers plus plant and mineral pigments on oak plywood. pigments include: walnut ink, madder, indigo, gamboge, nicosia green, pink colorado pipe clay, italian green earth, yellow ochre, red ochre, dioptase, azurite, zinc, titanium. April, 2017
I came to the woods for mystery, hungry for the indifference of shady canopies, seeking flat wide leaves to press my palm soft against, wanting the tilt of hills to tip me back into the sky. I came wanting to prove that other animals do talk to me, that (as in the picture books) there’s one and there’s one and there’s another, smiling through their fur with their eyes and their faces turned to me. But now I’m here, I can’t help it, it’s compulsive: I’m looking for human signs between the leaves, and I find them. A nail in a thin tree trunk, the tiny torn edge of a wrapper in the mud. My vision devours these fragments, reading them like unguarded faces I can stare at, digging in for meaning. The animal forms around me flit past — dim blurs seen in retreat, if I’m lucky.