Classic(pre 2016) > Grow Where You're Planted

Since my arrival in Tennessee in 2011, I have been fascinated by the incredible rate of biological growth at nearly every granular level of nature: mold, plant, insect and animal. I have been dumbfounded to see people garden with a machete and prune our local hackberry trees with a chainsaw, only to see them sprout thick fuzz of leaves when spring came around. No specimen has captured my imagination like the vine: Gill-Over-the-Ground, Balloon Vine, Leatherleaf Clematis, Virginia Creeper, Crown of Thorns, and king of them all Kudzu. I want to pay homage to the marvel I feel as the robust growth of vines turns majestic trees into colossal drum sticks, transforms utility poles into chrysalitic cocoons and conjoins houses under the tight knit of tendril coverlets. Through my artwork I hope to explore the form and implied meanings within this miraculous blight of fecundity.

Melting Me
oil on canvas
2x3'
2012
Dog Heavens
Acrylic on Canvas
48x60"
2012
Dog Heavens Study
oil on canvas
18x24"
2012
Choking Growth Nugget
oil on canvas
11x14'
2012
Ghost Hangout Tree
oil on canvas
30x40"
2012
Old Muscle
oil on canvas
48x60"
2012
Old Muscle Study
pencil on paper
19x25"
2012
Scrub Cut
pencil on paper
19x24"
2012
Kudzu Phantom
oil on canvas
4x4'
2012
Kudzu Pile
pencil and watercolor
19x24"
2012
Vine Skirt
pencil on paper
19x24"
2012
Kudzu Phantom Study
pencil and watercolor
19x24"
2012