The Giant and the Jaguar
2024
32.25 x 36.25 in
acylic on masonite
This painting is based on a tree I came across while hiking the trails of Osa Conservation in Costa Rica. My aim was to illustrate a universal concept using a specific subject, and so I treated the tree as a portrait, drawing it repeatedly to develop a muscle memory for its unique visage of features, composed of bark, moss, fissures and caruncles. I also wanted to honor such a remarkable testament to enduring growth, so I felt it was important to ‘get it right’.
The analogy of a portrait extends further towards the idea of the tree and its commensals, representing a living, breathing organism, in the much the same way as we humans are made up of a variety of components in addition to our cells, such as microflora. The dangling roots of the Ficus and lianas, draping down around the tree resemble a circulatory system, the tree’s roots corded into gargantuan muscles, roping their way through the painting. Numerous vines such as wild vanilla and bromeliads cling to the tree’s trunk, creating a landscape within the tree.
Cropping the tree in the painting emphasizes its incredible size and changes our perspective. Specifically, the use of space to illustrate the passage of time. When seen from a broader temporal perspective, the Ajo tree is far from fixed and static. It has reached far beyond the canopy in its quest for sunlight and covered immense distances across the forest floor in its search for nutrients.
The Jaguar serves to emphasize both the size and the power of the tree and establishes the living connection between the tree and all who live under its branches. Without trees such as this, comprising intact, mature ecosystems, the animals such as the White-lipped Peccaries that the Jaguar feeds on cannot exist, and so the Jaguar. Everything is connected.
Magnificent trees such as this Ajo can serve to draw attention to the incalculable value to humanity of keeping and restoring ecosystems composed of these enduring monuments.