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The
Arboreal Spirits series consists of ten 48” X 60”
paintings in oil. Each painting averaged four weeks to complete
and required a minimum of three coats of paint. Structurally,
each depicts five or three vertical columnar forms, usually
in strong relation with an oblique line or shape. Pigment
and brushstroke texture, as well as blending, form most foregrounds
and backgrounds. By contrast, each shape within every tree
spirit is finished in a single, flat, hard-edged color. And,
without the aid of blending to suggest spatial dimension of
adjacent forms, it is the juxtaposition of the color shapes
which must “cause” them to advance and recede
in space.
The
“arboreal spirits” are trunks of old-forest growth
trees whose sensual lines and shapes evoke long-gowned women
in dance, in celebration.
This
concept sprang to mind as I descended the mile-long path from
Highway 101 at Oswald West State Park (between Cannon Beach
and Manzanita on northern coast of Oregon) down to Short Sand
Beach and its long rock wall of rich imagery awaiting my camera.
That afternoon sowed the seed for the future move from Los
Angeles to an ocean site from at Seal Rock on the Oregon coast.
Huge, tall trees festooned with hanging mosses jiggled forth
Longfellow’s image of “the forest primeval.”
This was the beating heart of the Pacific Northwest! Mystic
associations sprang forth: paintings by Morris Graves, re-creations
of nature by Northwest Coast Indian artists. Some of the trees
shifted into living totem poles.
Another metamorphosis seemed to transform some of the older
growth forest, especially those trees stripped of their lateral
branches, into gigantic women. Roots became the bottom of
long dresses. Bulging roundness along the trunks formed thighs
and hips and shoulders. Top branches stretched skyward like
upraised arms. Some of today’s conservationists might
interpret this last image as an action of thankful jubilation
for forest conservation, with the trees’ creaking-cracking
arboreal hallelujahs at being saved by the advent of the threatened
spotted owl.
All paintings are (48"x60")
Click on images for a larger view
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