These small drawings came out of seeing a tiny pile of twigs on my drawing table. The twigs had broken off apple tree branches with which I was making a large sculpture. I made the little pile because I knew that there was something interesting there.
In order to find the vision I imagined I would have, I photographed the pile. I enlarged the picture on the computer and made it black and white.
I traced individual black and white images on light blue paper and made each a different color, intending to span a legitimate “spectrum.”
I couldn’t have done this series without imaginary and sometimes actual conversations with Allan McCollum.
These drawings are derived from photographs that were taken of the hanging wrapped branch sculptures, the All Tied Up Series (https://lynhorton.net/category/art/2019/). Individual photographs were traced along a dividing line placed on a 15 inch by 11 inch piece of paper. The same traced image was then flipped and positioned in the other side of the dividing line to create an entirely new shape.
I could not have done these without an imaginary conversation with Allan McCollum.
These drawings are the products of discerning the language value of drawn images of branch sections and groupings, some of them stemming from my imagination.
These pieces are all on canvas. They each measure sixty inches in height by twenty-two inches in width.
They are made with acrylic, colored pencil and marker. The first layer is acrylic and forms the background. The second layer traces the shapes left by the dripping paint with permanent silver marking pen. The last layer uses a stencil made from a drawing I made of a tree a long time ago. The shapes left by tracing the stencil are colored in with colored pencil.
The title of the series comes from a statement made by Gene Youngblood in a talk on the internet celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of his landmark book, Expanded Cinema. In the talk, he and the moderator were in an exchange regarding how the global society can change using technology as one of its means.
My affection for trees stems from a lifelong interest in how they create intimate spaces in which to linger and how the shadows of the branches are embracing and graceful and evanescent.
Trees are integral to the earth’s environment. The more that trees are brought into human consciousness, the more concern we have for them. Trees have their own forms of growth and communication. They demonstrate when they are hurt and when they are thriving. We cannot take them for granted.
This series was started in the Fall of 2019. The branches are trimmings from a winter-killed holly bush and cuttings from two apple trees by my terrace. The series will continue slowly as I collect new branches.
They carry on from earlier installation pieces done in my studio in 2018.
My intention is to highlight the arresting beauty of the natural forms in a new context. Wrapping the branches with faux leather cord is a means to relate the branches explicitly with my drawn lines.
All Tied Up #1, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 17.75 in h x 9.25 in w x 6.25 in d
 All Tied Up #2, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 17.5 in h x 11 in w x 5.75 in d
All Tied Up #3, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 24.2 in h x 20 in w x 13.5 in d
 All Tied Up #4, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 24.25 in h x 46.5 in w x 21 3.8 in d
All Tied Up #5, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 26.25 in h x 45.75 in w x 7 1.8 in d
All Tied Up #6, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 43 in h x 27.5 in w x 11 3.8 in d
All Tied Up #7, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 48.25 in h x 18 in w x 14.75 in d
All Tied Up #8, 2020, branches wrapped in faux leather and velvet tubing, 20.5 in h x 57 3.8 in w x 10.25 in d
All these pieces are diptychs, measuring 22″ in height by 44.5″ wide. They are mixed media: charcoal and watercolor crayon. (The thumbtacks are collaterally visible because the photos were taken by me and I didn’t know enough to do something other than that.)
