SMALL TREES > TREES: ROMA Series 2014-2017

In 2014 I took part in an artist’s residency at Palazzo Rinaldi located in Noepoli in the far southern region of Basilicata, Italy. Noepoli is a medieval hill fort town in the middle of the Pollino National Park.

Park rangers from the Shawnee National Forest, near my home in Southern Illinois, find artifacts embedded in old growth trees: arrow heads, bullets, ancient pottery shards, crockery, nails, barbed wire, old signs, and even pieces of clothing. Tree rings tell the age of a tree, but artifacts represent human interaction.

While staying in the Pollino National Park I drew what I thought might be found in the old growth trees of southern Italy–an area first colonized by the ancient Greeks.