Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes is composed of stone, shell and slate, and framed in raw ash wood. This mosaic came along as a homage to the dying ash trees. These are prominent large trees in the Midwest. My studio property is surrounded by a grove of them, but I’ve slowly watched them die to the emerald ash borer. Underneath the crust of their bark, one may marvel at the strange and ironic beauty of random borer lines eaten away by this invasive insect. The process of creating this mosaic drew from witnessing that irony and inspired me into the setting of pieces and the simultaneous destruction of parts of the mosaic.