The title for this series, Imagining the Pando pays homage to the Pando, the largest aspen grove in the world, located in the United States in the Fishlake National Forest (Utah). Spanning some 106 acres and inhabiting over 40,000 individual trees, this single organism is thought to be the oldest and largest living structure on our planet. Each of the 40,000 trees in the Pando share identical DNA. They are “clones” or part of one organic whole.
Last winter, on one of my daily walks, I discovered a single desiccated aspen leaf in the snow and took it back to my studio. After hydrating and flattening the leaf, I made drawings and later scans of it, using both analog and digital methods to create this ongoing series of work (around 50 drawings and prints as of February 2023). Created from a single aspen leaf, Imagining the Pando is a nod to the magnificent ingenuity of the cosmos.
