Learning to Read the Rings

This piece began with an original photograph I took while visiting Hawaiʻi. Before the trip, I imagined it would be the ocean that called to me. 

Instead, I was drawn to the life and death of the island—the trees, flowers, volcanic ash, and ageless rock. Everywhere I looked, something was blooming, breaking apart, or quietly becoming part of the earth again.

This tree, quietly standing outside our bungalow demanded my attention. Its hollow center and weathered layers appeared to hold an entire history. I began thinking about the rings of a tree and how they record far more than its age. They reveal seasons of abundance and years of struggle. They carry evidence of drought, damage, survival, and growth.

Perhaps people are not so different.

We often count the years of a life without learning how to read what those years contain. Some seasons leave soft lines. Others carve deeply into us. There are years when we flourish and years when simply remaining is its own kind of growth.

Using my photograph as the foundation, I transformed the tree into a textured abstract work. The wood became curling, broken layers pulling inward toward the darkness, while muted shades of green continued growing around it. Life and death no longer appeared to be opposites. They became parts of the same story.

Learning to Read the Rings is about looking beyond age and appearance to recognize what has been endured. Our deepest marks do not only reveal where we were wounded. They also prove that we remained long enough to grow around them.

Available as an art print or canvas print. Original photograph with my signature also available.