"California Scrub Oak - 3 hrs - Winds steady 15 - 22 mph out of the North, some gusts - Ridge above Newhall Pass (Sunshine Canyon) Dec. 6, 2005"
Ink on Archival Pigment Print, Signed
2015
18" x 13" (unframed)
21" x 17" (framed)

About the Piece

This work, part of a long-running experimental drawing project, began as a search for a more scientific understanding of the invisible elements in the landscape. It uses the wind's effect on trees to express the interaction between the force of the wind and a tree. In 1999 I was teaching art history to aeronautical engineering students, and explaining the definition of each medium led me to define drawing as "a reaction to phenomena which results in expressive marks." I thought? what if I applied that definition to my invisible-forces-in-the-landscape problem? What if trees reacting to the phenomena of wind made a halo of marks in the sky? What if trees made drawings? After a photo expedition to this wind-prone ridge, I later returned to the spot, clipped a pen to the end of a branch, and positioned the print below to capture this drawing.

About the Artist

Pat Pickett received a B.A. from Scripps College and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. Her work has been exhibited in New York and California. She has produced several bodies of work based on extensive field expeditions, including "A Record of the Conditions: 21 Trees, 7 States, 3500 Miles." She has presented her work to four International Scientific Conferences on the Effects of Wind on Trees. Pickett lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

www.patpickett.com