Save The Trees         please click images to enlarge

 If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence, we could rise up rooted, like trees. 
​ Rainer Maria Rilke   ​

Trees are Sanctuaries belong to a series of woodcuts and artist books. They celebrate the beauty of trees and at the same time mourn their destruction. The heavily encrusted surfaces of the work contain residues of nature, such as sand and plants in order, to generate a sense of physical presence. These trees are also about the American Dream expressed in the text overlay on some of the paintings which have excerpts of Langston Hughes poem "Let America be America Again / Let it be the dream it used to be”, a dream of equality, free speech, peace, justice and freedom?
Thought my trees are dark and charred fragments of nature and express the loss we will experience if we do not protect our forests, they are also standing strong and untouchable and become symbols of hope, new beginnings and regenerationIlse Schreiber-Noll