Over the summer of 2025, I worked in a Longleaf Pine forest on a 23,000-acre plantation in South Carolina. The property has attracted research from Harvard archaeologists studying Indigenous mound sites and Cornell ornithologists examining its remarkable diversity of bird species. I am currently developing a series of paintings inspired by abstracted forms I observed and drew from controlled burns’ impact on the forest’s old growth pine bark. Through my painting practice, I continue to investigate the underlying architecture of the natural world, structures that are both visual and conceptual. I am interested in how patterns reveal not only the growth of trees but also the ways we live, adapt, and connect. My aim is not just to depict the landscape but to be in dialogue with it, listening to its rhythms, intelligence, and deep history.

Longleaf 7 / (Longleaf Pine, South Carolina), 54 x 72 x 2 inches, oil on canvas on panel, 2025.