Urban Trees Series Artist Statement:

These dark textured paintings are intentionally simple and straightforward.

I painted the first tree after finding a weathered playbill posted to a telephone pole on a trip to San Francisco.

It was the sort of spot where about 50 different people had glued flyers onto top of other flyers to advertise their happenings.

Weather had taken it’s toll on this particular location. Most of the playbills were illegible. On a few of them, I could still see the ghosts of what used to be there.

The trees in this series are all painted black. I painted them dark and drippy, like rain on a cold day in a dirty city.

Some people see death or holocaust trees.

Others have mentioned shadows, silhouettes, and skeletons.

Such darkness never even occurs to other people who are drawn to these paintings. These people talk of blues and greens and light filled loft apartments.

Please interpret them anyway that you wish. I don’t enjoy pushing my dark ideas onto other people.

I created these in my studio in rural Georgia. A place that is surrounded by clean air, southern sun, red dirt, and fields green with peanuts and cotton.

I suppose I miss living in a large city at times. I get a little melancholy to see rusted warehouses, run-down industrial areas, and actual urban grunge. If you look closely, you can find incredible color and texture in grungy industrial areas of most American cities.

Enjoy. — Cindy

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2010 Update: Since I still receive several inquiries a month about purchasing pieces from my Urban Trees series; I wanted to add a quick note to mention that all the paintings in this series are now sold. Thank you to all who purchased them.