Dance of Decay

2004, Oil on canvas, 16" × 20"

This is the portrait of a specific Palo Verde tree beside a trail I often hiked past. Every season it would self-prune by dropping another branch or two. During a drought this species of tree will allow one or more of its branches to die in order to save the main part of the tree in hopes that a rainy season will come again. These branches piled up year after year. I see the curves of these branches as the forms of a graceful dance.