WHAT IS INSIDE THE TREE IS INSIDE OF YOU, IT IS INSIDE OF ME
Solo Exhibition at Gallery Ergo in Seattle WA, August 2023
"Moving to Seattle in 2017 and spending a lot of time in the wilderness and temperate rainforests of the PNW has been a welcome reminder of the awe inspiring beauty of the natural world, AND the natural order of the world. The life-to-death-to-life cycle has never been more apparent and obvious to me as it is illustrated by the numerous ‘nurse logs’ you will encounter on most trails up here. A fallen tree, or stump of a giant logged tree that has, in its decomposition, nurtured new life into existence. A new sapling sprouts from the remains and eventually its roots will reach the ground and it will continue to grow up and around the deteriorating lump of organic matter that helped bring it into existence. Death brings life, all of the energy and matter is recycled into anew."
"I have been fascinated by the natural world for as long as I can remember, but I have recently become more aware and enamored with our connection (and heartbroken at our lack of connection) with the natural world (especially after reading The Overstory by James Powers and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer). The pieces in the collection of work are not really essays about this subject, but more visual poems with the underlying thread rooted in the connection we have with plants and animals and the natural world as a whole. We are not merely on this planet to use these resources as we see fit, but we are the planet, the plants, the animals. We are all made of the same stuff.”
-GRAHAM FRANCIOSE
Various Mini Paintings
Watercolor and Gouache on cotton rag
5" x 7" each