Sempervirens (Always Flourishing)
(2020)
“When the pandemic arrived earlier this year, I experienced what felt like both an expanding and a sharpening of time. Despite all the technologies, the world seemed to have returned to the speed of the carrier pigeon. Walking became a meditative and essential act– feet on the ground, muscles, air. New silhouettes were revealed in the landscape every day, and on one of those days I decided to stop and make a photograph of a lone sequoia near my home in Vallejo. That led me to this series.
When a redwood is traumatized it can spontaneously generate new growth from the burls in its roots. A redwood grove emerges from the earth to create a family that shares the same DNA. Some see this as life beyond time–at least beyond human time. I have not found any redwood groves on my walks. I imagine the cracked concrete and asphalt that surround these trees are a sign of strain, a struggle to breathe. Majestic, orphaned, lovely, ancient creatures, they stand in place as if waiting patiently for their grove, or to disappear into the ocean fog.”
- Artist statement for Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis group exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2021.
