Alison Moritsugu is an artist from Hawaii who lives in Beacon, New York. For her log series, she composed idealized images of nature onto the cut surfaces of rough hewn logs. Moritsugu explains:
In my log paintings, I examine the contrivances found in landscape paintings of the 18th and 19th centuries. These landscapes, by artists such as Albert Bierstadt and Frederic Edwin Church, were deeply rooted in the political constructs of the time and depicted the land as a bountiful Eden, a limitless frontier ripe for conquest. I take these images out of their familiar context, the framed canvas, and paint directly on wood slices with bark intact. These landscapes appear as an homage to the idyllic art of the Hudson River School yet, by viewing the painting’s surface, the cross section of a tree, any sense of nostalgia or celebration of nature is countered by the evidence of its destruction.
Several of her log paintings will be on display from Nov. 12 - Dec. 12 at Littlejohn Contemporary Art in New York City.
This is one of my favorites: a miniature painted on the top of a walking stick.
-via Hi-Fructose