This painting was included in my solo exhibit, "Roots and Nurse Trees: The Only Constant is Change," at the NUPOC Gallery, Northwestern University Prosthetics - Orthotics Center, Chicago, IL, July through August 2019. Tree roots tap deep into the earth to draw up nutrients and, when decomposed, return to and merge with this dark source of life. The roots in this painting represent a point of entry to a chthonic world that is both literal and mythic. Since childhood I have been drawn to folk tales and myths. Many suggest a portal to the underworld realm of Hades, god of death and the dead. There, we find Persephone who emerges in the spring to bring new life and growth to the earth, and withdraws to the underworld in the autumn when life withers.
This painting was included in my solo exhibit, "Roots and Nurse Trees: The Only Constant is Change," at the NUPOC Gallery, Northwestern University Prosthetics - Orthotics Center, Chicago, IL, July through August 2019. Tree roots tap deep into the earth to draw up nutrients and, when decomposed, return to and merge with this dark source of life. The roots in this painting represent a point of entry to a chthonic world that is both literal and mythic. Since childhood I have been drawn to folk tales and myths. Many suggest a portal to the underworld realm of Hades, god of death and the dead. There, we find Persephone who emerges in the spring to bring new life and growth to the earth, and withdraws to the underworld in the autumn when life withers.