Cut Short is an elegy for once majestic trees that have been felled, fallen and forgotten. The series of images evokes personal portraits — each capturing the unique "face" or slice of an individual tree. The tree slices appear to pose for the viewer, revealing the strength and beauty of what once was. Their distinctive pattern of rings mark their adaptation to unique environmental challenges during their years of service providing shade in the heat of summer afternoons, sanctuary to wildlife and the near wizardry of turning carbon into oxygen, cooling our earth in an era of relentless climate upheaval.

This project began with a personal sorrow of the artists, born of a reluctant decision. With a building permit for our future home hanging in the balance, we complied with our town’s insistence that we remove an outcropping of “non-native” (and so deemed “invasive”) redwood trees. This was the impetus of our frequent forays to arborist yards over the following decade, documenting and offering a name for each of the plethora of trees whose lives and services were prematurely upended.

Through these portraits, Cut Short questions the delicate balance we strike between our desires for land, for resources, and the deep, unspoken costs of deforestation and climate change.