Spotlight: "Nexus of the Elders"
Spotlight gives me an opportunity to showcase a particular image or set of images. Close-up photos can display details from larger pieces. Background stories about the concept, inspiration, circumstances, or development of a piece can be shared, including progressive images of a work-in-progress.
Spotlight library: Is More Than, Interconnected, Rivers in the Sky, The Cost of Soft, AR 4, The Coastal Zone, Time and Tide, Frame of Consequence
"Nexus of the Elders"
"The forest is more than a collection of trees. It is an integrated whole...individual species organize into complex community structures that promote the fitness of the whole group." ~ Dr. Suzanne Simard, Forest Ecologist
Nexus of the Elders is a homage to the older, larger trees in a forest that connect and sustain hundreds of other tree, plant, and animal species.
Referred to as Mother Trees, they act as hubs in the forest ecosystem, sharing carbon and nitrogen through underground fungal networks. To convey this connectivity, I have used vine-like stitches to tie together four portraits of old growth trees.
From this low angle, you can see the depth of the folds, a metaphor for the immediate reality of deforestation. These disappearing guardians absorb as much as three times more carbon from the atmosphere than the youngsters, helping to stabilize our climate.