Studio post · August 20, 2026
I had a productive week in the studio last week and finished another painting for the Seattle Prize. "Still Standing" began as a small study that I ultimately decided to take all the way. The reference came from a photo shoot I did in Taos, New Mexico, while I was there for a bachelor party last year. Taos is an extraordinary place. It feels ancient, domestic, and mystical all at once. There is something about simply walking around there that makes paintings reveal themselves to you. Adobe walls, dusty roads, mountains, cottonwoods, old fences and weathered buildings all seem to carry the evidence of time. At one point, I came across an old willow growing along the side of the road. It had clearly borne the scars of many years. Its trunk was twisted and battered, its limbs irregular and worn, but it was still very much alive. There was something beautiful about its resilience, and I knew immediately that I wanted to paint it. This painting became my way of honoring that tree and paying attention to something that might otherwise be passed by without a second thought. The details felt important, so toward the end I pulled out some of my smallest brushes and really went to town. Still, my hope is that all of that information serves the larger effect. From across the room, I want the silhouette, gesture, and character of the tree to come through first. I titled the painting "Still Standing" because, for me, the painting is about resilience. This tree has been shaped by time without becoming defined by its wounds. There is something worth remembering in that. We don't have to become calloused by the things that wear on us. We can bend, change, take the scars with us, and continue growing. Time goes on and so do we.
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