"My paternal grandmother taught me how to climb trees. In fact, according to our family lore, she was up in a tree with her younger sister when my grandfather arrived for their first date. She also taught me to talk to trees and other plants, insisting they understood our intentions. She was a woman before her times. I always find solace, and humor, when perched high in a tree. Responding to the theme, "TREE: Breath of Humanity" is one way to honor her memory."
KENDRA ROBERTS
PEARLYN TAN
"Chase the moments…”
Pearlyn Tan
READE WEBER
"Surrounded by the standing people, dancing at their feet, I find my stillness."
Reade Weber
CONNIE DILLON
"My paintings originate from walks through the woods near our home. It's a magical place with constantly changing light, a stunning silence, fern-lined trails, and pristine air. It's an environment that promotes ideas while escaping the world's craziness. The setting of my painting, “Of Sound...Mind and Body,” is a small, seasonal waterfall that I look forward to visiting on my hikes, as if I'm meeting a dear friend. Her sound is pure elegance."
CONNIE DILLON
DAVID COHEN
"The wisdom of trees" was a phrase that popped into my head as I was finishing a very different kind of series which consisted of large, complicated and highly colorful paintings. There was something simple and poetic about that idea that stayed with me - the notion that nature, symbolized by the grand-eloquent tree, knows so much more about the universe than we do, and that there is so much we could learn if we just paid attention. Could we just reverse our roles, show some humility, and pay homage to a nature that seems to know the answers."
David Cohen
Quote below shared by DAVID COHEN
"I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news." - John Muir
BETH KERSCHEN
"I was drawn to the TREE – Breath of Humanity exhibit because nature has long been my refuge—especially over the past five years. While my past work focused on urban life and cityscapes, nature has become essential to my healing, offering a space to quiet my mind, ease anxiety, and find both surrender and solutions.
My piece in the show, Road from Oblivion, is about being saved by nature—by trees, by a landscape reborn in new color. It’s about the process of emerging from a dark night of the soul and seeing the world differently. The gas pump in the piece represents a lifeline from civilization—an assist to refuel and return, not just to life, but to a new way of seeing."
Beth Kerschen
SANDRA ALDERMAN
"My lifelong journey with trees began as a small child. My family lived in 1 of 7 trailers on the outskirts of Fairbanks, Alaska, so the forest was my playground. It became a place of peace and play as my imagination ran wild with creative possibilities. We used cut tree trunks and limbs to build our world of rest. My favorite time for trees is now, in their naked glory."
Sandra Alderman
ANGELITA SURMON
"Given the current state of our world, being in the woods provides respite and the opportunity to focus on the present moment. In my paintings and glass work, I create that sense of calm and connection to nature to share its restorative energy. It is my hope the viewer will recognize their own woodland experiences; that they will enter and wander."
Angelita Surmon
TERRI SHINN
“I am the Lorax.
I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
"As a child I was either in or under trees. Awed by their height and stature, safely nestled in their limbs. In today’s world, trees and forests are threatened in so many ways; I’m compelled to create my vessel in an effort draw attention to their plight. To date, I have completed twenty-two vessels."
Terri Shinn
JILLIAN BALLAS
"The landscapes we exist within play a fundamental role in who we are. For me, it is the forests of the North Cascades I feel intrinsically connected to. The theme of this exhibition deeply resonates with me as an artist and human being - for it is a reminder that when we let nature suffer, we suffer, and when nature heals, so do we. Our bond with the earth is something to be cherished."
Jillian Ballas
SUZE WOOLF
“My preoccupation with burned-over forest is long-standing (now 17 years, 60 portraits). Anything that concerns our forests -- not only immediate crises, like wildfire, but their long-term survival in human-caused changing climate, is meaningful to me. I find the carved snags and topography of char to be both beautiful and disturbing in their own right. Spotlighting them is a way to provoke conversation and thought.”
Suze Woolf
ALAN NEWBERG
"The fact that my main medium in recent years has been woodcarving, mostly on a large scale often starting with whole logs, so naturally I was attracted to Verum Ultimum's theme of "TREE: Breath of Humanity". I come from a Family of sawmill owners-operators that settled in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the early 20th Century. My paternal grandfather bought the mill in 1923, ostensibly for a dollar and the promise to pay the back debt. I worked in that sawmill full time 40 to 48 hours a week summers and after school from the age of 15 until my third year in college. No doubt the sawmill experience contributed to my interest in wood. My inspiration comes from the wood itself as I examine the particular characteristics of a given log. Only rarely does the concept exist prior to starting a piece. The log for Emergent Chanterelle was a stump of an English Walnut tree which had four trunks springing from a single root (see picture). I started by tracing a continuous line along the edges of the cut ends of the various trunks with a magic marker, snaking back and forth from left to right edges of one to the next. I then used plunge cuts along this line to extract the core of the log from the outer shell. The sharp upper edge of the sculpture traces that magic marker line. The undulating surface of the sculpture revealed itself in this process as did the exotic wood grain patterns. One of my design goals is first of all, make it interesting. I think I succeeded in this case."
Alan Newberg
SUSAN CARSON
"Trees have always been one of my favorite subjects to paint. I approach a tree painting as I would a portrait, aiming to capture the subject's unique character and personality. "A Light in the Forest" centers the effect of sunlight filtered through a tree canopy. To me, it is a reminder that peace can always be found in nature, and that even in the darkest times there is light to be found if we look."
Susan Carson
CAROL ROSS
"The vibrancy of color and the rawness of nature found in this coastal area has a strong impact on my art. I have been visiting this area for over 70 years and never tire of it…"
Carol Ross
Quote shared by Carol about her work...
“Carol Ross paints the remains of a lush forest in “After.” She poetically exposes the skeleton (like a ribcage that cradles the lungs). Carol’s piece echoes the exhibition’s namesake (Tree: Breath of Humanity) symbolically illustrating a stand’s last breath with captivating force. Her work is hauntingly beautiful and leaves the viewer with much to consider. How do we honor the life force of the forest? How do we value the air we breathe? Have we created tinderboxes because of our greed and consumption?”
Jennifer Gillia Cutshall