In 1971, in an act of optimism and curiosity Stuart Roosa flew hundreds of seeds into space with Apollo 14; they were subsequently germinated and planted and are known as "moon trees". In 2017 the US dropped out of the Paris accord.

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In late 2017 I made a show about trees and then kept working on it.

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I photographed tree stumps painted vivid colors by the public works department, contemplating a psychedelic anthropocene of the beautiful but dead. Then I photographed bits of wood: street finds and residue of the holiday tree industry, including my old Christmas tree stripped and painted red. I'm drawn to odd taxonomies and their visual presentation.

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I also began taping paper against the bark of trees and rubbing the paper with graphite to make "drawings". Some of the trees were dead or dying and the means of production was a reference to the practice of making grave rubbings. The images also document a set of material inquiries into the nature of mark making and reproduction: is it a tracing a drawing or a photograph? As it turns out the physicality of the making is an important component and 2 tracings are rarely the same.

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Later I used some of the drawings to make a book: if you were going to make a book about dying trees (what would you call it).
 

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