Growing up in Colorado, I am reminded every day of the majestic beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the reason I, and many other people, live here. Nature is a continuum of life and death, growth and decay; but the past few years have seen an unprecedented decline of the pine forests. The little bug the size of a grain of rice that ravages these trees is not new, but the depth and breadth of its appetite is. Wide swaths of forest turn from green to orange in a matter of months as one wonders what may lie ahead.

• Is this nature’s way of regeneration?
• Is a catastrophic fire inevitable?
• What will this habitat look like in 10 years? 50 years?
• Is there anything to be done?

These paintings draw from this sense of concern and records the organic forms and the detritus that is left over. Sick trees exhibit a ghostly blue stain that meanders through the growth rings – a stamp or death certificate for that tree. There is also a natural beauty in the stains and the crosscut forms of the trees. I am interested in the formal aesthetics of this environment. The trees had been pillars of strength, offering shelter and a diverse habitat – that has now changed.