Ancient Trees

The Ancient Trees series began with a simple fascination: the realization that some trees have been alive for hundreds, even thousands, of years.

I am drawn to these trees not simply because of their age or unusual forms, but because they seem to carry their histories in plain sight. Their twisted trunks, hollowed branches, scars, and weathered surfaces are records of time. Each tree has been shaped by drought, fire, storms, animals, and the slow passage of generations. In their physical forms, I see something remarkably close to biography.

I approach these trees through the visual language of portraiture. Rather than treating them as specimens or anonymous elements of a landscape, I present each one as an individual subject. Composition, scale, silhouette, and the careful rendering of distinctive features become ways of revealing character and presence. In this sense, the drawings are portraits—not of people, but of living beings whose individuality has been shaped over extraordinary spans of time.

Working in graphite, I draw these trees at a large scale, allowing their individual character to emerge through thousands of marks. The process is intentionally slow. I want the time it takes to make the drawing to become part of the work—to spend enough time looking that the tree becomes more than an image or specimen, and begins to feel like a presence.

The series is ultimately about endurance and memory. These trees have witnessed landscapes change, cultures rise and disappear, and countless human lives pass beneath their branches. They remind me that our own lives occupy only a brief moment within a much larger story.

I make these drawings as a form of attention and preservation: an attempt to look closely at something that has endured, and to give that encounter a lasting form on paper.

This collection of drawings brings together clocks both old and new, exploring the ways we measure, experience, and remember time. From ornate antique timepieces to contemporary clocks, each object carries its own history while continuing to mark the passing of the present.

Clocks are both functional objects and powerful symbols. They measure the hours of our lives, preserve traces of the past, and remind us that every moment is temporary. Through careful observation and drawing, I am interested in the tension between the mechanical measurement of time and our deeply human experience of it.

The works explore time, memory, history, and the fleeting nature of existence. Each clock becomes a kind of portrait—not simply of an object, but of a particular moment in time and of the lives that have passed alongside it. Together, the drawings ask us to consider what we leave behind, what we carry with us, and how quickly the present becomes memory.

Old Timers

Old Timers is a collection of three-quarter-scale graphite portraits of men and women whose faces and bodies bear the visible record of long lives. Deeply lined faces, weathered hands, and aging bodies become evidence of years lived—of work, hardship, joy, loss, resilience, and experience.

These drawings are not intended as portraits of decline, but of presence. The people depicted have accumulated decades of stories and experience, yet continue to engage the world with vitality, curiosity, humor, and purpose. Their wrinkles and imperfections are not flaws to be concealed, but marks of lives fully lived.

Working at approximately three-quarter scale, I draw from the tradition of portraiture to give each subject a physical presence that invites the viewer to encounter them directly. Old Timers is ultimately a celebration of aging and the dignity of an embodied life—a recognition that the passage of time does not diminish a person, but leaves its story upon them.

Sumud

Sumud is a collection of drawings inspired by my recent journey through Israel and Palestine. The Arabic word sumud is commonly translated as “steadfastness” or “resilience,” but it describes something deeper: the determination to remain rooted in a place, a community, a faith, and a history despite uncertainty and hardship.

During my travels, I encountered people whose lives embodied this spirit of steadfastness, as well as landscapes and places marked by generations of memory. Ancient olive trees, weathered stone, fields, churches, and the ordinary objects and details of daily life became subjects through which I began to consider the meaning of belonging and endurance.

The works draw from the traditions of portraiture, landscape, and still life. I approach people and places as subjects with their own histories and biographies, while objects and natural forms become quiet witnesses to the lives surrounding them. Through careful observation and the slow process of drawing, I explore the relationship between land and memory, faith and belonging, displacement and rootedness.

At their heart, these works are an attempt to bear witness—to the people I encountered, the places they call home, and the quiet strength of those who remain.

Swedish Legacy Sculptures

This collection of sculptures explores the enduring relationship between people, place, and the natural landscape. Each work is created from raw, unfinished materials—wood, stone, metal, and other elemental substances—allowing the inherent character, texture, and imperfections of the material to remain visible.

The sculptures are given Swedish names drawn from the landscape: glaciers, mountains, forests, rivers, islands, and other enduring features of the natural world. These names serve as more than titles; they locate each work within a particular landscape and evoke a sense of memory, inheritance, and place.

Together, the works consider what we inherit from the places that shape us—and what might endure long after we are gone. Their unfinished surfaces and elemental forms are intended to feel less like objects imposed upon the landscape than fragments of it: quiet, weathered, and grounded in a sense of time.