The Web of Life Installation was incubating in my mind for years. It began with wanting to create banners of tree prints on rice paper. The paper was sent to me by a colleague in Taiwan.

My husband Frank and I carried this paper, and a 6' ladder, on hikes into the Gila National Forest, the Grand Teton National Park, and on kayak trips along lakes, to record tree patterns I saw over a two-year period.

Encasing the prints in the ancient encaustic medium preserved them and made them translucent, illuminating the patterns, ridges, and grooves from years of growth and wear on each tree.