Concept:

I finished this 20"x24" oil painting on July 4th. It's titled "Last Tree".

When I noticed a tree stump in a vacant lot, with only a few branches jutting out, I immediately thought of one of the most famous and beloved Greek Hellenistic sculptures: The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also known as Nike of Samothrace, which is housed in the Louvre. I quickly snapped a few photos while stopped at a red light.

I decided to give the tree wings – not made of clouds, but formed by the negative space in the clouds. The reason I chose to imply the wings through negative space rather than using clouds themselves is that the latter felt too obvious and lacked subtlety.

I wanted to place the tree in a dramatic, desert-like setting to symbolize the devastating effects of climate change – depicting what I imagined the last remaining tree on Earth might look like.