Chit-chat #1

Oil on wood

16 x 20 inch panel, 17 x 21 inches overall

Photograph by Bradford Raines

Trees communicate through their roots and through the fungal network sending electricity and nutrients and secret code through the soil which means that there's this constant stream of camaraderie. Part of the chit-chat series, exploring connected systems in nature.

Jury comments: "When a visual work causes you to linger, it is something of a challenge for all of us as visual artists. And I’m so intrigued because the painting allowed my imagination to wander a bit. Thinking about different experiences, atmospheric things, microscopic things.

"You’re asking the viewer to come in further. I’m drawn to this kind of soft aura… Something about this kind of work would make it easy to pass by, but this kind of work asks you to come in further, and there’s just such a magic to that. That’s kind of hard to capture. This kind of work speaks to that spiritual sense, and I don’t say that a lot. It kind of flows in a spiritual way of being. We thought you captured the uncapturable in a really special way."