These photographs are part of an on-going project that explores the shapes and forms in found in trees and other plants that have fascinated me since childhood. This project was born to give a new perspective on botany in general, but started with trees. I use the branching patterns, roots, bark, leaves, etc. to create abstract images that resemble other patterns found in nature and in the universe. When looking upward at branches, for example, one sees them twisting and turning, subdividing many times and getting thinner but more numerous towards the edges, much as fractal patterns do. Also, look at how these same patterns are similar to images of cells, neural structures and even the distribution of matter across the universe. They all seem to follow the same mathematical model, as if there is one mathematical description for everything in the universe. I like to decontextualize things in my images so that we can look at them in a different way. Yes, a tree is a tree – but is it just that? Can it be a representation of some underlying, fundamental law of the universe? This is what I seek to investigate with this body of work.

If nothing else, this body of work should make you look at trees and plants in a different way next time you go out into the woods or the nearby park. Admire them for their forms and shapes. Let your eyes travel through their branches, their bark, their roots. Appreciate the intricate patterns and relate them to other patterns found in nature, in geology, in the universe.

After all, isn’t this one of the main purposes of art: to look at the universe around you in a different way, to make unexpected connections, to give fresh perspectives and increase your feeling of wonder?