Remember the Trees
This solo exhibition at the art gallery of San Diego Mesa College in 2018 featured material from many of my walks with trees in San Diego County and beyond. Photomontages from different regions where I had walked were arranged with informative text/image sketchbook pages. Participatory elements included “A memorial to what we have lost,” in the patio proximate to the gallery entrance where participants could cast stones with the names of cherished places, animals or plants that have died or disappeared, and tree branches where participants could hang leaves with their thoughts about actions individuals they pledged to take, actions that societies should take, or visions for sustainable design and lifestyles.
The exhibition included material from several areas in San Diego County including Torrey Pines State Park, Pine Valley Creek, Mt. Cuchama, and Cuyamaca State Park.
Above are images from 2016 and 2017, when I followed a forest service map to some of the closest areas beyond San Diego experiencing massive losses of trees, Walker Pass, a pinyon pine/ juniper forest along the Pacific Crest Trail, about 275 miles north of San Diego’s Laguna Mountains and Alta Sierra, at the southern most tip of the Sierras.
Below are images from a trip to Joshua Tree National Park in 2017. I continue to returned to walk with the trees in all of these areas.
Tecate Cypress near Mt. Cuchama, 40” x 60” 2018.
For more Tecate cypress see Cascading Memorials.