I wanted this work to echo the feel of a beach in winter. I employed a muted, faded colour palette. Scrim was glued to the surface and resembles fishing nets. The piece is an irregular shape, this also recalls pieces of flotsam and jetsam worn with time and tides.
This piece dates from 2004. It was inspired by the famous tree growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in California. The tree is estimated to be around 4845 years old. I experimented with several techniques to try to achieve a heavily textured, weathered looking surface, including glueing gauze to the canvas then working over it and mixing sand with the emulsion paint. The tree shape was made by spraypainting over a plastic toy tree. I’m aware that the name also refers to the oldest person whose age is mentioned in the Hebrew bible. The piece was definitely influenced by Anselm Kiefer.
John Macormac 