MICHELE KISHITA

My work is a dialogue between the wooden surfaces on which I paint and the trees from which those panels were built. By transforming a tree’s rounded mass into flat rectangular sheets, man imposes control over nature with straight lines and angles. Despite the tree’s new shape, the undulations of what it once was emerge from the boxy surface. The panels are a record of man’s relationship with nature while also highlighting life's central interconnectedness. The measure of a tree’s growth and the amount of water taken annually is evident in the wood grain’s concentric circles; thus, the history of the landscape is contained within the tree itself. In my work, I strive to tease out the landscape that is inherently a part of each panel, while expressing the visual contrast and harmony where man-made structures and nature intersect.