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My Favorite New Work: Heritage Tree - Scarlet Oak

I was poking around in a box where I keep books that I'm not sure what to do with, and I came across this jewel: Universal History of the United States. This little book is in absolutely terrible shape: the brown leather cover is so worn that the title has rubbed off it; it has no spine; and the title page has completely disintegrated. This clearly is from my grandmother's collection; she wrote "1830" on the inside of the front cover, and she's added random notes throughout the book. Since the work abruptly ends with Andrew Jackson's presidency, I suspect that date is correct. I decided to use this little book as inspiration to dive more deeply into my feelings about our shared heritage - something that I began with "Heritage Oak" a few months ago. The patterns worked into the tree are inspired by artistic traditions of the Pueblo and Navajo nations, as well as designs from my own ancestors, taken from neolithic burial monuments and Celtic manuscripts. In this work I am reflecting on how I am inspired by the traditions that I inherited from my ancestors as I pay homage to the traditions that have always been part of the land that we call "America." The scarlet oak is native to the areas that would have been included in the United States back in the 1830s. You'll notice that it has a sturdy taproot - this was remarked upon in the sources I reviewed for this work. That root makes this oak particularly resilient. You can see Heritage Tree - Scarlet Oak at the OCFA Showcase Gallery in Santa Ana during the month of December.