Energy Stump

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 8, 2012 at 1:02pm

Curator’s Comment:

 

I agree that Energy Stump very successfully radiates visual energy through palette and flame like strokes.  When I originally saw your pieces I had assumed they were woodcuts because of their subject and pervasive grain-like textural markings.  But the ground is actually quite dense and organic, and more intensely concentrated in overlapping dashes and hatch marks to be natural.  The saturated color also creates heightened awareness of the compromised ecosystem.  The tree glows with orange and violet striations, while the rough edges of the severed stump seem to reproduce a ghost tree line of sorts.  I appreciate the compositional isolation of the tree stump, stressing its damaged vulnerability and disconnection from its origins. But I find this piece also has a curious welcoming quality, as the truncated roots open up into hollow passages or entries into the stump itself.  Rather than perceiving these openings as architectural elements, they add to the feeling of tree as living entity, with orifices and living limbs.