Touching Medusa
2010
Touching Medusa. 2010. Charcoal on paper. 74” x 14”.
This piece was made during a short residency at the For-Site Foundation on the outskirts of Nevada City in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. This wonderful property perches above the south fork of the Yuba River and has a complex natural and human history, which is both overtly and subtly written on the land. One prominent feature is an honored old live oak tree known locally as Medusa, both for its richly complex canopy and for its almost mythological standing in the community. It is estimated to be more than 800 years old and is one of the largest and oldest trees of its kind in the region.
I made the piece in response to my interaction with and respect for this living entity. It is a simple rubbing taken from the base of the tree on a piece of paper that has the same dimensions as my own body. The charcoal that I used for the rubbing was made the evening before, from fallen twigs of live oak and manzanita collected under Medusa’s canopy. The scroll-like rubbing is stored in a plain wooden case made from a small dead cypress tree found close to Medusa.
