Artist Statement: Currently my subject matter is almost exclusively trees. Having shed previously ingrained rules about image making, my process now reflects a spiritual journey and exploration. The trees I draw are metaphors for life, loss and coming to terms with unanswerable questions about living. I carefully choose the trees that I draw - they speak to me. I often tell people that I am having a conversation; speaking with trees. When researching other artists and artwork, I find that I am not alone in this thinking. There are traditions in many cultures that describe "spirit trees" or "tree spirits" and artists who draw inspiration from this phenomenon. I begin working by making small pen and ink drawings from observation in the field. I "re-interpret" these drawings into a second or third generation of ink drawings. From these I choose an image that I then "re-interpret" into a much larger charcoal drawing.