The Shape of Endurance

About this piece

A weathered tree dominates the foreground, its curved trunk and intricate bare branches set against isolated buttes across a broad desert plain. Strong sunlight defines the grain of the wood and the vertical faces of the rock, while black and white brings their contrasting textures into focus. The low horizon and expansive sky give the composition a spare, measured stillness.

The story

September light falls across the exposed wood, tracing each ridge along the bent trunk. The branches spread thinly into the sky, their tangled lines giving way to the open plain beyond. Distant buttes hold their broad silhouettes above slopes of scattered stone. A narrow shadow gathers beneath the tree, a small pocket of darkness in the sunlit expanse.