Adoring Magnolias (and their relationship with oaks)
This is a brief background on the inspiration behind the “June” series of magnolia paintings, created in 2019.
While painting Canopies, I discovered a curious relationship between two local tree breeds, the oak and the magnolia. (I talk a little more about it in this post).
While trees tend to respect the space of other trees, it was interesting to observe a frequent “snuggling” of the two. Magnolias nestled into the branches of oaks, as if they were lovers. Upon further observation, I delighted in the opposite traits of each. Everything about the two trees are different: the leaf shapes, growth patterns, root structures, and bark surface, yet they coexist in a beautiful marriage.
Captivating.
This body of work simply adores the magnolia in detail, as well as the relationship between the two species.
In particular, the unbridled way that magnolia trees express beauty. They save all year for their annual bloom, unapologetically and without permission, sharing their fruit with the world. They are a reminder that we all have something to offer, if we would be willing to share it.
Through this body of work in particular, I started to identify my own marriage to this relationship, picturing my husband as the strong and protective oak and myself as the expressive magnolia. This personification laid the foundation for a visual language in my work moving forward.
The June series of paintings are lively, bright, and cheerful. They represent the best and healthiest versions of ourselves, and what we aspire to be.
In a later adaptation (2020), this idea also sparked a sketchbook project titled, “knotty trees,” a snapshot of day to day observations of a similar marriage… You can read about it here!