In life drawing class, art students quickly learn a fundamental principle: “There are no straight lines in nature, nor on the human body.” This simple observation reveals a deep connection between humans and the natural world, forming a crucial foundation for draftsmanship. The Christian Bible’s creation story echoes this idea. It describes God forming man from the earth’s clay or dust, then breathing life into him. This act, creating man from the soil of the Earth, implies that humans are inherently part of nature, mirroring the absence of straight lines in our forms. While the horizon of level water might appear as a straight line, it’s an illusion. The Earth’s curvature renders a perfectly straight sea level impossible. A peculiar detail emerges that any straight line, excluding the horizon, signifies a human construct, implying human presence. Humans utilize straight lines for their creations, even though they themselves are not composed of them.

Another corroborating idea also found in The Bible places the first humans in the Garden of Eden, where their purpose was to tend the land. This concept of “tending the garden” permeates especially my landscape paintings via the images chosen. But in painting meticulous care for every element, from the stretcher to the signature, conveys this philosophy. The surface of my painting is as important to me as the image I paint. I envision our Earth as a well-tended garden, reflected in the very surface of my work. In painting my landscapes, I am, in essence, tending my own garden.