Exhibitions
The Wishing Tree Project. My first participatory installation, The Wishing Tree, will soon be on display at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, NC, US during their 2025-2026 exhibition year. I first realized this project in 2012, inspired by the trees that often accompany the holy wells that I’ve visited on my travels, in addition to a very old tulip poplar in my backyard that finally succumbed to a wound from an old lightning strike it had sustained decades prior. I incorporated the preserved bark, wood, and cambium layer from this tulip poplar into the mixed media piece.
During this iteration, I will once again invite participants to tie their paper wishes to the removeable oak branches of this assembled tree. Following the first exhibition of The Wishing Tree at Salem College in Winston-Salem, NC, after cataloging the wishes, I burned them with the branches, then began a suite of drawings based on the wish categories. These compositions are based on locations where I felt each respective wish quality. Four of these drawings will be on display at PTI with this iteration of the project.
This time I would like to use more branches for a fuller look, and I am preparing wishes on brightly colored paper. Participants can choose from lighter and darker values of both green and purple, to ultimately give the impression of new and mature leaves and blossoms.
If you are visiting PTI, go to the far end of the passenger drop-off area on the top Departure level, and once you enter Door Six at the end past the Delta and United Airlines entrance, The Wishing Tree will be in the waiting area on your left after you cross the open area, behind an information desk.
Here is a terminal map for your convenience. My work will be behind the telephone icon (symbolizing the information desk), in the slate blue map area between Gates 20 and 21. Please note that you will not have to go through any TSA security checkpoints to visit The Wishing Tree.
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