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In 2022 I rode in a canoe down the Suriname River in South America on the way to Pikin Slee Village, home of the Maroon people. Surrounded by rainforest, the river was deep blue and full of boulders, tiny islands, and driftwood. Mid-trip, we drifted by a massive tree trunk that was perfectly balanced atop a boulder in the middle of the river, on which it would balance for the remainder of its existence. This trunk became a metaphor for my own existence: I was surrounded by a blue river of unfamiliar familiarity. Nature had balanced me perfectly within a foreign environment that felt more like home than any other place, while depositing me safely among descendants of Africa. This felled and balanced tree, with its exposed roots and inability to populate new leaves, refused to die and instead established its own method of living into the future.
The Secrets of the Forest, 2023
Padauk wood, Pine wood, Copper, latex paint, insulation foam, water
94” x 94” x 60”
Photo credit Wes Magyar