I started drawing close-up portraits of local Hill’s weeping fig trees during the COVID lockdowns. My love for the individual character of the trees continued, but for this series I felt compelled to add another layer.

Like most people I know these days, my awareness of the current precarious moment in the history of life on earth is ever-present, whether or not I’m tuned into or doing anything about it. It’s a layer of consciousness while I’m drawing a fig tree on my ipad, for example. None of us can “unknow” how consequential these crucial years and the strength or weakness of our collective action will be. The knowledge is always there, urgently waiting to see what will happen and what we will do.

The text in each artwork is one sentence or headline I read or heard in the media on the day when I started to draw the image. I’ve added it as a layer to indicate our awareness of the inescapable emergencies now affecting everything.

I created the work on an ipad Mini using the Procreate program and Apple Pencil. It is produced as a fine art giclee print with archival paper and inks in a limited edition of two prints. Text: “Earth well outside of safe operating space for humanity” scientists find. (The Guardian 4/9/2023)